ATASCADERO, Calif.
-- After more than 50 years in Atascadero, Grisanti Hardware is closing up shop.
The store has been a
fixture on the corner of Palma and Estrada Avenue but tough economic times have
forced it out of business.
Come New
Year's Day, it will close its doors for good.
The Grisanti Family owned and ran the hardware store
since 1947. For 65 years, the one thing owner Rick Grisanti and his father Joe
called their "pride and joy" was there nut and bolts set in the back of the
store.
Following his late
father's footsteps, Rick took over the shop in 1996.
"Rick's always had the best hardware assortment," says
customer Biker Bob. "Nuts and bolts, best in the county!"
His customers say the store will be missed.
"We come here and feel
welcome," says Carl Canoles. "Something little, odd thing that you need one of,
you can buy it here. But if you go to Home Depot, you have to buy ten of the
thing!"
As major retailers
moved in Rick kept his prices low, so low it couldn't offset his operating
costs, forcing him out of business.
"My sister
and I, we were trying to make a living off a small store and it was just more
than it could do," says Grisanti.
The store
will be open for the next three days for liquidation sales and on January 1st at
6pm it will shut its doors permanently.
The shop
sold to a landlord named Dirk Dole who has already begun fixing it up. Dole is
expected to take over completely next month.
His customers says there is no
substitute. But after 16 years of running his parent's store, Rick says he's
leaving the hardware industry for a while.
"I'm
sad I didn't run it as good as they did,"
says Grisanti. "That is my only regret, I feel like maybe, I let them down a
little bit."
