Family business carries on, without the family
Two anecdotes about Jim Brilhart are so telling they define the Scottdale man. One he related as he leaned against a row of appliances; another was told by an employee who admires his business style.
Having worked at the family business, now Brilhart True Value Hardware, on school afternoons and weekends as a teen, Brilhart said he developed a sense of fairness about worker compensation.
"I remember one time I quit three times in one week," he said, laughing. "I wanted more money. And I got it. We had one fellow working downstairs getting $1.25 an hour, and I was getting 50 cents. I really couldn't see the difference. I was doing the same work."
He learned the value of customer service from his father, Aaron Brilhart, who never watched a clock and missed many a meal in order to make last-minute deliveries or repairs.
It's that reputation, one longtime employee said, that causes some customers to simply call the store and order a new washing machine or refrigerator, sight unseen.
"A lot of people don't even come in and look at the appliances," said Linda Beal, who has worked for Brilhart for 20 years. "They put their trust in Jim. Jim's from the old school, and we all try to have that attitude. If we didn't have customers, we wouldn't be working."
Brilhart, 66, will retire in April from the store he's worked in for more than 50 years. He's got his lifetime fishing license, and he hopes to spend more time on woodworking. He talks of camping and hunting again near a favorite spot, the Kinzu Dam, in Warren County. There will be more time to spend with wife Bonnie, daughters Pam and Becky and granddaughter Taylor.
But in the next breath he talked about the part-time job he'll assume, as a salesmen for Craig Appliance in Connellsville.
"I guess I'll be semi-retired," he said. "The fact is I kind of enjoy going out and meeting the public every day."
An uncle opened the hardware store, originally called C.A. Brilhart Sales and Service, in 1903, Brilhart said. His father, Aaron Brilhart, and he worked together at the store for many years. Brilhart took over the appliance department when his father retired. Brilhart Sales Inc. was created when Charles Shenk , his son, Jerry Shenk, and Brilhart purchased the business in 1982. He sold his stock back to the company several years ago. Charles Shenk retired, but Jerry and his wife, Audra, will continue to run the business.
The store's large appliance business will depart with Brilhart. Longtime repairman Vince Wolak will continue servicing major appliances, and the store will stock and install water heaters, pumps and small appliances.
Except for an Air Force stint from 1955 to 1957, Brilhart has made the family business his career. But it was while he was away from home that he learned, literally, how to stand on his own two feet. On a hot day in Twin Lakes, Ga., when he was 21, he dove into the water and broke his neck.
"I was laid up for seven months," he said. "It took a year before I could get my arm over my head. But it came out all right. I was never fazed. I never wondered why this happened to me. I never had a doubt (he would recover). In fact, one year later I went back to the same place and went swimming. And I dove in. I didn't want to live in fear every day for the rest of my life."
The graduate of the former Scottdale High School began working at the family store as a child.
"I was always down here with my dad," he recalled. "Back in the early 1940s, we would go into Pittsburgh and get supplies weekly. Now everything is delivered. We always used to stop at Isaly's in Oakland. We went all over Pittsburgh. It was nothing to make 15 to 16 stops."
At age 12, he started working part time, helping to dig footers to expand the narrow store and carrying shingles for roofing jobs. "I was a big boy," he said. "I would have trouble now carrying what I did then."
Brilhart never had a quitting time.
"In the old days, if somebody needed a water heater at 5 p.m., I went and installed it," he said. "People would call at midnight and we would deliver. That's what we are known for, the personal touch. I think a lot of people come in here because they can get advice. And I think they like that they can get what they want without going through long lines. We have many longtime, faithful customers. We have a lot of new ones, too."
Customer service, he believes, is a strong motivator for repeat business.
"I've always been glad that people could call me at any hour and I wouldn't hang up or get mad. If somebody came in and wanted something today they got it today, and sometimes I would almost beat them home."
Of the approximately 18 primarily full-time employees, Brilhart said, all but one or two have worked at the store for many years. Wolak started 25 years ago, as a high school student.
"They get all of their supplies (for crafts) in here and then they come and show us what they made," said Elvira Berresford, a clerk for 12 years.
"That's the fun of it," agreed Beal. "We have 99 1/2 percent good customers. I'd say probably 80 percent we call by their first names."
Brilhart said cold winters and hot summers can help drive a hardware business, as Mother Nature sends customers in search of shovels and snowblowers, or air conditioners and barbecue grills.
And the store's Christmas sales and displays are a big customer draw.
"I don't know where everybody comes from," Brilhart said, referring to holiday shoppers. "It's just consistent every year."
Many old-timers —and children —enjoy what shoppers might call the store's nostalgic touches. Alongside a nod to modern convenience —a cooler of sodas and bottled water —is a rack of what used to be called "penny candy." On a wall behind the standard packaged seeds, gardeners can select from bulk seed bins of sugar snap peas, peaches and cream corn and purple top white globe turnips.
Downstairs, customers find the "nuts and bolts" of a hardware store, from tools to housewares, from walls of paint to mailboxes.
Upstairs, Brilhart has begun the countdown in his domain of appliances. He's watched the progression from wringer washers to microwaves; he's ordered, sold, delivered and installed, earning company loyalty and making friends along the way.
After he leaves on April 30, the business will continue, by and large as it has for nearly a century; the name Brilhart will remain on the sign outside the store.
"That won't change, at least not in the near future," he said. "What will change is there won't be any Brilharts."
