The Big Picture

Remembering retailer who put people before profit

STEPHANIE RIEGEL

THIS PAST MARCH, Our Hardware, a humble homegrown hardware store near the Perkins Road overpass, celebrated its fifth anniversary.

It was something of a milestone for the little store and its owner, Henry Bingham Jr.

For five years, Bingham and his indefatigable manager, Bridgette Edwards, defied the odds and the competition from big box stores and online retailers and kept their doors open amid floods, power outages and the challenges posed by the pandemic, serving residents of one of Baton Rouge’s more anachronistic neighborhoods.

But in April, just a few weeks after that milestone anniversary, Bingham died unexpectedly of heart disease. He was only 50.

Though he wasn’t as prominent or well known as some of the other great men who have died tragically in this community over the past year, his death is a loss that leaves a hole in this little corner of the world and he will be missed.

Only about half of small businesses make it to the five-year mark, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Back in the spring of 2016, most bookies would have bet against Bingham being among the 50% that would survive.

Though he knew the hardware business from his years of managing the nearby Government Street Hardware, which had closed in late 2015, he had never had his own shop or run his own business.

Though he had relationships with good suppliers, which was an important ingredient in the store’s ultimate viability, he couldn’t afford to buy into the True Value co-op, which brings with it group purchasing discounts and the cache of a national brand.

And, though he had a good landlord and a great location in the 1,500-square-foot space formerly occupied by Overpass Cleaners, he didn’t have the money to fix the place up in a way that would have enabled him to adequately display and market his merchandise.

Yet the store that often seemed as though it were held together with nothing but duct tape and love, worked because of Bingham’s sheer force of will, his tireless effort and his giant heart.

Shopping at Our Hardware was always an experience. They might not have the exact template to duplicate your backdoor key or the right size cup hook to hang your flower basket. In fact, they might not have the one thing you really needed, like yesterday, to finish that home improvement project.

But it was worth giving them the business anyway and buying at least something because you wanted them to survive and do well and, more importantly, because you just knew that Bingham would do the same for you if the situation were reversed, and that he would go out of his way to help you if you needed him, even if it might take a little longer than you hoped.

That was part of what made Our Hardware so special. It turned conventional business wisdom—with its focus on efficiency, competition and the bottom line—on its head. Bingham’s model was about building relationships, creating human connections, helping neighbors and making customers always feel a little better about the world when they left than when they had walked in.

I don’t know how you can scale that. I do know that if we could figure it out, the world would be a much better place.

I can wax poetic about Bingham and his store because I live in the neighborhood and was something of a regular there. It was an example of the kind of small business you just don’t find that often in America or, I guess, anywhere in 2021.

We’re fortunate in the Perkins Road overpass neighborhood to have a handful of such establishments outside of the popular bars and restaurants, which are a boon in their own right.

Bet R Supermarket and Bolton’s Pharmacy still feel very much like the kind of places you remember from your childhood in the 1960s or 1970s or 1980s, back before retailers migrated to the suburbs and then transitioned online.

It’s not just that the sales clerks and managers and fellow customers all know your name, like the old theme song from Cheers famously said. It’s that there is a genuine sense of community in these small stores that is lost in the anonymity of chain stores and online platforms.

Fortunately, Our Hardware isn’t going away. Bingham’s children are planning to take over the business now that he is gone. I recently met his daughter, Jasmine Bingham.

Like her father, she has a bright smile and a friendly demeanor and is enthusiastic about taking over the business. She has a decade of experience in construction and is optimistic about the future.

The day we met, she and her brothers were still getting their bearings. So far, she says, no significant changes are planned for the store and Edwards will stay on to help them run the place.

“Everybody has been so loving and affectionate, she told me. “Everybody seemed to enjoy who he was as a person and we definitely want to keep that spirit alive and make people happy.”

That was Bingham’s MO. When I interviewed him that day in 2016, he summed up his philosophy like this:

“You can make a lot of money and be a lonely person or you can be a part of something and maybe not make as much money but enjoy what you’re doing and help people. We enjoy helping people. That’s what we’re here for.”

Here’s hoping that Our Hardware will continue to be here, making people happy, for years to come.

REFLECTIONS

THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD

This feature is a tribute by our publisher in honor of Business Report founder, Rolfe H. McCollister Sr.

DAVID, A MAN after God’s own heart, kept in focus the “one thing” he was asking for and kept seeking. Psalms 27:4 proclaims that David was centered on three things that he was dwelling in, beholding, and meditating on. He sought to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life. This is not a building but abiding in the presence of the Lord. David, every moment lived his life to be pleasing in the sight of the Lord. Secondly, David wanted to behold the beauty of the Lord. In Psalms 27, David talks about the face of the Lord as light, deliverer, graciousness; the One who lifts us up; the goodness of the Lord, etc. When we behold the beauty of God’s character, things in life, fall into their place. The last of the “one thing” he was seeking was to meditate in God’s temple. Meditate means for one’s thoughts to chew on and contemplate a truth until it renews and replenishes the soul, or one’s whole being. The temple is not structure but the abiding presence, power, and perspective that the three Persons of God bring to life. These three elements of the “one thing” David asked for and sought after is what gave him the title of “a man after God’s own heart.”