Carol Johnson, Southern Indiana Business Report
MITCHELL – A hardware store that has served the Mitchell community for 136 years announced Friday it will close.
Don Caudell, longtime owner of the Main Street store that was founded by his great-grandfather, said an inventory close-out sale will begin April 3. The store is located at 620 Main St.
A business with the Holmes name has been on Main Street since 1887 when John L. Holmes and his brother Samuel Holmes opened Holmes Brothers Grocery. When Wendell Holmes, son of John L. and Caudell’s grandfather, took over the grocery business, he didn’t want to run a grocery store so he bought out a local hardware store and started Holmes Hardware in 1928.
From selling horseshoes, saddles and coal-burning stoves in the early days, to fishing tackle, paint, sporting goods, appliances and furniture in its heyday, Holmes Hardware has been a Mitchell mainstay. In 1941, the store expanded into the building space next door.
“It is a sad and difficult decision. We thank the many generations of customers we have had the privilege to serve. As a fourth-generation owner it has been an honor for me and my family to make our living as merchants serving the Mitchell community. Our customers are neighbors and friends, therefore you have become part of our family. I cannot adequately express my most heartfelt thank you for the patronage and friendship of our customers over these many decades.”
Don Caudell II, owner of Holmes Hardware
Caudell operated the store with his wife Nancy and longtime employee Martha Arnold.
He was a teenager when he started earning a paycheck for working in the store, but said he did small jobs in the store from the time he was 6. When he was a student at Indiana University, he came home every weekend to work in the hardware store. He graduated with a degree in business administration and returned to Mitchell to join the family business.
He worked alongside his dad Don Sr. for many years. The retail business was strong and Holmes Hardware employed five people. Don Sr. turned over running the store to his son around 1990, and Caudell said his dad continued to come to the store every day. In his later years, he sat in a rocking chair by the front window, greeting customers.
It’s that history, Caudell said, that makes the decision so difficult.
But, he said, the business climate has changed.
Adapting to change is necessary to survive in retail. Holmes Hardware had always done that. Caudell said when the store began losing business to big box retailers, he shifted to a business to business model, and became an industrial hardware supplier to Mitchell area businesses.
“We got stronger with the change,” he said. “When we went to a business to business model, we had fewer customers, but those customers spent more with us.”
The store that remains still has all the hardware staples, from wrenches of every size, bolt cutters and galvanized tubs to weed killer and paint brushes.
It’s also a time capsule of the past 100 years. The old paint shaker, metal oscillating fans, vintage signs, and a framed collection of Don Sr.’s NASA patches along with a black and white photo of Don Sr. with his good friend and Mitchell astronaut Gus Grissom tell the story of not just a hardware store, but a business that was invested in the community. Don Sr. served as general chairman of the Persimmon Festival four times and Don II served twice as chairman.
Caudell, 70, hasn’t set a closing date for the store and said it will depend on how quickly the merchandise sells.
As for any future plans, Caudell is running in the Republican primary for Mitchell mayor.
“My gratitude and thanks extends to our many fantastic employees that made Holmes Hardware a true family business,” he said. “I couldn’t ask for a better place to work and own a business.”