Brian’s first business venture in Karuah was not the hardware but the Caltex service station next door that he bought in December 1969.

For the next 19 years he ran the station, expanding it to a workshop and bringing an NRMA service to town.

It wasn’t until 1980 that he built the hardware and for the next eight years, ran both businesses.

Selling the service station in 1988, Brian concentrated on running the Karuah Hardware.

“We have a lot of good customers; some people have had accounts with us for 37 years,” Brian said.

“The customers become your friends, you are never so busy you can’t have a chat,” Rose said.

Brian and Rose have been trying to sell the shop, however someone with the right circumstances hasn’t turned up yet.

“We don’t want the town to be without a hardware shop; we keep hoping that we will be able to lease or sell the shop to someone,” Rose said.

“It’s still such a good business but we need to retire and we can’t keep on waiting for it to sell.”

“There is a lot of history finishing up,” Rose said.

The shop will close on November 2, but at present there are plans to re-open the shop in the two weeks leading up to Christmas with a massive closing down sale.