Monday, April 03, 2000
Hardware for late-night repair
45-year-old store open into evening
BY WILLIAM A. WEATHERS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It's just after 10 p.m. and a pipe under your kitchen sink just burst. You could call a plumber, but you'd rather fix it yourself and save a few bucks. But what about the parts? There's no hardware store open this late, is there?
Well, there is in Northside — Ace Hardware and Electric Co., where owner William “Bill” Dickhaus has kept late hours since he opened the store in 1955.
Mr. Dickhaus, who works seven days a week and hasn't taken a vacation since he opened the store 45 years ago, said he keeps late hours to accommodate people who want to tackle fix-it projects after they have had their evening meal.
“We're here to give them what they need,” Mr. Dickhaus said on a recent evening as he sat on a stool behind the cash register. “A lot of time it's plumbing (supplies) that we sell at night.”
The store, at 4171 Hamilton Ave. in Northside's neighborhood business district, draws 2,000 customers weekly from as far away as Northern Kentucky, Middletown, Delhi Township and downtown Cincinnati.
“He's the only hardware store that I know of that is open this late at night,” said regular Mark Adkins, 29, of Dayton, Ky., when he stopped in recently to purchase a toilet supply line and gas line he needed for home repair work.
Since 1986, store hours have been noon to 11 p.m. (or midnight, depending on customer traffic) Monday through Saturday, and 2-10 p.m. Sunday. Before that, Mr. Dickhaus manned the store 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. six days a week, and was closed Sundays.
Although he employs one full-time and several part-time employees, Mr. Dickhaus opens and closes the store every day.
“I carry the key,” said the Groesbeck resident, who is short in stature but tall in smiles and the gift of gab.
The current slightly earlier closing time is a concession to age and the changing neighborhood, he said.
“I'll be 75 April 11. There are too many drunks and thieves out there (late at night),” he said.
Mr. Dickhaus said he has hundreds of thousands of items crammed into the
store's 28,000 square feet and its adjoining basement, second floor and two-car garage storage areas.
Items range from the usual hardware fare to the unusual (an alarm clock with bird sounds, a Mickey and Minnie Mouse cookie jar and World Wrestling Federation kites).
Merchandise crammed onto shelves that reach to the ceiling is a sight to behold. The store's two aisles are so narrow that two average-size people can't pass without one giving way. Items hang from chains stretched from one wall to the other.
Call it “cluttered chic.”
“It's close quarters, but he knows where everything is,” said Linda Reynolds, 42, of Northside, who stopped in recently after 10 p.m. to get a key made.
Besides the late hours merchandise selection, customers come for the free advice Mr. Dickhaus offers on fix-it projects, as well as the free delivery within 10 miles.
Mr. Dickhaus even allows some customers to buy on credit.
And there's another factor that keeps customers coming back.
“It's Bill. The friendship,” said Mr. Leary, who has been a regular customer for 10 years.
Over the years, Mr. Dickhaus has been the victim of seven unsuccessful robbery attempts — the most recent about two years ago when he fought off two men who tried to rob him as he got into his car.
Nowadays, he tries to always have an employee around to help him close up.
An occasional illness has been the only thing that has kept him from spending his afternoons and nights at the hardware store.
“I just enjoy working,” he says. “I'm not going to retire.”
The divorced father of two grown children and grandfather of five said his ex-wife used to say of him: “ "You're a ... good hardware man, but a lousy husband.'”
This marks the debut of Night Watch, a periodic feature that spotlights residents, places and institutions that comprise the fabric of life in the Tristate after dark.
William A. Weathers has been a reporter at The Cincinnati Enquirer for 23 years, working a night shift (2 p.m. or later) more than half that time. If you have a suggestion for Night Watch, call him at 768-8390 (fax: 768-8340).
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