In 1959, the original Cole Hardware© was purchased by Dave Karp when he bought the hardware store (now our Cole Street warehouse space) that had been located in Cole Valley since the 1920s. Dave was a one man band: Every morning before work he would pick up merchandise at the supply houses and in the evenings, he would do all of his paper work. Dave ordered the merchandise, marked the merchandise, stocked the merchandise, helped the customer, rang up the sale, paid the bills, went to the bank, cleaned the bathroom… he did everything by himself. Soon, his business began to grow. His wife, Margie, started coming down to help out. She would cashier, make keys and point out merchandise to customers while they waited for Dave. In order to earn extra dollars Marge (my mother) would watch the store while my father expanded into “outside work”. During quiet periods and in the evenings, Dave would fix broken windows, repair toilets and faucets, install water heaters, fix doorbells and switches… he would do anything that was relatively quick, profitable, and that would help him sell some of his merchandise. Happily, Dave could no longer keep up with the outside work. Business, both inside and outside of the store, had grown large enough to where he simply couldn’t handle it by himself. He had to hire someone to help him in the store, and he began contracting handymen for the outside work. Business was growing stronger and stronger because Dave offered friendly and knowledgeable service, a complete inventory (he tried to have “one of everything made”), and he had a strong desire to succeed. He would do anything that he could to help a customer. One year prior to the opening of the new location, I convinced my father that we should become an Ace Hardware Store. Ace was reluctant to let us join, as we were so small. However, when they came out and watched my father sell, they signed us up immediately and we became the smallest Ace Hardware store in the nation! Ace has been one of the many keys to our success. Ace is a buying cooperative, so along with more than 5,000 other hardware stores nationwide, we purchase merchandise directly from manufacturers. This enables us to have competitive pricing and gives us access to almost anything manufactured. This new buying power, coupled with our larger location, had a very positive public impact. Today, Ace supplies us with over 75% of our total inventory.In order to provide our customers with the very best in home repair, maintenance and remodeling, we have formed alliances with local contractors and tradespeople. All jobs are referred to these independent business people but are continually monitored by our staff. Quite simply, if you are not happy, we want you to return the product to us. We will either refund your money or send you a new replacement at your option. (Any shipping and handling charges are non-refundable.) Simply email us at service@colehardware.com. Tell us what you ordered, when you ordered and what you would like to see happen. We will respond right away.

Cole Hardware and thank you for considering us for your employment. We’re happy you are applying to work with us and look forward to meeting you! Cole Hardware is a great place to work. But don’t take my word for it: ask our staff or, better yet, take a look at the results of our most recent annual Staff Satisfaction Survey. You’ll see that while we certainly aren’t perfect, our staff thinks highly of their careers at Cole Hardware and are appreciative of the benefits, both tangible and intangible, of working here. Cole Hardware Employee Survey 2015 Working at Cole Hardware immerses you in a unique family culture. Diversity, independence, and teamwork are important to us. Both your smarts and your smile are critical to your success in our community-oriented, employee-centric culture. At Cole Hardware, you are given the freedom to “own” your job, as you work hard to please our customers. In fact, our internal mission statement guides our every action: “Do whatever it takes to create positive dinnertime conversation.” And to our customers, we present our external mission statement: “Our commitment to you: Your satisfaction guaranteed. Period.” Combined, these make Cole Hardware a great place to both shop and work! And, of course, we fully realize we can only have happy customers if we have a happy staff. Enough about us. When you apply, be sure to tell us about yourself. Paint a picture of who you are. What experiences have you had that will benefit your career at Cole Hardware? Why are you applying with us? What have been your greatest success stories as well as those stories that were less than successful? What do you like to do outside of work? We’re looking for bright, enthusiastic, hardworking, independent folks to join our family of great people.