HARDWARE Handyman Supply plans grand opening

By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- In the hardware business, function wins out over beauty every time.
That's why Carl Leveto didn't need a decorator when he set up the family-owned Handyman Supply chain's newest store at the corner of Raccoon and Kirk roads in Austintown.
"We're not known for pretty stores," the 77-year-old store owner said with a grin. "We're known for having what you're looking for."
Grand opening activities are set to start Thursday at the Austintown store, which opened in May in a 16,000-square-foot section of a former Ames Department Store. A Big Lots store also opened recently in the same plaza.
First in Mahoning
The new location is Handyman Supply's first in Mahoning County. Founded in 1975 with the opening of a store in Champion, the chain has six stores in Trumbull County, each one independently owned.
Leveto believes excellent customer service is the secret that has allowed Handyman Supply to thrive and grow, even against stiff competition from home improvement giants such as Home Depot and Lowe's.
"We're giving Home Depot and Lowe's so much trouble because we have things they don't have, and we have people who can help," he said. "We're really, really old-fashioned because we believe in customer service."
Store policy is to keep at least four clerks on the sales floor, ready to guide customers to just the right bolt, pipe or electrical gadget. "When a woman comes in and asks how to install a sink trap, our people can help her get it right the first time," he said.
His background
Leveto grew up in Cannonsburg, Pa., a town he says is best known as the birthplace of popular singers Bobby Vinton and the late Perry Como.
Returning home in the mid-1940s after serving in the Navy in World War II, he got two very different job offers. He could work at a steel mill, 40 hours a week for $120 -- great pay at that time, or he could work at McCrory's, a "five-and-dime" store chain, 60 hours a week for a mere $35.
Leveto chose the latter, despite the lower pay and longer hours, because he wanted more variety than a factory job could provide.
His career in retail led him to the McCrory's store in downtown Youngstown, and then to the former Miracle Mart discount chain, where he spent 18 years as a supervisor and buyer.
Leveto used to dream about starting his own business. He preferred hardware over the clothing and other soft goods he worked with at Miracle Mart, because the merchandise doesn't go out of style.
"With hardware, you just dust it off and sell it again tomorrow."
Finally he found a low-rent storefront on Mahoning Avenue in Champion, reached an agreement with a plumbing distributor willing to stock his shelves and opened up his first Handyman store.
The shop was small, just 3,000 square feet, and he filled all the top shelves with empty boxes to make it look fuller. With six children around his dinner table, he couldn't afford to quit his Miracle Mart job, Leveto said, so he worked both jobs, averaging 100-hour work weeks.
Business grows
Sales picked up, slowly at first. He added electrical and other hardware categories, and Leveto was eventually able to quit his job with the discount chain to concentrate on growing his business.
He wouldn't reveal profit figures, but Leveto said the family-run stores have seen "sizable" sales increases every year since the first Handyman Supply opened.
Now five of Leveto's adult children own or work at Handyman Supply stores.
His son Mike owns four stores, located on Elm Road in Warren, in Leavittsburg, Cortland and Champion. Another son, Tim, owns the Hubbard store, and his son Toma works with Leveto at the McKinley Heights store.
Daughter Judy Mazi works at the Champion store and daughter Jill Kordes recently moved back to the area with her husband, Jeff, from New York state, partially to get involved in the family business. Jeff Kordes has a full-time position in the insurance business, but he also works with his wife and his father-in-law at the Austintown store.
A lucky break
Leveto had been seriously considering a new store in the long-vacant former Ames location, but his plans were foiled when Snyders Drug Stores announced last summer that it would open a discount drug store there on the site.
Then Snyders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, canceling its Austintown store plans and closing a distribution center it operated in the former Tamco warehouse on Victoria Road.
Leveto decided to make the move.
Austintown customers were so excited about the store that they literally forced an early opening, Leveto said.
Workers stocking shelves with new merchandise in late April kept getting interrupted by eager consumers wanting to buy.
"It's was 6 o'clock on a Friday and we just decided to open up. They forced us," he said, laughing. "The next day we opened up with regular hours. Every day we get people coming in, telling us how happy they are to have us here."
vinarsky@vindy.com