A New Chapter In The History Of Cornell's Hardware

In 1932 our grandfather, John Fix, purchased Cornell’s Hardware from the Cornell brothers (Charlie & Bailey) because they had no next generation to take over as they neared retirement. John’s sons, John Jr and Thomas, came back to work full time at Cornell’s after they each served in the Air Force. We followed in that tradition and began working full time at Cornell’s in the 1980’s. Some of our children have worked in the hardware store at various points in their lives, but none got the “hardware bug” or expressed interest in taking over the family business from us.

Much like the Cornell brothers wanted to be sure that their hardware store continued to serve their community after their departure, we also want to be sure that Cornell’s Hardware continues to serve our town as we look to the future and plan for our retirement.

About a year ago we embarked on a search for a suitable partner to take Cornell’s Hardware into the next 100 years, and we feel we have found the perfect match in the Aubuchon Company. As a private family-owned business since 1908, they operate over 100 stores and will continue to operate Cornell’s as a local, independent hardware store, ensuring it remains a great place to work for our loyal staff.

We expect to transfer ownership of Cornell’s Hardware to the Aubuchon Company in July. The store will continue to operate as Cornell’s Hardware, and the three of us will continue to be involved in various roles as employees of the Aubuchon Company. We’re excited about the future of Cornell’s and the Aubuchon Company and are confident that Cornell’s will be a bedrock of the Eastchester community for many decades to come.

Thank you to our amazing staff members and our loyal customers for supporting the Fix family and Cornell’s Hardware over the years!

John Fix 3rd, Mary Beth (Fix) Wellington, Thomas Fix

Press release announcing the sale of Cornell’s to Aubuchon

Updated Mask Policy

NY State will be following the latest CDC guidelines regarding masks beginning on Wednesday (May 18). Because of this change, we will be adjusting the mask policy at Cornell’s.

1. Customers who are vaccinated can shop without masks if they wish. Customers who are not vaccinated should continue to wear masks while in the store. We will not be checking for proof of vaccination, we trust that unvaccinated customers will wear masks to protect themselves and others.

2. Our staff will continue to wear masks while on the sales floor or assisting customers. This is for the safety of our staff, and also the safety of our customers.

3.  Fully vaccinated staff members can work without a mask while in the stock area, lounge, office, or while working outside. Unvaccinated staff members will continue to wear a mask at all times while not socially distanced in the stock area, lounge, or office areas.

We will continue to monitor the situation and make adjustments as needed to protect the health and safety of our staff members and our customers, and we will continue to comply with all national, state, and local guidelines and regulations.

Temporary change to store hours

Cornell’s has been serving the home repair and improvement needs of our community for over 110 years, and we are continuing to do so during the current coronavirus crisis. Hardware stores are considered an “essential business” by NY State so we have remained open during this time. However, we want to be sure we protect the health and safety of our customers and our staff, and being open our normal hours makes it challenging to clean our store and restock the shelves without putting extra strain on our staff. We have decided to temporarily adjust our store hours of operation, effective Thursday April 2. We will be open from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm Monday through Saturday, and closed on Sunday.

In addition to adjusting our store hours we wanted to remind you that we offer curbside pickup and local delivery. You can place your order via our website, or via a telephone call or email in advance so that your items are ready when you arrive at the store. We are continuing to limit the number of customers in the store at any one time, and we would appreciate your assistance. If you arrive at the store and the parking lot is full we’d ask you to try and visit at another time. When you do come to shop for your home repair needs please don’t bring the entire family. We all must do our part to practice social distancing so we can flatten the curve.

Thank you for your understanding and your continued support of our locally owned family business.

Coronavirus update

The world health community continues to monitor closely the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the disease it causes, named "coronavirus disease 2019" (COVID-19). At this time, no one knows how severe this outbreak will be in our community. Given this uncertainty, and the fact that the seasonal influenza (flu) virus is also widespread, we at Cornell's are taking proactive steps to address a number of business concerns.

First and foremost, we want to maintain a safe shopping environment and encourage and/or adopt practices protecting the health of employees, customers, visitors or others. Second, we want to ensure the continuity of business operations in the event of a pandemic so we can continue to serve our community without interruption.

We ask our customers to cooperate in taking steps to reduce the transmission of communicable diseases. You can help by remembering the following:

 Stay home when you are sick.
 Wash your hands frequently with warm, soapy water for at least 20 seconds.
 Cover your mouth with tissues whenever you sneeze, and discard used tissues in the trash.
 Avoid people who are sick with respiratory symptoms.

For our part we are sanitizing frequently touched surfaces in our store such as keyboards, telephones, countertops, railings, shopping carts, and other surfaces on a daily basis. We are encouraging our staff to stay home if they exhibit signs of infection, and providing hand sanitizer and soap for their use while at our store.

We are also working diligently with our suppliers to keep flu related items in stock, such as cleaners, disinfectants, gloves, and masks. You can check on product availability via our website:

https://store.cornells.com/d…/flu-and-virus-control-231.html

We know that the coming days and weeks will be challenging for all of us and we want to assure our staff and customers that we will do the best we can to provide a safe shopping and work environment and remain open to serve the needs of our community.

Sincerely,

The Fix Family
Owners of Cornell's True Value Hardware
Serving our friends and neighbors with their home repair and improvement needs for over 110 years.

Best of Westchester winner, two years running!

Thank you to all our friends and neighbors who once again voted for Cornell's as the Best Hardware Store in the annual Westchester Magazine reader's poll. With so many wonderful independent hardware stores in our county it's truly an honor to be selected as the best hardware store around, especially in consecutive years. You can be sure we will work hard to continue providing outstanding service and product selection to help you improve and maintain your home or business. Cheers!

Best of Westchester winner!

Thank you to all our friends and neighbors who voted for Cornell's as the Best Hardware Store in the annual Westchester Magazine reader's poll.  With so many wonderful independent hardware stores in our county it's truly an honor to be selected as the best hardware store around.  You can be sure we will work hard to continue providing outstanding service and product selection to help you improve and maintain your home or business.  Cheers!

Customer feedback...and advertising

We love getting feedback and comments from customers, and while we especially love compliments we also truly want to hear about it when our service fails to meet expectations. With the advent of the Internet there are now a myriad of ways for customers to contact us or rate our service, whether email, instant messaging, online review sites, or blogs. We try and respond to each and every comment or review, whether positive or negative, and we share the comments with our staff.

One situation were we really can't properly respond is when we receive anonymous comments. The letter below arrived today, and there was no contact information, return address, or any other indication as to the customer's identity. We would truly love to respond, but unfortunately we cannot except through this public post.  So, here'a quick response.

True Value Hardware and Ace Hardware are two totally different hardware store chains.  Both types of stores are independent locally owned stores, and both True Value and Ace are co-op wholesale suppliers.  The individual stores own their respective wholesale company, and each store decides how to run their store (products to carry, pricing, staff, decor, etc.).  Currently, only Ace Hardware is running national advertising and until recently they were one of the sponsors of the Laura Ingraham show.  

As a True Value store we have no connection to Ace's decision any more than Home Depot or WalMart.  From our perspective it's probably best for dealer-owner companies like Ace or True Value to avoid sponsorship of political commentary shows altogether, whether Ingraham or Maddow, Hannity or Hayes.  There are plenty of other shows that are less politically charged, so why stir up your clients or customers by supporting a political commentary show?  

Finally, an anonymous letter or comment provides us with no way to respond or address your concerns.  So please, always include a way for us to respond, comment, reply, or otherwise reach out to you.  

Busy, busy, busy

Most retail stores are busiest during the Christmas holiday season, but that's a secondary busy time for a hardware store.  May and June are the crunch months in the hardware business, especially for stores like ours that sell BBQ grills and gardening supplies.  We get trucks every day with merchandise, with two big deliveries each week from True Value.  Each of the True Value deliveries contains ten or more pallets of products, everything from mulch and soils to power tools, paint, light bulbs, and more.  

It can be a challenge to store all the products, but our crew does a great job of moving items into our basement via a conveyor belt and our elevator.  Many customers don't even know we have a full size basement full to the brim with product to backup the merchandise we have displayed on the sales floor.  If you'd like to take a peek in the basement you can, just head down the stairs near the key machine and check out our display of BBQ grills, home beer making supplies, and beekeeping equipment.