Can a hardware store have heart? Blackhawk Hardware says yes, and it hires for it. “Hardware knowledge is much easier to teach than personality,” the owners say, and the test for every new hire is simple: would I like to have lunch with this person for the next five years?
That’s how a Park Road storefront opened in 1977 with $141.95 in first-day sales and became one of Charlotte’s most loved independent stores. Jim and Barbara Wilkerson built it as a family business, literally. Employees’ kids work there now. At least eight couples met on the sales floor. Associates average more than seven years, and plenty of them used to run other hardware stores before choosing this one.
The shelves match the people. One of the biggest selections of cabinet and builders hardware in the South started with a “1001 Knobs” ad and a lot of contractors who got tired of being sent elsewhere. Add a garden center, a toy aisle, and shipping, sharpening, and locksmithing at the concierge desk, and you can fix the sink and find a puzzle for the kid in one trip.
The house dare: spend 30 minutes browsing and don’t find something you’ve never seen before. They call it impossible. Try it.
4225 Park Rd, Charlotte, NC 28209
