A family business: The story of Cole Hardware

Karp is easy-going and friendly — maybe a rub off from the ‘60s. But working in the store from an early age helped him to become a smart businessman.

After a while, the neighborhood became rougher as it was infested with drugs, but no one bothered the popular hardware store. Donations to the Black Panthers’ charity served as protection. But he accompanied his father every night to close down the store just in case. Today, the store on Cole is still thriving with a slightly changed clientele.

***

Karp received a degree from the University of California, Berkeley in psychology. Children with emotional disabilities were his specialty. He planned to be a special education teacher. Then Cole’s landlord offered his dad the opportunity to buy the space next door, three times the size of the existing store. His dad told his son he had a week to decide whether he wanted to take over the business and expand. The senior Karp planned to retire. It was a tough decision. But in the end, the younger Karp, who had worked at the store since he was a child, liked the business, the people and wanted to stay in the San Francisco area, so he took the big leap.

Rick Karp had encouraged his dad to become an Ace hardware distributor. It had many advantages (Wisnom’s on First Avenue in downtown San Mateo was also part of the Ace system but kept the family’s name until they retired). Later on, Rick Karp served on the Ace board.

***

Karp opened a second store at 29th and Mission streets in 1984 which recently burned down. The third was downtown on Fourth Street between Market and Mission streets in 1996. The fourth in Russian Hill on Polk Street at Green Street opened about 14 years ago. Recently, Karp opened his fifth store in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood.

After losing the Mission Street store, Cole opened in SoMa on Ninth Street at Folsom Street in January. And in February, the latest addition to Cole Hardware was in North Beach on Vallejo Street at Columbus Avenue. “We were at five stores. The fire reduced us to four. We came out of the aftermath of the fire opening two, giving us a chain of six stores with 130 employees.” Quite an accomplishment!

***

Rick and Janet Karp are still living in the same San Mateo house they bought 33 years ago. For 10 years, he served on the Baywood Homeowners Association. He became the association’s liaison to the City Council, attended meetings where he didn’t know anyone. He was surprised at the amount of high-rises the city was approving. So one night, he decided to speak. Afterwards, two women invited him to join their group — Karen Herrell and Maxine Turner — who were working on a ballot measure to restrict heights. The council refused to adopt the measure so it went on the ballot as Measure H, and it passed. But before that, there was a major grassroots effort and Karp was selected to be the spokesman.

The Karps raised their family in San Mateo, daughter Adrianna and son David. Both attended Baywood Elementary, Borel Middle and Aragon High schools. They both graduated from college and had a variety of jobs but nothing they were that excited about.

***

History repeated itself when Rick Karp started thinking about retiring and who would take over the business. He asked his children if they were interested and gave them a year to decide, much longer than the week his dad had given him. But within several months, Adrianna decided she wanted to join Cole, and it was not long after that David made the same decision. So now it definitely is a family business with a long tradition. And the best part is that Rick Karp’s dad, Dave, lived just long enough to see it happen.

Sue Lempert is the former mayor of San Mateo. Her column runs Monday. She can be reached at sue@smdailyjournal.com.