Business of the Month: Garber Hardware, 710 Greenwich Street
Your input is needed! Today we feature our latest Business of the Month — help us to select the next. Tell us which independent store you love in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo: click here to nominate your favorite. Want to help support small businesses? Share this post with friends.
Very few families can credibly claim to have both possibly contributed to the structural integrity of the Williamsburg Bridge and also helped keep your shower rod from falling off the wall and landing on your head. But the long-time owners and operators of our October Business of the Month, Garber Hardware at 710 Greenwich Street, can. When the world was still lit by fire, Garber Hardware was already there selling oil and candles. Founded in 1884, this store has for a hundred and forty years provided a vast array of merchandise that, in the right hands, improves the built world around us, while also providing expert advice for when said merchandise falls into the wrong hands. Whatever your type of hands, a visit to Garber Hardware is a big step toward solving even your most stubborn home improvement woes.
The story of Garber Hardware begins, like that of more than a few other successful local enterprises, with Jews fleeing a pogrom in 19th century Russia. The Jews in in this story are Joseph and his son Nathan, who arrived at these shores during the 1880s. The rest of the family, which they left behind, soon followed and, together, they settled in the West 4th/Bank Street area. At first, Joseph and Nathan ran a pushcart business, selling general merchandise that met the needs of their neighbors. A few years later, in 1884, they opened their first store at 49 Eighth Avenue, where it would remain, selling general goods, for almost a hundred and twenty years.
Nathan Garber, who reproduced fruitfully, begat Ralph and, twenty years and numerous offspring later, Hank. After Joseph’s passing, Nathan operated the business until his own premature demise in the mid-1920s, whereupon Ralph took the helm out of necessity. He ran it, reluctantly, until 1935, the year when Hank finished his MBA and when their mother told Hank that, no, he was not accepting that job offer from a South American multinational, that South America, by the way, was rife with anti-semitism, and that he was taking over Garber Hardware, which he did. Hank successfully led the family business for over half a century, purchasing, along the way, numerous buildings in the neighborhood at 1970s prices, including 49 Eighth Avenue. However, he begat no one. This began to imperil the future of the store during the 1990s, when Hank started to contemplate retirement. At that point, Ralph’s son-in-law, George Schoen, and George’s brother Tom agreed to step in. By then, Garber Hardware may have been the city’s oldest continuously owned and operated family business at one location. Its days there, though, began to wind down with Hank’s passing in 2000.
The liquidation of Hank’s estate and sale of the building at 49 Eighth Avenue put an expiration date on the store’s viability at that address. The impending transition drew George’s son Nathaniel into the picture. Nathaniel had grown up coming to the store on Saturdays with his father to help out. Even during college, Nathaniel would often work there during the summer. Upon graduation, he worked for a dot com company (because it was 1999) and, a couple of years later, began preparing applications for graduate school. His plan was to pursue his own career and support the family business on the side. The real estate issues of the store, however, put a wrench in those plans. Whatever his career aspirations, Nathaniel had always felt responsible for the future of Garber Hardware and had always known that he would regret it if the store closed on his watch. So he tossed aside his graduate school applications and started figuring out a plan for Garber Hardware’s coming decades, starting with the move to a new location. Once that move had taken place, the management of the business very gradually transitioned from George and Tom towards the fifth generation, where it now sits, in the hands of Nathaniel and his cousin Scott.
There is no special formula for lasting over a century as a business in this city. Part of it is just plain luck. First, many long standing stores shut down when no one in the next generation wants to take over. With his many offspring, though, Nathan Garber lowered the odds of that ever happening with the family business. Second, some legacy businesses are doomed, ironically, by owning their buildings and by being located in neighborhoods where buildings start commanding astronomical prices. Those proprietors typically decide to close shop and sell, making far more money than they ever would running their store, and for far less work. That way out, however, was foreclosed by the liquidation of Hank’s estate. And third, some types of businesses just happen to be better than others at withstanding the waves of technological innovation.
The hardware store business is fairly straightforward and hasn’t changed much in over a hundred years. It’s the business of selling tools and devices to solve problems. And it turns out that the folks at Garber Hardware are especially good at their job. This has allowed them to stick around longer than most; and that longevity has made them even better at it. Nothing, for instance, improves your ability to fix problems involving the idiosyncratic hundred-plus year old structures of Greenwich Village more than having been in that neighborhood dealing with its buildings for over a hundred years. And few things improve your selection more than accumulating inventory at customers’ behest for generations. As a result, when you walk into Garber Hardware, you will find all you need to fix just about any problem with your home — or at least with its inanimate components. Beyond that, you’ll have an ample selection of implements to choose from, regardless of whether your aim is to inflate a volleyball, carve a pumpkin, or build yourself a tiki bar.
Those who have observed the impact of big box retail and Amazon on independent small businesses might be surprised to learn that Nathaniel does not regard either of them as competition. He rightfully believes that his selection far exceeds that of his big box counterparts, especially when it comes to items sought by his customers, which, beyond neighbors, also includes art galleries, and film, photography, and television studios. Nathaniel also knows, because he price checks, that he undersells or, at a minimum, matches big box prices. As for Amazon, the e-commerce behemoth cannot compete with Garber when customers are facing urgent problems. If the water in your flooded bathroom is up to your ankles, you can either run down to Garber and deal with the issue, or you can let the water rise to your waist as you wait for Amazon’s delivery. Few choose to wait.
Beyond the advantages of immediate availability, Garber Hardware also offers a staff of experts who will take you by the hand and show you what you need and how to use it. Hell, when time allows, they will sometimes do simple fixes for you themselves, free of charge. They have repaired lamps and clocks, extracted more stuck rings from fingers than you can count, and even done car repair in front of the store. Try getting Prime or Alexa to help you with that.
Garber’s advantages over its competitors, great though they are, have not insulated the store against the many challenges that plague small businesses in the neighborhood and throughout the city. Nathaniel observes a bias by many landlords in favor of big box stores in the retail landscape; and he laments the absence of policies that offer small businesses support commensurate with the contributions that these enterprises make to the economy. While big box businesses routinely keep the hours of staff below the threshold that would require the provision of benefits, Garber provides, unassisted, health insurance to all its employees. Big box businesses routinely get tax exemptions in exchange for promises to create jobs (albeit of the sort described above). Small businesses like Nathaniel’s, on the other hand, routinely have to assume, as part of their lease, the unpredictable increases to property taxes passed down to them by their landlords. The City could decide to freeze property taxes on the first year of leases, and spare small businesses the possibility of that added expense. But it hasn’t.
Despite these and other challenges, it would be a mistake to bet against a business that managed to remain in operation during the Great Depression, two World Wars, the 9/11 attacks — in response to which Garber Hardware gave away supplies to responders — and much else in between. And it’s not just the accumulation of over a century’s worth of experience that should help ensure the future of the store. It’s also the pride that the family takes in what they have built over five generations. That’s the first reason Nathaniel gives for doing what he does:
The legacy! I’m proud. It feels good to carry on a tradition that’s tangible and that has served so many different people over so many years. As a lifelong New Yorker, it feels special to be part of the city’s history. During so many major historical events that have impacted New York, we were right there. Every year that goes by we come closer to being the oldest continuously running businesses operated by the same family in what I consider the greatest city on earth. And that is special.
For serving our neighborhood for a hundred and forty years, and for laying the foundation for doing so for a hundred and forty more, we are thrilled to name Garber Hardware our October 2024 Business of the Month.
What special small business would you like to see featured next? Just click here to nominate our next one. Thank you! #shoplocalnyc
Here is a map of all our Businesses of the Month: