Wednesday, June 19, 2013

By Jack Shea
Published: February 26, 2009

Friday afternoon, and the customer at the counter in Phillips Hardware on Circuit Avenue in Oak Bluffs breaks into a startled smile when proprietress Donna Leon tells her she's just saved more than six dollars on her purchase. Over the next 40 minutes, Ms. Leon (nee Phillips) and her sister Susan Phillips will explain to eight more customers that they are receiving a 15-percent discount on their purchase in celebration of the store's 81st anniversary. The news evokes gratitude, smiles, and the question: Why the celebration at 81 years?

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Sisters Susan Phillips (left) and Donna Phillips Leon are third-generation owners of the family's Phillips Hardware store in Oak Bluffs.
Photo by M.C. Wallo

"We do it every year, not just on special years," Ms. Phillips says of last weekend's storewide discount. It's a long-standing tradition that the sisters admit has been observed for longer than they can remember.

For all the changes, there is timelessness about their enterprise. The Phillips sisters, the family's third generation to operate the old-time hardware store, are less focused on the dates and details of the past 81 years, and more attuned to the traditions, about which they have great acuity. Ms. Phillips brings out a venerable folder filled with old photographs that chronicle the history of their family business. Among the photographs is a dog-eared June 1, 1939, receipt for supplies purchased by C.J. Darling, including a pound of six-penny nails for 12 cents.

Ms. Phillips produces a pound of the six-pennies that now sell for $1.29. "The price of iron has gone up," she says. "Recent deliveries are $2.59 a pound, but we bought these at the lower price so we kept the lower price."

Phillips Hardware was founded by their grandfather, John Phillips, in 1928, when he was an entrepreneurial 22-year-old. It was housed in a single room on the ground floor of the Oakmont Hotel. John Phillips nurtured and preserved the business through The Great Depression of the 1930s. Circuit Avenue was evolving into a retail hub with most of Martha's Vineyard's 19th century lodgings moving to Kennebec Avenue and other neighboring streets. The store grew until it occupied most of the ground floor. Eventually, Mr. Phillips bought the building.

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Established in 1928, the Circuit Avenue hardware store carries everything from tools to housewares.

When he retired in 1984, he passed the business to his son Robert, who in 1998 passed it to his daughters. Family is important to both women. Ms. Leon wants her father to contribute to the discussion of the store, so she calls him in Pompano Beach, Fla., where he and his wife Pauline live.

"In the old days, my Dad sold washers and dryers and refrigerators," Mr. Phillips recalls. "There was a restaurant in the building. I remember taking the wall down when it shut down, and expanding the business."

Mr. Phillips is proud of the way the business has been able to change in response to consumer culture. "We quit selling appliances," he explains, "but I began selling carpet, linoleum, vinyl, and wallpaper. It was a good business. Times change, though, and the girls put Rosebud (a balloon and party supply store) in that space. We've all made changes to the business," he says, adding that not all ideas were winners. "I put in a fishing department - rods, Penn reels, and line, that sort of thing. It wasn't very successful," he admits.

Listening to the history of the business is akin to watching snapshots of the changes in America's retail trends. "You more or less have to pay attention to change," Mr. Phillips says, noting the popularity of pet parakeets in the 1950s. "I raised parakeets back then and sold them in the store. Food, cages, all of it."

Mr. Phillips praises his daughters' stewardship, noting each has found a role. "Susan enjoys ordering and selling and Donna enjoys the bookwork," he says.

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Photo by M.C. Wallo

On Friday, however, both sisters were front and center behind the counter, attending to a steady stream of customers, the majority of whom were women. "Women are definitely more handy since they've become more independent," Ms. Leon observes.

Will there be a fourth generation of Phillips management? "My son Christopher works here summers when he's home from college, but none of our kids have expressed interest yet in the business," Ms. Leon says. She laughs and adds, "We may just have to wait for the grandkids."

In the meantime, traditions are expected to be observed. The sisters describe long-time customers who come in with their old memories of where in the aisles and on the shelves the store's inventory was kept. Ms. Phillips says, "We'll have people come in and turn left looking for light bulbs - where they used to be." She smiles. "We've had vacuum cleaner supplies there for six or seven years, but they remember where they were."

Jack Shea is a regular contributor to The Martha's Vineyard Times.