By Jill Nagy
A venerable Waterford hardware store has a new name and new owners.
On Aug. 1, the former Tru-Value hardware store at 42 Saratoga Ave. re-emerged as Hatchet Hardware, an Ace Hardware franchise, owned by Angelo, Giovanni and Erika Grasso.
While big changes are planned during the next few months, the main changes so far have been the gradual replacement of Tru-Value brand products by Ace brand products.
Still, “it’s been rough transition, I’m not going to lie to you,” store manager Jesus Reyes said.
The Grassos also purchased a vacant building next store and will eventually expand the hardware store by using that building, adding housewares, a gardening department, a greater variety of hardware items and an expanded Benjamin Moore paint studio, Reyes said.
He expects the expansion and renovations to be completed by November.
This is the third Ace Hardware store in the Capital Region for the Grassos. They also own a store in downtown Troy and another on Hoosick Road in Brunswick.
Reyes managed the Troy store for two years and, before that, he was assistant manager of the Brunswick store. The owners also have a hardware store in Brooklyn but, so far, these three are their only ventures in the Capital Region.
Although new to this area, the Grasso brothers have been in the hardware business “pretty much all their lives,” Reyes said. Similarly, the store at 42 Saratoga Ave. has housed a hardware business for many generations, he noted.
Reyes described the Waterford outlet as a “mini-Hoosick,” but said that, after the renovations are completed, it will more resemble the much larger Brunswick outlet. The Troy store is on the first floor of the former Stanley’s Department Store; the upper floors are an apartment complex called The Conservatory. In Brunswick, they took over a building that formerly housed a furniture store.
In addition to Reyes, there are five employees at Hatchet Hardware.
The telephone number for the hardware store is 518 233-1073.