HARDWARE STORE MOVES LOCATION TO INCREASE SPACE, TRAFFIC

JACKSON -- The Sander family has been selling hardware on the city square since 1936, the year "Gone with the Wind" was published.

They intend to stay in the business Albert Sander started. His grandson, Jim Sander, along with wife, Judy, and son, Randy, now run the store. Randy's son, Stetson, 5, and daughter, Kelsey, 6, are considered "the next generation."

But times change and so does business. Two weeks ago, Sander True Value Hardware relocated to a new building at 2310 E. Jackson Blvd., an address that doubles its floor space and provides a quantum increase in traffic outside the door.

That traffic boost -- from 1,000 cars per day to 17,500 -- is a big reason for the move, Randy Sander said.

A large increase in customers is already apparent, they say, even though the weather hasn't allowed the parking lot to be paved yet.

Moving off the square, where businesses close at 5 p.m., also puts the store among other businesses that are keeping extended hours. "It makes it more convenient for somebody to stop," Randy Sander said.

The store is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Time is more of an issue for customers than it was as recently as 15 years ago, he said. "The more convenient we make ourselves to the consumer, the more we're going to grow."

Rozier's Cash Store, then uptown's oldest business, closed its doors last year. But Steve Wilson, Jackson city administrator, isn't worried about an exodus of uptown merchants.

"I don't see that happening," he said. "... I think we have a loyal group of people who shop there."

But he expects to see significant growth down Jackson Boulevard, and more growth in the future on East Main Street if the Missouri Department of Transportation approves the city's request for an I-55 interchange.

Albert Sander's sons Bill and Fred once ran the business, and Jim became the manager when he came out of the service in 1963. Judy quit teaching, opened a dress shop uptown and started doing the books for the store.

The Sander True Value Hardware in Cape Girardeau at one time was associated with the family but the corporation split in 1994.

Jim Sander said deciding to move was difficult for him. "It hurt to leave, but you know for the next generation you've got to forget about the past and look to the future.

"The future is out here."

True Value Hardware helped the family research the move and helped set up the store, said Judy Sander, whose primary responsibility is for the company's paperwork.

Randy Sander said the old three-story building was small and outdated. The top floor was used for storage while the sales staff had to be divided between the basement and first floor.

Uptown, only one of each model of lawn tractors could be displayed, with the rest kept in storage. At the new location, all the tractors are arrayed in the middle of the store.

It's a sales technique that Wal-Mart and K-Mart use successfully. "It says, These people sell a lot of tractors," Randy Sanders says. "Not that we bought any more.

The store was operating on a slimmer and slimmer margin uptown, he said. "You have to have 8-10 percent growth a year if you're going to be aggressive."

The company has two more acres of land that can be developed at the location.

The building Sander Hardware previously occupied has been sold and may become an antique mall.