[Update: The day after this story posted, we received this information from Mike Mikkelsen, General Manager of Tweedy & Popp Hardware:
The story posted today about Tweedy & Popp Wallingford should be withdrawn as it is inaccurate and no longer current. One of the partners in the store wanted to sell his share and created the listing. His share is being purchased back by existing partners and is not for sale to the public. The listing under MLS is supposed to have been removed but the link still goes to the out-of-date status. Thank you.
I’m told in a separate email from Helix Real Estate that the agents there are working to take the listing down.
So …. If you were hoping to buy a hardware store, you will have to look elsewhere.]
Thinking of buying a hardware store and have an extra $399,000 hanging around? Well, today could be your lucky day. Tweedy and Popp at Wallingford Center is for sale. You can check out the listing here or here (if that first link won’t work).
I spoke to Paul Kim, the listing agent at Helix Real Estate, who confirmed the basic facts and provided a few details. The current owner of Tweedy’s wants to retire but wishes to see the Tweedy and Popp name live on. For your $399,000, you get the name and the hardware inventory as well as the right to continue the existing lease arrangement with Wallingford Center.
I asked Mr. Kim to put me in touch with the owner so that I could ask him or her some additional questions about the sale, but he declined. The business is licensed to Tweedy S Popp L Corporation, and as most readers will know, there are a number of Tweedy and Popp hardware stores in the Puget Sound area, for example in Lake City and Shoreline. A Google search for Tweedy and Popp turns up a LinkedIn profile for a Mike Mikkelsen who gives his job title as Partner/General Manager for the Tweedy and Popp Hardware Group. Some of these Tweedy and Popp stores seem to be affiliated with Ace Hardware while others are affiliated with True Value—franchising arrangements, I assume. Our Tweedy and Popp appears to be affiliated with True Value at the moment, but older mentions on the internet refer to it as an Ace Hardware store. So perhaps their affiliation has changed over the years. What’s odd is that a search on truevalue.com for stores in this area fails to turn up our Tweedy and Popp. A glitch, perhaps. Still, it’s all pretty mysterious for a simple hardware store.
What’s certain is that Tweedy and Popp is not just Wallingford’s oldest hardware store, it is the city’s oldest hardware store, opened way back in 1920 by P.W. Tweedy and Lou Popp according to City Data. An interesting photo of the store circa 1923 appears here in the UW Digital Collection. At the time this photo was taken, the store stood at 2108 N 45th St. – about where the CVS is now. Many will remember the relatively recent move of Tweedy and Popp from 1916 N 45th where the rug store is now, to their present location, a move assisted by many neighborhood residents, according to this article in the Seattle PI and this early article in wallyhood.
Those of you clicking through to the NWMLS listing will notice the words, “Do not talk to Tenants.” I asked Mr. Kim what this meant. Apparently, it’s an attempt to keep the employees in the dark about any impending change of ownership. So, if you’re headed in to Tweedy’s, remember, mum’s the word.
Damn. Another one bites the dust. The employees should know what’s going on, if they don’t already, but, hopefully, someone will buy this and keep it going, intact, including the existing employees. I guess the closest hardware store will now be that one on the Ave since Hardwick’s is kaput, as well. Sigh….
Stone Way Hardware is on, well, Stone Way.
Change of ownership in no way means biting the dust. It means the owner is retiring, and at 400K sale value he clearly thinks the business is doing well.
I’ve always assumed the “don’t talk to tenants” thing was to keep the employees from being bombarded with questions they don’t know the answer to….this sounds more…nefarious
There is no reason for the business to end. They are offering the business for $399k. That means it is already very profitable and that anyone would be inclined to change nothing. The owner would change and that is all. This is in contrast to the popular mediterranean open sandwich shop down the street who are offering for sale the lease and equipment, but not allowing the name of the business to transfer.
I hate to see it sold. I hope this is not true.
The move to True Value was recent, maybe a couple years ago. Next time you need some nails, get them there so you can weigh them on their big old balance scale.
This story is erroneous. One of the store partners was putting his share of the store up for sale but no longer is. The principal partner in all of our stores has just told me that the sale listed was withdrawn as the selling partner is being bought out. Tweedy & Popp is remaining in Wallingford and will be celebrating the 100 year anniversary in 2020!
I hope nobody accidently leaked the wrong story to the staff.
Which one is staying, Tweedy or Popp?
Mike, I’d like to correct my story if needed. Could you contact me at [email protected]?
Thank you for the correct information.
It is unfortunate that after being called out on sloppy journalism the author added a silly little sentence at the beginning but Wallyhood kept the story on the site in tact. I guess fake news is real.
I don’t know, he was reporting fact: the place was listed with a real estate agent who was able to enlarge on the seller’s motivations etc. I’ve seen some things I would call “sloppy journalism” here, but not so much recently and this sure doesn’t seem like it. The store is getting free advertising while the article stays up. If you need to be sore at someone, I’d suggest the agent.
Reporting some facts and some supposition is not “reporting the facts” – more akin to a half truth than the full story. Sloppy journalism and “fake news” has become the bane of this era.
Someone listed the business for sale. Wallyblog reported this with a number of good sources to add details. For some reason you want people not to know these details.
Calling this sloppy journalism and labeling them “fake news” because you want to discredit the story is straight from the Trump administration media text book. It’s despicable and you should take it back.
Work with Wallyblog to get your version of the story out.
Mike and I have been communicating by email, and a couple of days ago, I invited him to do exactly what you’re suggesting. It looks as if he’s chosen to respond via the comments here.