Hometown Hardware plans grand opening on Saturday in Norris
Cindi Kiser, manager of the new Hometown Hardware in Norris, holds the sign her daughters made for the business. The store’s grand opening celebration will be this Saturday. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The store opened its doors in February, but delayed the grand opening event until now to allow for completion of renovations and more stocking of the hardware merchandise.
It’s part of the business called Docks & More, which opened last year in the former King’s Steakhouse building at 3360 Andersonville Highway, just east of and behind the strip center that houses the Liquor Depot.
When the hardware portion of the business opened, it didn’t yet have its own name, but store Manager Cindi Kiser said this week that it will be known as Hometown Hardware, and there will be a sign put up at the driveway entrance from Andersonville Highway to direct people to the store. There already is a Docks & More sign there.
Owners of Docks & More and Hometown Hardware are Kayla Pyles and Brandon Boland.
Store hours have been 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, but Kiser said the store will begin opening on Saturdays this weekend. This Saturday, the hours will be 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., she said.
“For now, we carry a variety of plumbing fittings, chainsaw accessories, lawn and garden supplies, fasteners, basic hand tools, marine supplies, and some automotive supplies,” Pyles said shortly after the store opened.
“We’re stocking the store for consumers, so people can stop in and tell us if there are certain things they want us to carry,” she said.
Boland said earlier that the hardware portion of the business was being set up and stocked by Knoxville’s House-Hasson Hardware Co. – an independent hardware-supply wholesaler.
Before taking over the former restaurant building, Boland and Pyles operated Docks & More from their Andersonville home for about four years.
Boland said the couple bought the former steakhouse to be able to offer a storefront for their dock business and to supply do-it-yourself customers with parts and other supplies for building and maintaining their own docks.
The building is so large, however, that the couple decided to expand the parts side of the business into a full-fledged hardware store, takes up about 2,000 square feet of the structure’s total 7,600 square feet.
There also is an 1,800 square-foot showroom for the pre-fabricated docks that the company sells and installs. The docks are customized to each buyer’s specifications.
Boland was the maintenance man at the Stardust Marina for 15 years before starting his own company with his wife. He said he hatched the idea for the hardware store after his water heater failed at home, and he had to drive “all the way to the Ace Hardware in Clinton to get a $5 part.”
The hardware store will be able to order anything anyone needs and have it here the next day, Boland said.