The hand-painted sign over Kessler & Sons has been touched up so many times that the letters have grown fat. On Saturday the store will close for the first time since 1952, and on the following Tuesday it will reopen under a new owner who intends to change almost nothing.
“People assumed we were selling to a coffee chain,” said Ruth Kessler, 71, who took over the store from her father in 1989. “I had three offers from restaurants. I turned them all down.”
The buyer is Marcus Lindqvist, a former contractor who has rented the apartment above the store for six years. He will keep the name, the staff of four, and the policy of selling single screws out of the drawer cabinets at the back.
Why it matters
Main Street has lost eleven independent retailers since 2021, most replaced by food and beverage tenants. The Harbor City Merchants Association says Kessler’s is the first case it knows of where a retiring owner found a buyer who wanted the business rather than the lease.
“Nobody opens a hardware store anymore. You inherit one or you buy one. I bought one.”
Lindqvist plans to add tool rental and extend Saturday hours. The drawer cabinets stay.
