Page 5 - BusinessWest January 20, 2025

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Bart Raser and his father, Marshall, have grown Carr Hardware to a six-location chain (and counting) over the past 30 years.
more recently, a leaf blower.
An institution that has not only been part of the fabric of the com-
munity — in Pittsfield and now several other cities and towns where it has locations — but a force in those communities, with Raser and many of his employees getting involved on many different levels.
“It’s a big part of our culture — we’re a community business,” he said. “If it wasn’t for our community, we wouldn’t be here, so we sup- port a ton of organizations, we encourage our people to get involved, and we supply our people with the time, and the money if it’s need- ed, to get involved.”
As for the business itself, it has evolved and expanded its reach — moving into equipment rentals and a strong online component, and adding stores across Berkshire County and then beyond, with a location in Avon, Conn.
And there are certainly opportunities for more of this expansion, said Raser, especially as Baby Boomers move into retirement and look to sell some of the remaining small, indepen- dent stores still to be found in the region.
“The challenge in our industry is there’s a lot of folks who own hardware stores who are late in their careers, and their kids have no interest in working the kind of hours that are required in retail today,” he explained. “And the business is not easy — it’s capital-intensive, the margins are tight, the competition is tough ... you have to work hard.
“So there are plenty of opportunities today, and there are probably more coming,” he went on, adding that plenty of people are looking for such opportunities. “There are a lot of folks who want to buy these stores.”
“The challenge
in our industry is there’s a lot of folks who own hardware stores who are late in their careers, and their kids have no interest in working the kind of hours that are required in retail today.”
With that, Raser — who now has his own children working sum- mers and vacations doing everything from making deliveries to assembling grills — effectively summed up the state of this industry as well as the challenges and opportunities facing this nearly centu- ry-old business. For this issue, BusinessWest talked at length with him about all that and much more.
A Lightbulb Went Off
As he walked through the Pittsfield store with BusinessWest, Raser passed a row of snow throwers, an item that was in short supply and very hard to get at the height of the pandemic, but not so much the past few years.
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