Service is key at Island Hardware

Tucked into a shopping center on Route 176, Island Hardware & Rental doesn't have the widespread name recognition of Home Depot or Lowe's.

It doesn't have the square footage, promotional budget or massive warehouse-styled inventory of those big-box home-improvement stores, either.

What the longtime Island Lake shop does have, however, is a wide variety of products, a helpful, friendly staff and loyal customers.

"We believe we've got a good base of customers that's 2,500 or 3,000 people strong who shop here weekly or more regularly. And we love that," owner Stan Livermore said. "They know us by name, and we know some of them by name. That's huge."

Livermore, 52, of Antioch. has owned the store for five years, but he's no stranger to the hardware business.

He ran Antioch Hardware for 23 years before it closed last year.

Livermore said he became enamored with the hardware business while working as a sales representative for a snowblower manufacturer in his 20s.

"I called on a lot of hardware stores, and I fell in love with hardware stores," he said. "And when the store in Antioch became available, I bought it - at the ripe old age of 26."

Livermore believes he's the fourth owner of Island Hardware, 217 E. State Road. The store's roots stretch back to the turn of the last century, he said, when the store was in Wauconda and also carried saddles and horse supplies.

The roughly 12,000-square-foot store is filled with products you'd expect to find at a smaller hardware store. There are 25 rows filled with screws, staples, locks, ducts, faucet parts, putty knives, hammers, cleaning supplies, shovels, clamps, earplugs, masks and countless other tools and supplies.

But as its name reveals, the shop also does a brisk rental business. Tables, popcorn poppers, tents and heavy machinery are just a few of the items available for rent. Heck, the store even offers a fog machine, drink mixers and an official Sno-Kone maker for short-term leasing.

It may be the only hardware store with a disco ball hanging from its ceiling.

Island Hardware also is one of the few stores selling live bait in the area, Livermore said. The store began carrying that particular product about three years ago.

"I've been in the hardware business 25 years - I never thought I'd be selling leeches," said Livermore, who also sells hunting and fishing licenses to customers.

Big-box home-improvement stores are as common as Wal-Mart stores and Starbucks coffee shops, and their rise put a lot of smaller stores out of business. That was the case, Livermore said, with Antioch Hardware.

Livermore believes Island Hardware is surviving because it's a neighborhood store that's carved out a niche in the market.

For example, it sells higher-end Weber and Toro products rather than less-expensive, less-recognizable merchandise you could find at warehouse or discount stores.

"You're going to find a lot of brand names in here, because we're more committed to quality products," he said. "Those brand names are important to us."

And as Livermore said, Island Hardware probably can't beat a big-box store's price for a roll of three-quarter-inch masking tape - but it can offer more types of tape and help a customer find the right tape for a job.

"There's a definite advantage to having someone you can talk to in here who knows these products, who's worked with these products, and can give the technical advice you need to get the right product the first time," he said.

Livermore's employees are just as proud of the service they provide.

"It's a smaller store, so you can help the customer easier and quicker," said Kim Thideman, who joined Island Hardware 15 years ago as a night cashier and now is the personnel manager. "It's always been that way."

Livermore doesn't really begrudge the big-box stores their share of the market. After all, he said, if he needed to buy a new bathroom vanity, that's where he'd go.

But when it comes to "doing the little things that people need and count on," as Livermore put it - tasks like cutting keys, providing photocopy service, sharpening knives and repairing window screens - a smaller, independent store like Island Hardware can't be beat.

"You can get it all," he said proudly.

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