Route 12 South: Big Pressure From The Big Box
For one thing, that stretch of Main Street is old fashioned and quaint, a veritable Norman Rockwell scene. For another, Ford Hardware is an old fashioned hardware store with narrow aisles stacked neatly with all manner of necessary tools, supplies, equipment and accessories by owner and sole employee Randy Ford.
But for Ford, the gee-whiz-that's-swell feelings of small-time life are gone. He's uncertain about the future and angry about the fact that for all the talk about supporting local businesses, consumers and town officials simply can't resist the allure of the new Home Depot just on the other side of Interstate 395.
"If you look at my prices, they're very competitive. I just don't get the traffic. Seventy-five percent of people think they're getting a bargain going there. I don't know how much longer I can put up with this. But I have so much invested, I don't know if I can just walk away."
"I've probably had four people in here since 8 o'clock this morning," he said around lunchtime.
Lonesome Road
But the lack of traffic isn't just Home Depot's fault, Ford admits. The home improvement retail giants have been taking it on the chin these days, as well. People aren't buying houses at nearly the pace they were just a few short years ago, builders aren't building homes at the pace they were a few short years ago and homeowners can't afford the weekend project as easily as they could just a few short years ago.
Unfortunately, Ford got into the hardware business two short years ago.
For 17 years Ford ran a cable television contracting company. He employed 23 installers when Charter passed on renewing his contract, he said. He bought what would become Ford Hardware because it was already a hardware store, and as such the place was fully permitted for that use by the town.
Ford also owns the Magic Touch car wash, also on Main Street in Oxford, but said he was close to closing on the sale of that business, which he's owned for about four years.
"That'll hopefully be sold a week from today," he said. "This is a tough town to do business in. If it wasn't for the accounts I have" with contractors, local businesses and the Oxford school department, "I'd be out of business for sure."
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