Time to Bolt

THOUSAND OAKS — Robb’s Plumbing & Hardware is a place where you can still find dusty rows of cardboard boxes containing 1/8-inch thingamajigs and beveled whatchamacallits.

Strains of Mozart and Beethoven fill the air as shoppers peruse toilet bowls and tape measures. And the seven employees--including four World War II veterans and an aspiring actor--take as much time to sell a two-bit bolt as a complete set of bathroom fixtures.

That’s the way it has been for many of the 51 years that the Robb family has owned the little red-roofed store at the corner of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Fairview Road.

But by Fourth of July, co-owner Wayne Robb ruefully observes, Robb’s Hardware will have sold its last screw.

After watching many of its mom-and-pop competitors fold over the last few years as warehouse discount stores moved in, Robb’s hardware will become part of Thousand Oaks’ short history.

“They opened up and the recession hit at the same time, so it was a double whammy,” said Robb, 48, who was conceived in the home his 83-year-old mother still lives in behind the store, and has never held another job. “We thought we could stay open and get over the hump, but there never was another side of the hill.”

Sales are down 40% from a decade ago. Aside from a surge in business after the Northridge earthquake in 1994, Robb’s business has been marginal for years. Despite focusing on personalized service and hard-to-find items not stocked elsewhere, there just wasn’t enough cash generated by what Robb and his brother, Denny, boast is the best selection of nuts and bolts in the Conejo Valley.

“Even when we weren’t making money, we were always busy,” Wayne said. “We spent time serving the little guy.”

Added Denny: “Trying to be of service to the community, we really shot ourselves in the foot.”

Longtime customers have trudged in to pay their last respects since the gaudy green and red signs went up on the store’s front windows Thursday announcing the quitting-business sale.

One man drove 130 miles from his San Luis Obispo County home after he heard the store was closing, Wayne said. But several of those people bemoaning the store’s closure also concede their shopping habits are to blame for Robb’s demise.

“I’m sorry to see him go,” said retiree Chuck Archer, a customer since he moved to Thousand Oaks in 1964. “I didn’t come here and purchase stuff as often as I should.”

Similar stories have been played out in Thousand Oaks in recent years. Erika’s Bake Shop in Westlake lost its lease at Westlake Plaza shopping center in 1995 despite a last-gasp effort by 2,000 customers who signed petitions to keep the bakery open.

Sweeney’s, a restaurant at The Oaks mall, has been booted by management who said the eatery’s wooden benches and Reader’s Digest compilations on diners’ tables no longer fit its upscale demographics.

The independent two-screen Melody Theater on Moorpark Road succumbed to multiplexes and digital stereo sound in 1996 after 31 years.

The passage of Robb’s is simply a sign of the times, said Councilman Andy Fox, a 15-year customer of the hardware store. Fox said he makes a conscious effort to patronize small businesses even while holding his monthly meetings with constituents outside Home Depot because of the volume of traffic.

“First there’s Sweeney’s, now we have Robb’s,” he said. “I’m disturbed by the loss of these businesses and maybe frustrated that I don’t have an answer about what to do about it.”

The mainly mom-and-pop businesses along Thousand Oaks Boulevard generate more sales tax revenue combined than any single big-box store in the city, Fox said.

The city released a report in February pushing possible solutions to the thoroughfare’s commercial decline. But officials are waiting for store owners to take the initiative, rather than unilaterally impose a revitalization plan.

“We’re trying to facilitate, not dictate,” Fox said. “We need to help them do what they think is good for them.”

But while merchants and city officials consider options, another small business has perished.

Wayne and Denny say they plan to lease the 3,000-square-foot storefront that was a bar and card room in the 1930s and an antique store when their father purchased it, with the condition that their mother continue to reside in her home of 47 years.

Denny, a silent partner in the business for the last decade or so, will continue to look after the handful of residential properties his late father built.

Wayne intends to look for a job. Will he apply to work at Home Depot?

“Never,” he said.

And customers such as retired aerospace engineer Jim Saffell will wonder where they will go the next time they need a thingamajig--and advice on what to do with it.

“I’ll have to go someplace else--I don’t know where,” he said. “A friendly neighborhood hardware store is a real asset to the community and I’m damn sorry we won’t have one anymore.”