Central Hardware: A family’s legacy

Big box stores like Walmart and the Home Depot are common sights in suburban centers around the country. The onestop shopping model for large retail stores was also a hallmark of Central Hardware. The average store size was 55,000 square feet, which in the 1960s was considered huge.

Central Hardware was also known for excellent customer service, and if a Cohen family member was working in the store, the personal attention went up a notch.

“They kept their employees forever,” said Mark Goldfeder, a regular customer of the store. “You went in there and asked for something, and the employees knew exactly where to go to find it for you.”

Goldfeder, 71, a member of Temple Emanuel, is a St. Louis streetcar aficionado who recalls the Central Hardware megastore where his father shopped.

“Their first really big store was at Kirkwood and Big Bend,” Goldfeder said. “I remember schlepping out there with the family.”Kirkwood and Big Bend,” Goldfeder said. “I remember schlepping out there with the family.”

The Kirkwood store was popular with suburbanites. It was convenient, spacious and offered one-stop shopping. That business model was key to the chain’s growth.

Community support

Central Hardware was the first sponsor of the St. Louis Senior Olympics. Cohen family members were volunteers in the Jewish community, and Stanley Cohen was active in Jewish Federation.

Stanley’s wife, Shirley, was the consummate volunteer. She was the first woman to serve on the board of Jewish Hospital of

St. Louis. She also was president of the Jewish Hospital Auxiliary and a founding member of the board of directors of the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation. One of her most prominent roles was as chair of the board of the Jewish Hospital School of Nursing, now known as the Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

“She was awarded the first and, to my knowledge, only doctorate of nursing degree posthumously at Goldfarb,” Jim Cohen said. “She also worked with Dr. Ira Kodner to start a fund for palliative care. And we established a scholarship in my mom’s name for palliative care at BJC, which is still there.

“I was in awe of her. She did everything so effortlessly. One of the things she did every summer was to host a nurses picnic at our home by the swimming pool. I was always given the job of lifeguard.”

As a lasting legacy to the Cohen family, the Shirley and Stanley Cohen Endowed Scholarship at BJC continues to support the education of promising nursing students. A similar scholarship exists at Washington University’s business school in Stanley Cohen’s name. If an applicant meets the criteria for the scholarship based on grades and he or she is a family member of a former Central Hardware employee, the applicant is automatically approved.

Jim Cohen said he and his family have a special sense of pride knowing that his parents’ contributions have had a lasting impact in St. Louis.

“Last year, I took my two daughters to the Goldfarb School of Nursing dinner, where they honor the scholarship recipients,” he said. “They knew their grandmother was special, but they didn’t have any idea how great she was and how

STAYING STEADY: NAVIGATING BALANCE CHALLENGES FOR OLDER ADULTS

FREE COMMUNITY TALK: BETTER BALANCE

BY: DR BETH TEMPLIN PT DPT GCS GERIATRIC PHYSICAL THERAPIST

loved one has l within the last probably already ering it can be

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Unsure if Physical Therapy can actually help you to improve your balance? Then I invite you to attend our upcoming FREE Community Talk “Better Balance"

During This Workshop You ll Learn:

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When: Friday, February 24th at 1:00pm

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*Attend in-person or join us online from your home Call (314) 939-1377 to register Space is limited many lives she touched. People would come over to the table and look at our name tag and say, ‘You’re related to Shirley Cohen?’ It’s a special feeling.”

The end of Central Hardware

In the 1960s, retail began changing. Stanley Cohen recognized that while Central Hardware was still growing, long term prospects did not favor a regional chain. He made the decision to sell the company to the conglomerate Interco (formerly International Shoe Co.).

In 1989, the parent company of Handy Andy purchased Central Hardware from Interco for $245 million. Central Hardware was part of the holding company Spirit Holding. Mounting debt combined with increased competition signaled the death knell of Central Hardware. The company lost $10 million a year from 1989 to 1993. Spirit Holding filed for Chapter 11 bank- ruptcy protection in 1993.

Central Hardware closed a number of stores when A-OK of Delaware, the parent company of Handy Andy, bought Central Hardware out of bankruptcy for $79 million. Two years later, Handy Andy was also bankrupt. The last Central Hardware stores closed by 1996.

In 1992, Handy Andy management forced Jim Cohen out. The end of his tenure, and of the brand, was painful.

“Every day, I miss the company,” he said. “I miss the people. We still get together every summer. It’s a Central Hardware reunion picnic. We had over 150 people two years ago, the last one before COVID. Some of them were children and grandchildren and great grandchildren of employees, but it was very close knit. It was the family business. There was always a Cohen involved.” jewishemployment@mersgoodwill.org

Jewish Crossword Puzzle

By Yoni Glatt, koshercrosswords@gmail.com | ‘Hits of the

Across

1. Where astronauts from the US might live for a while

4. Occasional tefila

9. Israeli kiosk at some malls

14. “Not interested”

15. Battery component

16. Result of being seasick

17. Hannah’s ode to Samuel? (1987)

20. President who won a Nobel Peace Prize without making a peace treaty

21. Sarah, to Abraham

22. Song that’s a mantra for prophets? (1986)

27. Summer, in Paris

28. World Cup cry

29. Finish

30. Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel

32. Big fans, nowa- days

34. Smells

Difficulty: Manageable

gler-stopping org.

55. Song about Lavan? (1987)

36. ___ shalt not...

39. Nachshon ben Aminadav’s motivational song? (1987)

42. Digits in binary

43. Animated TV twin

45. Be a rebbe, e.g.

47. “I”, to Moran

48. Advisory group to POTUS

51. Hustle and bustle

52. US smug-

59. Overly delicate

60. Stereotypical surfer dude name

61. Song about how manna can be prepared? (1980)

66. Like much of Lamentations

67. Not fulfilled, as a goal

68. Be’er Sheva to Ein Gedi dir.

69. Pioneer mail-order merchant

70. Some suit components

71. ‘90s put down

Down

1. Cushiony shoe part

2. Drill attachment with teeth

3. Barley bundle, in Ruth

4. Part of Purim or

Chanukah?

5. Chapel Hill school: Abbr.

6. ___-CAH-TOA (trig mnemonic)

7. Israel Prize winner Bar-Shalom (daughter of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef)

8. Current King of Spain

9. Sushi staple

10. Comfy, like your abode

11. Satirist Horowitz often seen on Fox News

12. He is Groot

13. Made Bubbi happy, perhaps

18. Former owner of Abbey Road Studios

19. Laura of “Jurassic World: Dominion”

23. Famous fictional snowman

24. “99 Luftballons” singer

25. First name of one often in headlines the last few months

26. Like a Hasmonean coin

31. Vessel letters

32. Tally

33. What most do for Shabbat lunch kiddish

35. “How could I be so stupid?!”

36. Wand-waving org. at the airport

37. Some kosher birds

38. New Israelis

40. It gets the bawl rolling?

41. “___ only known”

44. Some winter coats

46. Fights

49. Remain

50. Obligated yid

52. Bill ___ (fictional time travellers)

53. Israeli condiment

54. With “Top,” some golf balls

56. Bob Dylan “Masters ___”

57. Exact duplicate

58. Free electron, for one

61. They may be ripped with effort

62. Mets div.

63. Motion approval

64. Some conversation fillers

65. Having just put a coat on?

THIS WEEK’S PUZZLE ANSWERS