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Petersen's hardware
P
etersen’s Hardware owner Darren Long is not related to the Petersen’s, but in a way, he is family. The Petersen family opened the South Windsor hardware store in the 1960s and ran it for more than two decades, said Long, selling it to a longtime employee who started working there in high school.
Long also began working at Petersen’s while in high school. He started out sweeping floors and stocking shelves in 1985 at age 16 and continued to work there after graduating South Windsor High School in 1987. “I became the first full-time employee,” he recalled. “The owner, Kevin, said ‘stick with it and I’ll sell it
to you one day’.” That day came in 2019, 34 years after Darren started at Petersen’s Hardware. Over the years as the Store Manager, Long learned a lot about running the store. But there was still a learning curve once he took over as the owner. Long learned about the back office and operations GOLOCALMAGAZINES.COM 37
