Jay McAlister and Cedar Terrance Hardware mascot, Champ.
It’s understandable if the nearby competition might awe the owner of Columbia’s sole remaining family-owned hardware store.
Located for 38 years at the rear of an aging Garners Ferry Road shopping center, Cedar Terrace Hardware’s nearest rival is a fully stocked, 161,000- square-foot home center a mile-and-a-half away.
But size doesn’t matter to Jay McAlister’s customers. They don’t shop his small, jam- packed store for a new refrigerator or a garden tractor.
“I try to have unique, hard-to-find items. Older things like meat grinders. Or services like kerosene heater repairs. I’ve got so much stuff, there’s not room for it on the shelves,” he says, raising his voice over the stuttering whine of the store’s busy key-making machine.
The store was the brainchild of McAlister’s late father J.T. McAlister, who moved his wife and four sons to Columbia from Lake City to seek his fortune as a homebuilder. “The store was an offshoot of the construction business, and I was tapped as the one to run it,” said McAlister, an A.C. Flora High School graduate who later studied business administration at Spartanburg Methodist College and the University of South Carolina.
The store opened when Cedar Terrace Shopping Center was in its heyday. The Sumter Highway area was developing and the location across from the VA Hospital was ideal. “We had a Piggly Wiggly, a Dodds store, and the Cedar Terrace Pharmacy,” McAlister remembers. The pharmacy was among the last in Columbia to feature a lunch counter during its 25 years in business.
First time visitors to the store today often are startled by its unofficial greeter, a shaggy, laidback golden retriever named Champ who has spent many of his past 12 years splayed on the floor near the front door. Stiffened by a touch of arthritis in his old age, Champ usually ignores visitors but, if pressed, stands still for ear scratches.
Champ actually belongs to McAlister’s son, Ty, who keeps him at his home at night. Each day McAlister’s first task is to collect his faithful companion for another trip to the store.
The dog is Ty’s daily reminder of the store where he often fills in for his father. He grew up close to the business, but doesn’t consider it his legacy.
“I’m not lazy, but operating a retail store is hard work. Keeping a small hardware store going in today’s climate is almost impossible,” he said.
That’s certainly the case in Columbia where local icons such as Smith Hardware on Rosewood Drive and Hiller Hardware stores in the Vista and Five Points have closed.
Some small hardware stores stay competitive by buying cooperatives such as Ace, True Value and Do It Best, but McAlister has elected to continue his relationship with Orgill Inc. a $1.6 billion, Memphis, Tennbased supplier that sends a sales representative by the store each week.
Ever since his hair turned grey, McAlister says he’s been fielding questions about the store’s future and when he might decide to retire. “I like what I’m doing, and I’m not ready to retire yet. I haven’t played golf in 40 years. I’ve also got back problems, so why should I go do something that’ll send me to the chiropractor,” he said.
McAlister says his sole vice is a weekly card game with friends. He and his wife Beverly also have a getaway place at Garden City.
Loading Comments