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'2M21SHALLIT.JPG']"=20 = src=3D"http://media.sacbee.com/smedia/2008/10/20/19/189-2M21SHALLIT.embed= ded.prod_affiliate.4.JPG"=20 width=3D315>

Special to the Bee

Broadway Hardware owners Dave Haskin, top photo at rear, and wife = Gisela,=20 right, plan to retire after 18 years. Above, Dave Haskin gets a hug = from=20 longtime customer Veroniz Franco. ROBERT DURELL
'2M21GISELA.JPG']"=20 = src=3D"http://media.sacbee.com/smedia/2008/10/20/21/420-2M21GISELA.embedd= ed.prod_affiliate.4.JPG"=20 width=3D315>

Special to the Bee

Gisela Haskin helps a customer at Broadway Hardware on Monday. She = and her=20 husband, Dave, forged a personal connection with customers. She would = greet=20 people walking in the door and offer Tootsie Rolls to the = kids.
'2M21HARDWARE.JPG']"=20 = src=3D"http://media.sacbee.com/smedia/2008/10/20/21/451-2M21HARDWARE.embe= dded.prod_affiliate.4.JPG"=20 width=3D315>

Special to the Bee

A customer walks by Broadway Hardware at 1708 Broadway. After 70 = years in=20 the same location, Broadway Hardware will close its doors in late = November=20 following a liquidation sale. Owners Dave and Gisela Haskin plan to = retire=20 after 18 years running a business founded in = 1938.

Business - Bob Shallit

Comments (0)=20 |

Bob Shallit: No replacing this fixture - = Broadway Hardware=20 to close

By Bob Shallit
bshallit@sacbee.com

Published: Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2008 | Page 1B =

It's fair to say that Broadway Hardware got hammered by the = economy.

But that's not the main reason why owners of the 70-year-old = Sacramento=20 retail institution are calling it quits.

After "working 88 hours a week for 18 years," Dave Haskin, who runs = the place=20 with his wife, Gisela, says the couple are ready to take it easy.

A liquidation sale starts this week. The business will shut down late = next=20 month, leaving Capitol Ace at 18th and I streets as the only remaining = hardware=20 store in the central city area.

Like other family-run hardware operations, Broadway saw competition = from=20 big-box discounters like Home Depot. The economic slowdown made things = worse,=20 cutting sales by 25 percent over the past year, Haskin says.

Still, the business remained profitable, the 65-year-old owner says. = One=20 reason was the couple's connection with customers. Gisela greeted people = walking=20 in the door and offered Tootsie Rolls to kids. Dave was always available = to help=20 folks find the right sprinkler head or screen replacement.

They offered a personal touch that, Haskin says, occurs only when = owners run=20 the show themselves, without hired help.

"If you have employees," he says, "they don't spoil the customers = like we=20 did."

Gimme shelter

Speaking of Broadway Hardware, the 1930s-era building holds a = subterranean=20 surprise: a massive, basement bomb shelter built at the start of World = War=20 II.

Taking up half of the store's footprint, it boasts a 4-foot-thick = ceiling=20 made from reinforced concrete.

The Haskins used it for storage. Dave thinks a new building tenant = could put=20 it to better use: "It would make a perfect wine cellar."

Playing chicken

Developer Paul Petrovich isn't crowing about finally opening his Fair = Oaks=20 Promenade shopping center.

He's got a 16-foot-tall stand-in to do that for him. Figuratively at=20 least.

The long-delayed, Safe-way-anchored center, which opened Friday at = Hazel and=20 Madison avenues, is guarded by a giant chrome rooster =E2=80=93 a = symbol, Petrovich=20 says, of the poultry-populated Fair Oaks area.

"Everybody's gushing about it," he says of the statue, made of shiny = recycled=20 auto bumpers. It's the third by Colorado artist Sean Guerrero that = Petrovich has=20 installed at his Sacramento-area retail centers.

The developer's chroming of Sacramento isn't finished. Petrovich has=20 commissioned three more Guerrero works, including a horse for a planned = Fresh=20 & Easy grocery site in North Sacramento.

Helping hand

A Sacramento exec has come up with a cool way to help the Sacramento = Theatre=20 Co. =E2=80=93 and simultaneously aid a victim of the housing = meltdown.

Chuck Benson, a partner with the Elliott Benson market research firm, = recently bought a $100 ticket from STC, giving him a shot at winning a=20 riverfront condo offered up in the drawing by JTS Communities.

If he wins, Benson has pledged to turn over the condo, rent free, to = a family=20 that lost its home to foreclosure.

For six months, maybe longer.

"If I can make an impact on just one family in these tough times, = that would=20 be my goal," he says. Benson hopes others will follow his lead by buying = tickets=20 and offering similar "pay-it-forward" gestures.

But here's the thing: If fewer than 4,000 tickets are sold by the = Nov. 1=20 deadline, the condo goes back to JTS. In that scenario, the drawing = winner gets=20 10 percent of ticket proceeds, with the remainder going to STC for its = school=20 arts programs.

So far, fewer than than 1,000 tickets have been sold, says STC = development=20 director Karen Leslie.

She's hoping for a last-minute surge of ticket sales but recognizes = that=20 economic uncertainties have tightened wallets.

"A year ago, I think we would have sold out the first day," she says. = "Now=20 there's a lot more caution."

Reach Bob Shallit at (916) 321-1049. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/shallit. =

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