Roadside Wire
Chagrin Falls shows soft heart for its hardware store
- Published on Sunday, 29 January 2012 18:59
Who says that the internet hasn’t helped the local business? It’s all in how you use it.
In the Era of Big Boxes, a Day for the Little Guy
By The Associated Press
CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio (AP) — It began quietly, as an email to 40 friends.
But when a steady stream of customers began coming through the door before the family-owned Chagrin Hardware had even opened for the day on Saturday, it was clear that it had turned into much more than that.
The idea started with Jim Black, a resident of Chagrin Falls, a close-knit village in Cleveland’s eastern suburbs that is part artist colony and part bedroom community. Black posted the email to a group of his friends. “Let’s show our support for one of our local businesses,” he wrote. “I challenge everyone to spend AT LEAST $20 at the hardware on the 21st.”
Although his email referred to the idea of a “Cash Mob” or the notion to “Occupy CF Hardware,” he really had no political agenda. And it wasn’t meant as a protest against the big-box stores that have created an ever-tightening circle around the community.