Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The number of customers increased 25 percent from July a year ago to last month.
KIDRON, Ohio (AP) — When the rest of the world is in crisis, Lehman’s Hardware thrives.
Holmes County’s Amish residents have shopped at the store since 1955 because of the wide selection of nonelectric goods.
Then shoppers from throughout the country showed up in 1973 because of the oil shortage.
They came again before 2000 because of the Y2K scare.
The next wave came after Sept. 11 and then another after the blackout of August 2003, buying sturdy appliances that don’t need plugs or outlets.
Now, in the age of high energy prices, when green is great, the Northeast Ohio store has become a favorite place for environmentalists trying to tread lightly on the Earth. And it’s not a little shop, either.
The store last month doubled its size to 32,000 square feet — about a quarter the size of most Target stores.
Years ago, the Lehmans built a tiny, basic hardware store in nearby Mount Hope, where many Amish shop.
“Different people just keep discovering us,” founder Jay Lehman said, “while we stay pretty much the same.”
Who would have thought the creature comforts that filled grandma’s house would ever be so fashionable?
Some items
Claw-foot tubs, butter churns, wood-burning stoves, propane-powered refrigerators, crank-powered radios and flashlights are big business at Lehman’s, which claims to be the world’s biggest supplier of nonelectric goods.
Lehman’s is as much a museum as a store, especially with its new theater where tools can be demonstrated and films on Amish life shown.
People are also attracted by the “cool stuff,” such as more than 30 types of axes; a dozen varieties of pitchforks; hundreds of hunting knives; simple to ornate lanterns; copper kettles; railroad kegs; self-contained toilets; wringer washing machines; and the Enterprise Monarch, the world’s most decorative coal- and wood-burning stove. The stove is one of their high-end items at $5,065.
Lehman said that over the years the “old hippies” were steady customers, as were missionary groups that bought heavy-duty nonelectric items to send to developing countries.
Now customers include Mary Thompson, from the Detroit suburb of Flat Rock, who drove down to stock up on nonelectric appliances for a family-owned cabin.
“There’s no electricity [in the cabin], but it would be nice to have some creature comforts like a refrigerator and a water pump,” Thompson said. “These are the kind of things we all should be using to cut down on electricity, but it’s so hard to find. Here, they have everything in one place.”
Not all of Lehman’s nonelectric products can be considered green. Many items still burn natural resources, such as wood and kerosene, which many consider preferable to using electricity.
But the real attraction for many consumers is the self-reliance factor and not having to depend on big energy producers to survive. Many of the most popular items are powered by muscle.
Growth
The company’s July 14 expansion was designed to accommodate its growing customer base.
About 4,000 visitors come every Saturday (the store is closed Sunday), and the number of customers this July was up about 25 percent from last year: 60,000 compared with 48,000.
The store expanded in a way that its greenest customer could admire. A large part of the interior is made out of an 1849 barn from Orrville.
It was taken apart and rebuilt on the site, using the hand-hewn timber held together with wooden pegs. The store addition was built inside it.
The Lehmans also deconstructed three adjacent turn-of-the-century houses, and people were invited to take for free what they needed for their own houses: locks, door handles, drawers, windows — everything right down to the wooden floors.
After two months, the houses were mostly gone. Only 25 percent of the house material was sent to landfills.
“We used to be called old-fashioned; now we’re called eco-friendly,” Lehman said.