Hite looks forward to retirement after long career in hardware store
Most people in Glencoe have probably walked into Hite Hardware on 11th Street in Glencoe, not knowing what they were looking for, but walking out with exactly what they needed.
Greg Hite, owner of Hite Hardware, retired in mid-November when he closed the doors to his store after 27 years in Glencoe and 46 years in the hardware business.
Hite announced the retirement sale in late September.
“I wanted to retire by 70,” he said, which is be coming up in August.
Hite purchased the store from Roland and Marlys Rehmann, the owners of Coast to Coast, on May 1, 1989, after spending 12 years as a district manager with the company. His district covered three states, the Glencoe store being in the northwest corner of his territory.
One of his duties as district manager was to sell and lease stores.
He had been thinking about buying his own store. He was looking for a store in a smaller community, near the Twin Cities, with a Catholic school.
Glencoe fit the bill.
When Coast to Coast was having financial struggles, he moved to Ace Hardware, later going with an independent supplier.
Hite says he will miss the people and relationships that have been developed over time. He said he saw people in good times and bad.
He recalled keeping the store open during a few of the flooding events that Glencoe has experienced. A customer from Plato came in the middle of the night for supplies. Hite asked what he was doing there in the middle of the night, to which the customer replied, “I knew you would be here.”
Read the full story in the Jan. 18 edition of The McLeod County Chronicle.
