Construction on the new Landrum Hardware store nearing completion

LANDRUM — The new Landrum Hardware store will have a flavor of the old building.

Do it Best Corp. Retail Performance Manager Alison Farrington said builders are putting hardwood in the new store’s entrance. 

“We wanted to keep that old wood floor feeling and sound,” she said.

As can be seen from the roadway, the new store building, located on Highway 14 between Campbell Street and the Landrum Bi-Lo, is nearing completion. The driveway is paved, and the staff is putting up shelves this week.

Roger Burgess, construction superintendent for Hoke Enterprises, said the business is hoping to have a soft opening by early fall, but nothing is definite.

“All the rain and mud set us back,” Burgess said. “It’s been an ordeal.”

Until crews got the stone down, it was nearly impossible to get the trucks in, he said. Once they could get vehicles in and out, the construction itself went very smoothly.

The new shelves are going in on top of a shiny polished concrete floor. While staff worked on shelving last week, construction crews were busy placing the facing on the front of the building.

Burgess said once the shelves are up, staff will have a lot of stocking to do.

“It will take a while to fill the shelves,” he said. “They will also have to get the final permits.”

Farrington has been working on the project with owner Shawn Evans for more than a year and a half.

“[Do it Best Corp. gets] involved from the planning phase to the grand opening,” she said.

In addition to stocking the shelves, Farrington said staff also must get the sales counters in and the computer systems up and running.

The store is 12,000 square feet, with an additional 3,000 square feet of covered outdoor space. In an interview last winter, Evans said the business was looking forward to moving into the larger space so they could serve customers better.

Though its current location, on Rutherford Street downtown, is great, Evans said the staff had stacked product up to the rafters, and the store was bursting at the seams.

According to Evans, there are a lot of products that people do not know the current store stocks because they cannot find the items.

“This will give us the space to offer a broader depth in what we do,” he said.