The story of a hardware
store which became Highway Hardware
In the early 1960’s
Goldsmiths Hardware opened on the site on which Highway Hardware stands to day.
Margaret actually purchased quite a lot of the materials used to build her first
home in Mitchells Pass from this store.
 Around 1970 Lou and Dot Chandler purchased the hardware
store. They owned the store during the times of the greatest expansion of new
housing on the Lower Mountains. From stories told of Lou and Dot, their store
was truly a social hub for builders and handymen at the time. Their son Jim took
over the reins when ill health forced Lou into retirement. Jim was extremely
forward thinking in that he had a computer system installed. Without being able
to prove it, we expect, that this store could have been the very first privately
owned hardware store in NSW to be computerised.
1985 saw the next ownership change when Highway
Hardware purchased the store. It was around this time that 7 day trading came
into being. Highway Hardware first commenced Sunday trading in September, 1985.
This proved popular with the residents of the Lower Mountains, it saved them a
trip to Penrith for every little item they needed to start or complete a
project.
From 1985 until the present day, there have been many
outward changes at Highway Hardware. In 1985 when we purchased the store, the
road was unsealed (dry dirt when sunny and mud when
raining). In 1986 the road was sealed and the car park created with land
donated to the council by Highway Hardware. We have had several paint
jobs, each a different colour, and we have joined several promotions
groups, BUT the ownership never changed. Both of the promotions groups
hindered the way in which we wanted to look after our customers and
ultimately we were losing some control.
 We
made a decision in around 1995 to be totally independent. This meant cutting all
ties with any groups which arranged advertising, purchasing or indeed anything
on our behalf.
So much for the past, now we have just to concentrate
on the future.
Our Friends newsletter and the web page will help you
keep up to date with what we are doing and where we are heading.
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