Shop Local: Dunn Hardware

When Horatio Dunn founded a hardware store 89 years ago, he gave the store his
name. When Joe and Kathiann Smith bought the store in 2002, they weren’t about to mess with tradition. The store remained Dunn Hardware.

Another thing that didn’t change, Joe Smith said, is the customer service that has
made Dunn a Heights and Hillcrest institution.

“When we moved from Mayfield Road in January 2010, we gained a lot of new
customers,” he said, “and they’re learning about real service. Young people think it’s
about wide aisles and lots of products.”

At Dunn it’s about guys in red vests who help customers solve their household
maintenance problems and find the products they need. In his red vest and baseball
cap, Smith doesn’t look much older than he was when he started on the Dunn loading dock. He worked at the store through college, and thought he’d use his biology degree in teaching.

“But other opportunities came along,” he said.

He worked in hardware sales elsewhere, went through the Rite Aid Business Training Institute, and managed a Sears store. Then he circled around back to hardware when Dunn came on the market.

“I thought, ‘What the heck. Try it.' I knew the business, and I like being the boss.”
But after a glance around the paint department, he added, “Once you’re in this
business, you’re trapped.”