Trousdale's Grand Re-Opening

Jeff Green | Oct 18, 2012

Photo: Willie and John Trousdale

In a very real sense, the Trousdale's complex, which includes a Foodland, and now a full-fledged Home Hardware Home Building Centre, is the very same business that the Trousdale family has been in for over 100 years.

Trousdale's General Store, which still operates as a heritage and gift store to this day, at one time sold hardware, clothing, food and farm supplies - everything an agricultural community needed.

“The writing really was on the wall in the late '60s that changes were coming, as farming was slowing down and Sydenham started to become a bedroom community,” said John Trousdale from his small desk in a cubby hole in the appliance showroom at the front of Trousdale’s Hardware.

Until then, customers would make their way to the general store from the surrounding region, but once the bulk of the community was commuting to Kingston for work every day, competition from Kingston retailers became a real concern.

“People can shop in Kingston before coming to Sydenham at the end of the day, or they can come home and then go shopping in Sydenham, which is the choice we want them to make,” said John Trousdale.

Trousdale’s Home Hardware and Trousdale’s Foodland share ample parking on George Street, at the corner of Bedford, just over the bridge from the centre of Sydenham. The hardware store has been affiliated with Home Hardware for the last 21 years, and it has been a good fit, according to John Trousdale.

“We have a stake in the company. It isn’t a franchise situation, and ever since we have been with Home Hardware we have had a secure supply of products. All of the distributors that used to supply independent hardware stores are gone, but with Home Hardware we have thrived,” he said.

John Trousdale runs the store, along with some long-serving, loyal staff members. His son Willie is also working in the store, learning the ins and outs of the business, just as generations of family members have done in the past.

While Home Hardware provides a product line, the key to the sustained success of the business is service and familiarity with customers, something that was in evidence during last week’s interview, as John and Willie were constantly dealing with phone calls and customers approaching them with questions.

In one exchange, a customer poked his head in and said, “John, I need a filter for my fridge.”

“What do you have, a Frigidaire?” John asked.

“I don’t know.”

“I think it is. Is it one with two prongs?”

“Maybe.”

“Ya, it’s a Frigidaire you have; there’s the filter over there.”

Later, John Trousdale said the man had bought his fridge five years ago.

“We need to provide that kind of service. There are 70,000 and 100,000 square foot stores lined up all along Gardiners Road that we have to compete with. But people tell me that they get tired of having to go through those stores, and if they can come here and we have the product or can get it in quickly, and we know them and can help them out, we will get our share of the business,” he said.

This weekend Trousdale’s Hardware will celebrate its grand opening as a Home Hardware Building Centre, which gives customers the opportunity to access all the products available through Home Hardware.

“One of the things about being a Home Hardware Building Centre is the products and service we can offer for the Do-It-Yourself projects, and it means that we now have access to all of the products in the Home Hardware flyers that we send out each week. It doesn’t change what we do, or the way the store is laid out, but it adds to it.”

It’s another step forward, and another way of keeping the original idea of Trousdale’s General store relevant for another generation.

The Grand Re-Opening of Trousdale’s Home Hardware Building Centre takes place on October 18, 19 and 20.