Hassett Hardware offers accessible expertise: Third generation carries torch to sixth hardware store location in Belmont

Having worked in their father’s hardware store since they were teenagers, the Hassett brothers know their customers’ mindsets well. Advising their customers on everything from finding the right nail for a building project or optimal sprinkler for their lawns, they understand their customers often aren’t experts in these areas.

“It’s already intimidating enough walking into a hardware store,” said Eric Hassett.

The Hassetts are now taking on their sixth location, having recently purchased Carlmont Ace Hardware at 1029 Alameda de las Pulgas in Belmont’s Carlmont Village Shopping Center from the store’s previous owners. As they expand their network of hardware stores, they are hoping to meet even more customers with the kind of breadth of knowledge and expertise you can only find in someone who has fiddled with the wrong tool, used the wrong type of cleaning solution and overcome these types of challenges before.

For Eric Hassett, 40, and Richard Hassett, 36, honing in on the changing needs of their customers is how their stores stay relevant in a retail landscape that skews toward online sales.

Given the range of household projects homeowners face, Eric Hassett said there’s always going to be a set of customers who don’t know exactly what they need and want to see the products for themselves to gauge whether they will work. He said his stores have been a go-to for baby boomers, many of whom own their own homes and learned how to make basic home repairs when they were growing up.

But they are now becoming a place where younger homeowners go with questions about problems they have never encountered before. They are also a meeting place for those pursuing creative projects with more complicated elements, such as electrical wiring.

“We’re at a transition point right now,” said Eric Hassett, of the changing nature of projects those who work at Hassett-owned stores encounter every day.

But he also knows that no matter what their needs are, the ability to touch and feel the materials they need can only be found in a retail hardware store.

To make sure their employees are ready for the range of questions they might encounter, both Eric and Richard Hassett have been focused on training their employees. Though making sure their employees are equipped to advise on a wide range of projects is a priority, finding candidates who are excited to help customers with their projects tops their list of desirable qualities.

“The first thing we look for is their general attitude,” he said. “You look for the smile and the service skills first.”

To help their employees achieve the balance of friendliness and area expertise they are looking for, the Hassetts lead new hires through a five-day orientation that emphasizes customer services principles, such as the best way to process a return, in the first two days and introduces them to more technical concepts toward the end of the week. The Hassetts require all of their new employees to start as cashiers so they are able to see the arc of a customer’s visit to one of their stores.

“I want everyone to experience the first and last point of contact with the customer,” said Eric Hassett.

With a structured orientation in place, they are able to ensure training is consistent across their six locations. Since their grandfather, Bob Hassett, opened his first hardware store in Campbell in 1957, the family business has branched out to other parts of the Bay Area, including locations in Palo Alto, San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood, Half Moon Bay, Redwood City and San Mateo under their father Larry’s watch. Though Larry Hassett is now retired, he still frequents the stores to help customers find what they need.

“It doesn’t happen very often,” said Larry Hassett, of the fact that the stores he ran are now in the hands of the third generation of Hassetts.

And it seems as though their family-owned business was similarly a rare find for the owners of Carlmont Ace Hardware, who had owned the store for some 45 years and were looking for another family-owned business to take the reins.

As Eric and Richard Hassett look at what’s ahead for them at their new Belmont location, they are excited to learn about the needs of a new community. Eric Hassett said the store is smaller than some of their other locations, providing basic home and garden products as well as emergency supplies for nearby residents. He is hoping to maintain much of the same inventory, but offer more brands and sizes to provide customers with more options.

“We want to be able to fix all those little afternoon messes,” he said.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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