Walnut Creek Hardware Co. open for business

It’s something that Walnut Creek residents have been craving for a long time: a downtown hardware store. Walnut Creek Hardware Co. opened this past week on Mount Diablo Boulevard, filling a need among locals who missed a convenient place to pick up just the right nail, pipe, faucet, or cordless power drill. 

The 12,500-square foot store, on the site of the former Good Guys, is part of the Ace Hardware cooperative. However, it is independently owned by two long-time Walnut Creek residents, Lee Abramson and Kevin Fisher. Like a lot of locals, Abramson and Fisher missed the loss of Simon’s on California Boulevard to the Plaza Escuela development.

“People have just walked through the door and just started clapping,” says Abramson.  “The reception has been amazing.”

Abramson describes his new store as a “real hardware store,” carrying about 21,000 discrete items. But it doesn’t have the dusky, crowded look of a traditional hardware store, because, Abramson says, he and his partner, wanted an open, appealing interior to fit in with other affluent businesses in Walnut Creek’s downtown. This store also sells high-end items, like chrome-plated nuts and bolts for “your Harley-Davidson motorcycle” and three brands of paint, including an eco-friendly, non-toxic, non-odor brand made by a Mississippi-base company, Mythic Paint.

Abramson called this past week’s opening the “soft opening.” The official grand opening will take place in late March. The date will coincide with the scheduled opening of the store’s 7,500–8,500-square-foot nursery, which is being built in the rear of the store. That official grand opening should be quite a community event with a ribbon-cutting by the city’s major or a town council member, food possibly provided by local restaurants, and fundraising by local Boy Scout troops.

Walnut Creek Hardware Co. is open daily, except for major holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hours are Monday-Saturdays, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. 2044 Mount Diablo Blvd., (925) 705-7500.
 

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