River Valley Chamber of Commerse

Grand Bay Home Hardware

Clichés come and clichés go but Grand Bay Home Hardware is one place guaranteed that the above saying hasn’t worn out, nor is there evidence that it ever will.

“That’s one thing we stand by”, says store owner, John Jarvis, “we have customers who come in here just to chat with the staff because they are so friendly, not that it has anything to do with the fact that a large percentage of the knowledgeble staff are female. And we really know the product”.

With the high volume of store flyers that are distributed every week, its amazing how well the staff familiarizes themselves with the extensive and evolving product line. You could be looking for the tiniest little item tucked away on page seven of the flyer right at the bottom of the page next to the fold...and they can find it! And if it’s not in the store, they have a great warehouse service that networks with other regional Home Hardwares, as well as Ontario, and they can get you what you’ve been looking for inside of a week. Plus everyone in the store starts at the grassroots.

“Nobody stays in just one spot,” affirms John, “they work one place for a while, and then move on to another department. That’s how everybody stays up on where everything is”. Anybody who’s ever felt the frustration of following after a store clerk, having walked the last mile in one of those enormous big box stores, only to hear them say, ‘Sorry, that’s not my department’. Grrr...how refreshing is Grand Bay Home Hardware.

And that’s a business practice that John has lived by himself having worked there part-time since he was 14 years old and full-time since 1993, starting out by putting together wheelbarrows and shuttling things around in storage. But the family tradition goes much further back than that when his father, Donnie Myles, first bought the store when it was just a regular hardware store. And then Home Hardware was interested and saw the potential for a Home Hardware store in Grand Bay and Walter Hachborn, the driving forced behind the foundation and growth of Home Hardware, approached Donnie to join the organization as an independantly owned store. Since then the baton has changed hands from Mr. Hachborn to the current day President, Paul Strauss, (who coincidentally was recently inducted into the Retail Hall of Fame earlier in the week of July 7, 2010, by the Retail Council of Canada (RCC)), and Donnie Myles has transferred the management to his son John (although he still comes in quite regularly), the tradition continues.

Present day preliminary planning talks include enlarging the size of Grand Bay Home Hardware to better facilitate the displays.

“We have so many different item displays, it’s hard to find a place to put everything,” says John, “but as we grow, our family driven, caring customer service will never change.”

And you really have to see the genuine concern and interest on the staff’s faces when a customer needs help, they go out of their way to explain a product, an ordering process and sometimes guide the customer to what they might really need to fit their need.

And the caring doesn’t stop at the doors because Grand Bay Home Hardware goes over-the-top supporting different local sports leagues, teams, fundraisers, kids events, so your support is their support.

“That’s the great thing about Grand Bay Home Hardware, it has a real comfortable feel. Everybody knows everybody, there’s genuine interest in the people, their families and the community. It’s all about building relationships.”

‘Help is close to home.’ It really is. And John couldn’t have said it better himself.

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