Shoppers in California, Oregon and Florida now have about five months to stock up on lumber, potting soil, measuring tapes, geranium seeds, nails, screws and as many hardware-store memories as they can stuff into their trunk.
San Jose-based OSH is turning off the lights.
Lowe’s announcement this morning that it will close all Orchard Supply Hardware stores in three states by Feb. 1 came crashing down like a load of 2-by-4s, rippling across the country with a sorrowful wail. The neighborhood hardware store is practically woven into a Californian’s DNA. Places like OSH are not just places to pick up new hammers and paint thinner. They are our communal confessional (“I somehow screwed up this pipe under the toilet and can’t figure out how to stop the leak.”). And, with some luck, they are the place we find forgiveness, salvation and, most importantly, a second chance.
So it is no wonder that social media this morning has become a sounding board for a suddenly OSH-less people, a people that will soon be left wandering in a desert filled only with sand and an occasional Home Depot.
God help us all.
Sad to learn Orchard Supply Hardware is closing all stores. I love my Pleasant Hill store and really appreciate the people who work there. They have helped me through many home projects.
— Lisa Tucker (@tuckerpolitics) August 22, 2018
https://twitter.com/kfury/status/1032070280376537091
https://twitter.com/davismnetto/status/1032168230272421889
https://twitter.com/greenrabbit_j3/status/1032266013776068609
This makes me very sad. The Orchard Supply store in my neighborhood was one of my favorite places for me—and our dog—to go shopping. (In an unrelated note, OSH was also a big Sharks sponsor.) Yet all Orchard Supply Hardware stores will close by year’s end. https://t.co/Lk6sDQCXsr
— Mark Purdy (@MercPurdy) August 22, 2018
https://twitter.com/MudMudJubJub/status/1032169121289461761
https://twitter.com/ernie334/status/1032159562357518336
https://twitter.com/jw94517/status/1032140817903702016
https://twitter.com/RickHelley/status/1032118678844661762
https://twitter.com/KoHoSo/status/1032281293965258752
I’m devastated to learn Orchard Supply Hardware is shutting their doors after 87 years. I was privileged to work for them before Lowes acquisition in 2013. The store redesign we worked on in 2011-2012 remains one of my favorite retail formats.
— Eddie Marcel (@EdwardMMarcel) August 22, 2018
