Business
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I FEBRUARY 2018 37
ficially took over for his father, Gary,
a few years ago.
“Back then, you used to have to mix
lead and turpentine to actually make
the paint,” he said.
The store is open seven days a week
and Straus stocks up on a large variety
of tools and parts. Shoppers can find
everything from paint to light bulbs and
radiator valves. The hardware store has
attracted a good number of regulars,
including neighboring building supers,
due to its longevity.
Though there are other hardware
stores in the neighborhood and a Home
Depot on 25th Avenue, the building
was purchased by Charles Straus in
the ’40s, which allows the family to
stay in business. His parents lived in
an apartment unit upstairs for many
years, he added.
“We would’ve been long gone if we
didn’t own the building,” Straus said.
“This business wouldn’t survive. It just
doesn’t make that kind of money. It
would be some sort of restaurant or
something.”
The key to his success also lies in
the variety of items that customers can
purchase at the hardware store. Car-rying
an assortment of supplies allows
him to compete with larger hardware
stores, Straus said.
“Plumbing, electrical, cleaning, gen-eral
hardware, sundries, paint, anything
that goes on in an apartment we try to
cover,” he said.
Straus added that many of the sur-rounding
apartment buildings in the
area were constructed in the 1920s
and 1930s, which require constant
maintenance.
“The buildings around here that
were built in the ’30s for the factory
workers, a lot of them were built on
the cheap,” he said. “That keeps us
in business.”
Though many local businesses have
worked on creating a strong presence
online, Straus said that this is not re-quired
for a hardware store.
“People come mostly for what they
need,” he said. “This isn’t a window
shopping kind of thing. If you need
something, something’s going wrong —
a leaky faucet, squeaky door, rattling
window. I just don’t think that an online
presence is necessary.”
He has had to shift his purchasing
habits. Straus receives inventory ship-ments
almost every day, mostly from
local suppliers. But now, he orders
most of his items online instead of
purchasing them from salesmen.
The salesmen were “guys in over-coats
and hats, smoking cigars and
carrying two books full of samples,”
he said. “You don’t see those guys
anymore.”
Though purchasing inventory can
get expensive, Straus said he is lucky
because most of the items are non-perishable.
He also has to deal with
inspections from several city agencies
such as the Department of Buildings,
the Fire Department and Department
of Sanitation.
“New York City is very efficient at
collecting fines,” he said. “Whether it’s
for an aerosol can, storage of flam-mable
liquids, you have to comply to
everything. Mostly it’s for safety and
we’re all for that. It’s nice that you’re
not allowed to smoke in here anymore.”
A steady stream of customers
walked through the doors of Straus
Paint & Hardware Co. on a Friday af-ternoon.
Some people needed to have
their keys copied, while others looked
for specific parts like dremel blades.
Straus said that one of his favor-ite
aspects of running a business in
Queens is the variety of languages he
hears customers speaking. An Italian
woman who asked to have her keys
copied reminisced about how long
she’s been a customer.
“Don’t ask me how long I’ve been
here,” Straus said jokingly.
Straus is the only member of his
family who still lives in Queens and
said he has not “given much thought”
to what his plans are for the future
of the store.
“I hope to have the basement
cleaned up, I’m shooting for the end of
this year,” he said. “We have dust down
there from the Truman administration.”
He does acknowledge that he’ll be
the last Straus working at Straus Paint
& Hardware Co.
“I think once we’re gone, nobody’s
opening new hardware stores,” he said.
“That’s true for many businesses.”
“Plumbing, electrical, clean-ing,
general hardware, sun-dries,
paint, anything that
goes on in an apartment we
try to cover.”
CLIFF STRAUS
Owner
