When Hank and Patricia Busscher bought a Home Hardware on Main Street in Picton in 1976, they had no idea of the impact it would have. The couple was just trying to make a living with their  sons, Mark and Adam, in tow. 

On September 26, the family celebrated 50 years in business in this community.

The family first lived in an apartment above the hardware store, which already had a history of its own. “The actual original store had been a hardware store since 1841. It used to be called Hadden Hardware,” says Adam Busscher, now the owner of the lavish Home Hardware Building Centre in Picton. “My earliest memories are of receiving shipments with my father, going down to the store after supper, doing inventory, or restocking shelves.” 

Adam was four when the family first bought the store. He can’t remember a time when it was not a central part of his day-to-day life. As Picton slowly grew, so too did the business. 

“We’ve truly been a business that has grown with the community. We started in a small location when the community was small. Picton was a lot different back then. It was pretty much roll up the carpet in the winter time, and summertime it got busy again,” he recounts. 

In the 50 years since, a lot has changed. Hank grew the business successfully for decades. In 1991 the store moved to 121 Main Street. Three years later, Adam bought the family business. 

It wasn’t always written in the stars that Adam would take over. He had no intention of following in his father’s footsteps. 

“I went away to college and swore I would never want to be part of running a hardware store in Picton, because I grew up in the business. It was always there,” he says. 

But after working for multiple local businesses, and with his father’s steadily growing, he reconsidered.

“After I went to school I didn’t think I would come home to the business. I thought I would blaze my own path and do something different. But I quickly realized the real world is challenging. My father said, we’re growing, why don’t you come take a look at this thing.

“We had just moved to a new location, where the Second Time Around store is. I actually ran a gas station out of there for a while.” 

The business has expanded since, moving into the lumber business. It bought Wellington Building Supply in 2006. In 2009, Adam purchased the Home Hardware Building Centre residents know today at the Loyalist Parkway and County Road 1. The family also owns a small store in Belleville. Adam’s brother Mark does most of his work for the family at the Wellington location. 

A stark difference, at first glance, from the mom and pop shop below the apartment housing a family of five. What has not changed is the Busscher family’s connection with the community. 

The Building Centre

From the outside looking in, it looks like any other Home Hardware in a metropolitan city. The massive home building centre, one of Picton’s largest retail stores, services the needs of residents across the County. But a trip inside reveals a sense of community that can only come from 50 years of relationships. Almost nothing gets built in the County without at least a little help from the Busscher family.

“It’s strange. The hardware store was a real focal point for what was going on in the community. If you needed something built, or fixed, that’s where you went, and we just kind of grew steadily from there,” Adam says. “We really focus on our customers, our neighbours. For 99 percent of the people who walk through the door, we know their name, we know the project they’re working on, we know the last time they were in.”

It’s not uncommon for the Busschers to see the same customers multiple times in a day. At 7 a.m., when they open their doors, it’s usually the same contractors eager to swap stories before making their pickup. 

“People who are doing renovations, sometimes we’ll see them a few times in the day, and it’s wonderful because you get to know them, you get to know their families, their children, everything about them. It’s awesome,” Adam smiles. 

Even if it’s not so small anymore, the local Home Hardware remains a family run, community oriented, business. A fact Adam hopes will continue to ring true in the decades to come.

“We’re still a family run operation. My brother works in it, my wife Chrissy works at a small store we operate in Belleville, my daughter is involved in the business, my nephew is involved. All of those factors have given us chances to reflect on how successful the business has been over the last 50 years, and how successful it will hopefully be for the next 50 years. We want to create multi-generational business going forward.” 

May the good times roll on.