THREE GENERATIONS OF THE DAVIES FAMILY
HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE SUCCESS
AND LONGEVITY OF LITTLE HARDWARE
For six decades, a Davies has owned and operated Little Hardware.
Lewis L. Little may have founded the business in Ensley in the mid to late 1940s, then moved it to Mountain Brook in 1959, but the Davies family has been its guiding force since 1965.
Frank Wesley Davies Jr. bought the store from Mr. Little. Frank Wesley Davies lll joined the family business full time in 1982 and has been its owner since his father died in March of 2014.
“I was the caboose of three,” said Frank. “My two sisters (Babs and Beverly) were eight and 10 years older than me.” All three Davies offspring worked at the store growing up. Babs still does part time. “She checks in most of the merchandise plus helps order and with inventory,” said Frank.
Frank didn’t intend to make the store his life work. “Every now and then I would help with deliveries” as a youngster, said Frank. “I did my own thing, too. I worked at the Winn-Dixie in Crestline from the time I was 15, bagging groceries.”
After he graduated from Mountain Brook High School in 1979, “I studied landscape architecture at Auburn University, but I got overwhelmed,” he admitted.
When Frank left college, he went to work full time with his father “driving the delivery van and installing mailbox posts.”
Now, his two grown sons – Wesley and Patrick – work alongside their Dad. Frank said, “I was kind of surprised,” that his sons followed him into the business.
Little Hardware has been a part of the Mountain Brook community since 1959. The Davies family has owned and operated the store for 60 years. “We try to have what people need, when they need it,” said current owner Frank Wesley Davies III.
‘Everybody does everything’
At Little Hardware, “everybody’s job is to meet the customer when they come in, help them find whatever it is they’re shopping for and ring them up in the end.”
The full staff, which fluctuates between 16 and 19 people, “participates in all duties – waiting on customers, stocking inventory, helping count product, straightening the shelves,” said Frank. “Instead of having specific tasks, everybody does everything.”
A cross-trained staff and personalized service keeps the customers coming back to the store that sells hardware, housewares, gifts, lawn and garden supplies, power equipment, Benjamin Moore paint, bird seed, pet food, cleaning supplies, small appliances and more.
What the customer wants
“We try to keep up with what our customers want,” said Frank. “I don’t consider us a cookie cutter store.
“We have a want book,” he added. “I don’t care if a customer comes in looking for a pink elephant with purple polka dots. I tell our staff, ‘You write it on the want book’, because if enough people ask for it, I’m going to find one and put it in stock.”
Delivery since inception
Little Hardware is also known for its free delivery service. “We’ve been delivering since inception,” said Frank.
Early on, “the ladies of the house would call and order cleaning supplies, whatever the housekeeper needed to clean house, or whatever the yard man needed to work in the yard,” said Frank.
Now, “it’s mostly pine straw, pine bark and soil,” said Frank. “We deliver a lot of lawn and garden supplies.”
“Most places charge a hefty fee for deliveries, which we never have and still don’t,” he said, adding the only time there is a charge is “when we send two people to deliver a grill or … bigger items that people don’t have a way to haul.”
Staying put
For 55 years, Little Hardware was at 2703 Culver Road in Mountain Brook before the property’s owner decided to redevelop.
When a nearby English Village property came open, the community hardware store moved to the corner of Cahaba Road and Park Lane.
The building at 2117 Cahaba Road, originally housed Park Lane Super Market. “When the grocery store closed, it was a gourmet restaurant, then an event venue,” said Frank. Since October of 2014, it has been home to Little Hardware. “Unfortunately,” Frank’s father, who died in March of that year, “never saw it.”
Although the move was smoother than Frank thought it would be. “I don’t want to ever move a hardware store again,” he said. “We are happy with what we’ve got here.”
MEMBER SINCE 1994
Little Hardware at 2117 Cahaba Road in Mountain Brook is open 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Visit online at little-hardware.com.
Story by Nancy King Dennis. Photos by Brandon Robbins.