Wilton Springs Hardware celebrates 50 years

NEWPORT — Located off Wilton Springs Road is a family owned and operated hardware store. It has seen many changes through the past five decades.

Mitchell Webb, who owns and operates the store, recalls when his father, Gay Webb, started the hardware. He said that the family lived at Northport while his father was working at American Enka at Lowland. Gay would work on building the hardware store in his spare time and on any days off.

Eventually, the hardware store was coming into form and the family moved into a three-bedroom apartment located in the same building. The family consisted of Gay and his wife, Floss, and their children, Mitchell and Susan.

In 1972, the hardware store opened its doors to customers.

Floss operated her beauty shop in the same building. That room that once held her beauty shop and heard the stories of the community is now Mitchell’s office.

Initially, the hardware was also a community grocery store, including local staples as well as supplying hardware needs and general supplies.

Mitchell recalls “pocket stores” serving the different communities around the area. Wilton Springs Hardware even sold gasoline in the past. He said gasoline prices went from 30 cents up to $1 per gallon. He said the store continued selling gas through the gas crisis in the 1970s, and continued to sell gas until 2008.

“It got to the point where we were not making enough from selling gas to continue dealing with it,” he explained.

He said that the store was half groceries and half hardware well into the mid-1990s. Hardware became more dominant in the 1980s, and the store continued offering groceries in the 1990s. Mitchell said that he started helping at the hardware store in 1997 after his mother’s death.

He said he had been teaching school in Knoxville, and had no intentions of going into the hardware business.

In 2000, Mitchell and his wife, Sonya, moved back to the area with their children, Nathan and Emily. They made their home in the three-bedroom apartment in the hardware store while their home was being built.

That apartment has since been gutted and is now the rental area for the store. They opened up space, so they could offer a little bit of everything for rent. Customers can rent jackhammers, saws, pothole diggers, excavators, skidsteers, popcorn machines, sno-cone machines, and cotton candy makers.

The store had four employees, but in 2008 they doubled the size of the store despite the economic problems being faced across the country. They exclusively went to selling hardware items only during that time. Now, the store employs nine people.

“Having the rental department dictates more help. It is a much more physical job, and one person is just for delivering and picking up rental items,” Webb said.

The store does not sell building supplies, but is known for its extensive inventory of plumbing and electrical supplies. It also sells road tiles and other materials needed for local projects.

“As a small buyer with limited space, there are some things that are more difficult for us to get,” he said. “There is an advantage. While other stores may have to deal with certain suppliers, I can shop around. I can go where I need to go to get merchandise and that is beneficial to the customer.”

Webb said that local homeowners and do-it-yourselfers help keep business going, as well as a few builders and contractors. He said that the rental aspect of the business is a big asset to the daily operations.