Brinkmann's hardware chain buys Trio Hardware in Plainview

Trio Hardware in Plainview has changed owners and will soon have a new name after more than 60 years in business.

Brinkmann’s Hardware purchased Trio in the fall from Todd Kirschner and his wife, Ritsa Kirschner, Todd Kirschner said Thursday.

"A rebranding will occur over the winter," said Kirschner, adding that he and his wife will stay involved in the store, which is located at 1655 Old Country Rd. in the Country Pointe Plainview retail and condo development.

Trio employs 12 people, all of whom will remain on staff, Kirschner said.

Brinkmann’s did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.

With the purchase of Trio, Sayville-headquartered Brinkmann’s Hardware Corp. now has seven stores on Long Island, including locations in Blue Point, Glen Cove and Holbrook.

Founded in 1976 by Tony and Pat Brinkmann, the chain is part of the True Value buying group.

The Brinkmanns' three children — Hank, Ben and Mary — now run the business.

'They came to us'

The Kirschners sold Trio because Brinkmann’s offer presented a good opportunity, said Todd Kirschner, 50.

“We weren’t looking to sell. They came to us. They’re trying to grow their business," said Kirschner, who declined to disclose how much Brinkmann’s paid for Trio.

 "They know that we run a very well-run hardware store here in Plainview," he added.

While some independently owned hardware stores are being challenged by competition from big-box and online retailers, Trio wasn’t struggling financially, said Kirschner, adding that the store’s annual sales were a little less than $3 million.

Making the decision to sell Trio was difficult, particularly since he and his wife began working for the store when they were teenagers, he said.

But running a single store, he added, can be challenging.

“A lot of expenses that we would [bear the brunt of] are harder when you’re a single store."

Trio's sale came as a surprise to some longtime customers.

Old Bethpage resident James Jansky Jr. has shopped at Trio since 1979, he said after buying a rechargeable battery in the store Thursday.

"It's just so convenient. They always have what you want.  If they don't have it, like they say, you don't need it," Jansky said.

But he's not bothered by the sale.

"As long as the managerial part of it remains the same, I have no problem with it.  And I'm sure it's good for Todd and his wife," he said.

Plainview resident Tony Venturina has been a Trio shopper for 30 years, he said Thursday.

"They have everything.  The people who work here are knowledgeable.  They're great," said Venturina, who said he's glad that the Kirschners will remain involved in the store.

'A good move'

Trio was owned by the Carlow family for decades before the Kirschners were at the helm.

Bernie Carlow bought Trio Hardware in 1963, when it was three years old and in a 1,400-square-foot location in Morton Village Plaza on Old Country Road in Plainview, his daughter-in-law Francesca Carlow, 71, said Thursday.

In 1973, one of his sons, Bruce, left his job as a high school teacher to begin helping his father to run the store.

Business at the store was booming when it relocated to a larger space, 3,500 square feet, in the same shopping center in 1986. At that point, Bruce and his wife, Francesca, were mostly running the store, she said.

A fire in December 1996 forced them to close and then rebuild the store in the shopping center in August 1997, she said.

In 2012, the Carlows created a buyout deal that gave the Kirschners 50% ownership in Trio, growing to 100% by 2017.

The Kirschners relocated Trio about a mile to a space nearly twice as big, going from a 3,500-square-foot space in Morton Village Plaza to its current 6,000-square-foot location in Country Pointe Plainview in 2018.

The Carlows support the Kirschners' decision to sell Trio, said Francesca Carlow, adding that they are “great merchandisers and salespeople.”

“They're very talented and helped us so much after we rebuilt after the fire,” she said.

Trio has always been a successful business, but running it is challenging in today’s retail environment, she said.

“Amazon is challenging and being a single store. Having the buying power of having several stores [with Brinkmann’s] was really a good move, the smartest move they could have made," she said.

Challenges spur consolidations

The majority of hardware stores' sales come from do-it-yourself customers, but a lot of that business is down, partly because it boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic that started in early 2020, when quarantined consumers were fixing up their homes, said Grant Farnsworth, president of The Farnsworth Group, an Indianapolis-based market research consulting firm for the home improvement industry.

Also, consumer confidence is down, he said.

"So knowing that we've exhausted some DIY activities over the last few years, knowing that the consumer is in a very uncertain, unsure place given the broader market conditions, there's just less spending going on in the DIY market, less foot traffic," he said.

Independent hardware retailers also are being challenged by increased competition from online retailers, and the financial investment that would be required to compete on a larger scale online, Farnsworth said.

Those issues are spurring more consolidations of hardware businesses to improve economies of scale, he said.

Newsday's Morgan Campbell contributed to this story.