Alger Hardware

2006-11-18T15:44:00.001-05:00

Alger Hardware's temporary store is now open! It is located just south of our construction on the parking lot side of the building. Our hours are as follows:

Mon-Fri: 8:00am-7:00pm
Sat: 8:00am-4:00pm
Sunday: Closed

We hope to have our permanent location open by the first of April.
Thank you all once again for your continued support.

Bill and Kevan

2006-11-18T15:44:00.000-05:00

2006-10-25T18:44:00.000-04:00

Alger Hardware Customer,
Kevan and I would like to thank you for your support, encouragement, and prayers. We woud like to publically express our gratitude to Keith, Pam, and their kids for all their hard work and contributions to our store over the past four years. We would also like to thank Jereme for his hard work and encourage him in his new role at The Gathering Grounds. Though these changes won't be easy, we are confident that we will be able to continue the high level of customer service you have grown to expect and appreciate.
We are excited about your response to our rumors announcing our reopening in the spring. In the meantime, we will be opening our temporary store during the first week of November. It will be located just south of our future store in the former Alger Shoe Repair location. We plan to stock many of the item s to meet your needs. In addition to that, we will be happy to special order items we are unable to stock in the smaller store.
Once again, Kevan and I would like to thank you for all your support. We look forward to seeing you soon, and we welcome your input at this site.

Bill DeJong

2006-10-16T21:31:00.000-04:00

Good bye my very fine friends

Dear Customers, Friends, and Family,

The Buys family is leaving the hardware business but will still be a part of the community. Thanks for your wonderful support - we could not have done it without each of you. We regret leaving, but your store will now be in the hands of the DeJong and Krenz families. We wish them the best as they seek to serve the community. We are disappointed that our time with the store ended this way, but are thankful for God's leading in a new direction. I will be working for a Music, Phone, and Video company and helping part-time to reopen the store. I will also be working with ViewNet Video, the company that had the pictures for the police from the recent event at Alger Foods. All in all I'm sure I'll keep busy. You are so much more than my customers, you are my Alger Family. I shall miss seeing you on a regular basis, you are very special to me. God is Good, All the Time, God is Good.

Shalom my Friends,

Keith Buys for the Buys Family

2006-09-18T12:34:00.000-04:00

Alger Hardware Falling Down!

On September 13, the hardware store building was torn down and now the demolition company is cleaning up the mess. Pictures were taken and we hope to have them on the site soon. Plans for the new store are also being decided.

2006-09-10T23:06:00.000-04:00

Mower or Blower Repair

Many of you have asked about mower repair. For right now we are recommending that you take your machine to:

Fulton Heights Mower Service
1311 Fulton St E.
Ph. 458-2200

These guys do excellent work for a fair price.

2006-09-07T09:34:00.000-04:00

Sorry we have not been updating as often as we would like.

So many decisions to make and so much is dependent on other input or decisions. We are getting closer to the main decisions. Thanks for the continued input it has been more helpful than you can imagine. We are working very hard toward some major decisions on Sept 11th and 12th.

Demolition is scheduled for Sept 13th

We will be trying to film the event. This is how it will work. About 8am a crane will be dropped off in the rear parking lot. It will take about an hour to push the front and the floors into the basement. The crane will then drive on top of the debris and move into the building. From its position inside the building the crane will be used to remove the building and debris from the Eastern street side working back toward the parking lot.

2006-08-26T16:21:00.000-04:00

Clear up some concerns

To ray@union and others wondering about the future of Alger Hardware. NOTHING has been decided yet. We are anticipating some changes that would make business more difficult but have been seeking alternative solutions to make up the difference. It also seems that the community is being drawn together by the thought of possible loss and that might have a positive impact on our future. This we do know. The new building would be clear span and all one level. That would add 25% new sales floor with more selection and easier access to all the products. As it stands we would not be able to do small engine repair or gas engine rentals. However, we are trying to come up with reasonable alternatives to still make those happen. We would need a lot of cooperation from the city and others to make it work. We have not yet given up hope. Please note: the poster is somewhat true, but was not posted by Alger Hardware and does not fully reflect our intent. If possible we are requesting that these posters are taken down. Please watch this blog for further information. We will try to keep you posted and answer as honesty as possible.

Thanks again dear family - we do consider you our family - for your continued support and reflections on this blog. Please share the blog with others so that accurate information will be diseminated to all those in our community. We at Alger Hardware cannot begin to express our thanks for your continued support and prayers.

Yesterday I was approached by a "customer" who hardly knows me yet she offered to bring a meal over to our house. "We had a period of time when my husband and I were both unemployed and I remember how much it meant when someone helped us out," she said. There are not many places left in which this type of care and concern is still shown. Certainly, we tried to have that type of an approach at our store but, that again is simply a reflection of the larger community. Think about it "Alger Heights" a place where old fashioned community is still in fashion. THANKS

2006-08-25T10:13:00.000-04:00

Building Coming Down

Sometime in the next week we should see the demolition of the Hardware store building. Right now the reconstruction of the Coffee Shop is being held up until the Hardware is removed. Most of our papers have been retrieved from the basement so we are ready to see the building demolished. It still makes me sick when I walk through the building. There is really nothing of value left in the building.

Now for the good news. We are taking Saturday totally off for the first time in 4 years. Some of us have been able to be off every once in a while but we always needed to come back to the store to make our stock order on Saturday nite. We are not sure what we will do because our favorite hardware store isn't there for the supplies we need to do the projects we have put off over the last 4 years. Just seems like everything is tied together. The store kept us busy but it also supplied us with lots of hardware... Feeling your pain ... I want my neighborhood store back.

2006-08-19T23:41:00.000-04:00

We Have an Exciting New Idea, A Mini Hardware Store

We need your input = What do you think?

What would happen if we opened up a temporary store in the old Shoe Repair building next to our current location? We are thinking that a temporary location with about 1000 s/f of space will be able to meet about 90% of the immediate needs in the neighborhood. There would be some severe limits but we would be open to serve the community while the construction is going on.

Updating other questions: We are continuing to work with the building owner and the insurance company to get the building demolished and a plan in place for rebuilding. We still do not have an absolute decision on reopening because there are so many variables. Thanks for your ideas and continued support.

2006-08-19T23:21:00.000-04:00

Stop In Often for New Information

Many of you have expressed concern for our employees and for the owners during the time of rebuilding. It is time to shed some light on the situation. Our insurance policy covers continuing operations as we move forward. That means that our employees are covered until we reopen or decide differently. We greatly appreciate the funds that have been collected for our employees, but we are mostly covered at this point. There are some specific needs that these funds will make an enormous difference in addressing. We are also using some of these funds to meet the needs of the employees of the other businesses effected in the area. Because we are not sure of the direction of the business we would request that you hold off on any additional donations. We are sure that your help will be needed in the future and we will communicate our needs as they become clearer to us. For now - understand this - we will be good stewards of the funds already entrusted to us - and we are so very thankful for the support of this unique community. Thanks for your Love and Encouragement.

2006-08-18T22:14:00.000-04:00

Orgill Trade Show
We spent today in Chicago attending the Orgill trade show. Orgill is the company that supplies 95% of our inventory. We spent time meeting with suppliers to see what kind of terms we could set up for re-opening. It was a difficult day because we could not purchase any items pending our decision to re-open. Right now there are still many unanswered questions. We are excited about the opportunities ahead and so thankful for our supportive community. We have several new ideas we will be sharing in the coming days.

Please help us by posting to Thursdays questions. You can also e-mail us at algerhdwr@sbcglobal.net

2006-08-17T16:01:00.000-04:00

Need Your Input
We have been given a unique opportunity to develop a new store with our community in mind. We appreciate your response to the following questions. If you are willing, we would love to have you leave an e-mail address so that we can continue the community dialog.

As the neighborhood hardware store of the future, what products or services are of critical importance to you and why?

What did you not find at our store that you would like to see in the future?

Thank you for your support and your help. It is greatly appreciated! What a blessing to belong to a wonderful, loving community.

2006-08-15T15:45:00.000-04:00

Updates coming soon: until then, here are some pictures.

Thank you for all your support!