In 1959, the original Cole Hardware© was purchased by Dave Karp when he bought the hardware store (now our Cole Street warehouse space) that had been located in Cole Valley since the 1920s. Dave was a one man band: Every morning before work he would pick up merchandise at the supply houses and in the evenings, he would do all of his paper work. Dave ordered the merchandise, marked the merchandise, stocked the merchandise, helped the customer, rang up the sale, paid the bills, went to the bank, cleaned the bathroom... he did everything by himself.
Soon, his business began to grow. His wife, Margie, started coming down to help out. She would cashier, make keys and point out merchandise to customers while they waited for Dave. In order to earn extra dollars Marge (my mother) would watch the store while my father expanded into “outside work”. During quiet periods and in the evenings, Dave would fix broken windows, repair toilets and faucets, install water heaters, fix doorbells and switches… he would do anything that was relatively quick, profitable, and that would help him sell some of his merchandise.
Happily, Dave could no longer keep up with the outside work. Business, both inside and outside of the store, had grown large enough to where he simply couldn’t handle it by himself. He had to hire someone to help him in the store, and he began contracting handymen for the outside work. Business was growing stronger and stronger because Dave offered friendly and knowledgeable service, a complete inventory (he tried to have “one of everything made”), and he had a strong desire to succeed. He would do anything that he could to help a customer...