Business Profile: Kramer Equipment’s Foresight

Neal Kramer stands tan, tall, and lean, in his polo shirt and shorts on the business side of his long counter at Kramer Equipment surplus shop on . The shop has been at the same location since 1978, but the family business is well into its second generation.

On the phone, when I called for an interview, he had answered “World Famous Kramer’s Equipment.” So upon meeting him I asked who else knew about the shop. He said a National Geographic photographer had once shopped for climbing equipment for a trip to Belize.

As a gesture, Neal had given him a cap with the store name on it. Sometime later Neal happened to see the issue featuring the photographer’s work and saw a picture of the man hanging from a Kramer store rope, wearing the clearly identifiable cap. “So, I figured we were now world famous,” he chuckles. 

“My dad, Lt. Col. Israel J. Kramer, U.S. Army, established the company in 1947, a few years after retiring and after finding success selling tools door to door and from the trunk of his car,” said Neal. The business has had its ups and downs but it has been in operation for over 64 years by transforming itself periodically.

The store has changed focus from army surplus to rigging equipment (such as for arborists and linemen) and construction supplies (levels, tool bags, helmets) and on to specialty mechanical supplies and tools (pneumatic sheers, Shurefire LED flashlights). Also, when local chain stores with similar stock run out or don’t carry that one specialty option, Kramer’s gets the business.

Neal bought the store from his retiring father in the mid-1970s and over the years, Kramer’s Equipment has participated at the forefront of worldwide events. When the Pentagon was struck on 9/11, the shop sold supplies to the evidence recovery team “who knew they could count on me to get them whatever they needed,” said Neal.

Similarly when airports started requiring travelers to put shampoo in zip-lock bags, but found themselves short of such an unconventional sundries store supply, Kramer’s came through with the goods. “We do what it takes,” he says with a chuckle. “We told them we had them, then went out and got them in time to sell them.”

It is that spirit of entrepreneurial can-do optimism, tinged with humor, a benign hucksterism, which has seen the business through all adversity. Perhaps the story that best describes how this shop has remained a mainstay on Richmond Highway is the one about the Nordern Bombsights.

“My dad caught a call from a friend who wanted to unload his entire stock of outdated WWII Norden Bombsights. So my dad says, ‘Sure, I can move those, how much do you want for them?’ and the guy says ‘A buck each.’ So we get the truck and spend a full three-day weekend putting these heaving things into the bed and lugging them to our store. On the way, dad let’s me in on the deal, he says. ‘I can sell them at $15 a pop. They are collectors’ items and everyone will want one.’ And sure enough, we make a killing.”

Years later, when that inventory is just short of depleted, Neal continues, “we had maybe three left, and this guy comes into the shop and recognizes the one we have on display and asks how much we want for it. When I tell him the price he looks at me and asks if I’m sure. By now dad has walked up behind me but I nod, knowingly, and the guy shakes his head, grabs one and props it on the counter in front of us.

“He then pulls a movable piece back and shows us this one large piece in the middle of the bombsight. It was made of solid silver. My dad and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. That one silver piece was worth many times over what we had sold hundreds of them for thinking we were the smart ones making hay.”