A San Francisco institution is preparing to close its doors for good.
For nearly 90 years, Papenhausen Hardware has been a go-to spot for folks in San Francisco's West Portal neighborhood.
The store is set to close its doors very soon, long time customers said it was a special place to come and will be missed in the neighborhood.
Karl Aguilar, store manager and co owners of Papenhausen Hardware, explained - it was a very difficult decision to close the doors for good.
“Personally, it’s pretty heavy I’ve been here for 29 years business partner for 36 and i had originally intended to spend the rest of my days doing this job,” he said.
In recent years, the situation at the store slowly changed.
“For the past four years, we have had a 30% reduction in customer counts and that’s due to changes in lifestyle that happened as a result of the pandemic not, people not coming through to go downtown people getting more things delivered,” Aguilar said.
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And they still have to make rent. Locals said the store was more than just a place to get hardware. It was part of the neighborhood fabric, offering specialty items. But also experience and a community focus.
Steve Roditti said he’s been shopping here for years and he’s not the only one.
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“You want to order something they don’t have they will order it for you they will tell you how to do things which that is going to be missed,” he said. “We realize because we don’t have a parking lot we’re never going to be a destination, we’re always going to be a convenience store, given that we have always focused more on the general store concept harking almost back to the goldrush days.”
Now a final sale is underway as they count the days until their planned Dec. 31 closure.
“I don’t want them to go out of business we have probably been coming down here 40 years been a long time and they have just the little things that you need,” said San Francisco resident Betty McCunniff.
