You Name It, They’ve Got It

You would be forgiven if, upon first hearing the name, you thought Charles of Glen Cove was a beauty salon.   

Wrong.   

But a hardware store?   

Yep.   

"Hardware and more," said Proprietor Doug Goldstein.   

Charles of Glen Cove could easily model for those old, family-owned hardware stores on Main Street in 1950s movies or TV shows, with all the personalized service those images engendered. Yes, you can price shop at the behemoths like Home Depot and Lowe's, with their enormous leverage with suppliers. But even if you do get a rock-bottom price there, you're not likely to get the kind of personal attention you get at a Charles of Glen Cove.  

Walk the aisles at the big-box stores looking for someone to help you. When you do get someone's attention, they'll often tell you, your question is not their department. Walk into Charles of Glen Cove and ask for the most obscure item and not only will someone tell you where it is, he or she will walk you over there and help you find it.  

"Motivate, captivate, keep your audience," Goldstein named as the store's business practices. "My father emphasized that to me from when I was a boy."  

Goldstein's father worked at a long-gone predecessor store in the city from 1948 until 1957 when he bought the original Charles of Glen Cove hardware store from founder Charles Wherther, then located on School Street. Goldstein began going to the store with his father, on non-school days, from age 9 and has been associated with the business ever since.   

During Glen Cove's urban renewal programs of the 1970s, the School Street store was slated for demolition. 

"The Salvation Army had owned our current building, which was also scheduled to come down," Goldstein said. "Since the urban renewal program was responsible for helping us find a new location, we said if they let us buy this one, we would totally renovate the property, everything new except the front façade." 

The proposal was accepted and Charles of Glen Cove moved to its current location at 19 Glen Street in 1976. With the death of Goldstein's father, in 1988, the younger Goldstein and his wife, Susan, along with help from one or more of their four children, and their expert staff, have kept the business humming.   

Selling hardware is a business sensitive to change in a community, especially a community once noted for its grand estates and its industrial base.   

"My father sold a lot house wares and home furnishings to the estates," Goldstein said. "The commercial accounts, like Photocircuits and Konica Minolta were as much as 50 percent of our business at one point.  Now with those corporations gone, commercial business is about 25 percent."   

But Goldstein said he has always placed an emphasis on treating people properly, and that has translated into the mainstay of his business: the repeat, individual customer.   

"I make money when you come back to my store," he said, "and we make that happen with service. If you buy an item from me, you don't take it home in pieces. We put it together for you.  If you need Christmas lights during the holiday season, we have them.  Grass seed during the spring season . . . we've got it. Innovations like waterproof LED lights, just came in. Even maple syrup and honey from a supplier upstate." 

The extent of the store's inventory is truly amazing. Physically, the 5,000 square feet of space at Charles of Glen Cove is dwarfed by the Home Depots of the world. But try to stump the staffers there with a request and you will probably fail and, invariably, leave with the item. A shower squeegee?  Now why in the world would a hardware store have a shower squeegee?  Got it.  That . . . and a jar of honey . . . and a pound of nails.   

"You can't keep your customers if you don't have the inventory," Goldstein said. "We keep our customers."