Duane Hicks
At a time when it’s tough for many businesses to keep going, one local downtown mainstay, Howarth’s Home Centre, is celebrating its 60th year this week.
While the location, size, and merchandise has changed over the past six decades, owner Mark Howarth said the business has stayed the same throughout the years with customer service always having been the top priority.
“It hasn’t changed. It’s still a family business and run like a family business,” he noted during an interview Friday.
“Even though we’re bigger physically, we’re still personable.
“The service is the biggest thing,” Howarth stressed. “Always being there to help. You can come in here and get answers.
“A lot of places, you can’t,” he added. “Especially with all the electronic stuff these days, everybody needs the answers for all that stuff.
Keeping people happy is the main thing.
“Our main goal around here is when the customer leaves, they’re happy. We try and do everything to make that happen,” Howarth said, noting his business likes to provide follow-up service—and even tries to send out thank-you cards.
Technology has changed considerably over the years, and so has the products Howarth’s sells.
Howarth recalled back in 1977, when one of the first home computers, the Tandy TRS-80 Model 1, came out. At that time, the family business was Howarth’s Radio Shack.
“I remember we went to Sudbury to get trained on it, with the old cassette tape drives,” he said.
The TRS-80 Model 1 originally had 4 KB of RAM—a far cry from the computers of today. Even a simple four GB MP3 player these days has more than four million times the memory of one of the early computers.
Howarth also remembered how popular CB radios were back in the ’70s.
“We used to sell tons and tons of those. Everybody in town had them,” he noted. “That went on for quite a while.
“Once truckers got into two-way radios, they kind of died off.”
Howarth said even appliances are much more advanced than they used to be, and that staff have to keep up on things in order to be able to best help customers.
“There’s always something new,” he remarked. “Every day, we get something that’s new around here.”
The family business, currently located at 288 Scott St., first started back in 1950 when Murray Howarth and Don Sutton opened The New Home Appliances Ltd., which was an 800 sq. ft. store located on the 300 block of Scott Street.
Murray Howarth took over ownership in 1957, and in 1960 opened Howarth’s Home Furnishings at 515 Portage Ave. With more room at the new location, Howarth’s sold furniture in addition to appliances.
At that time, Howarth’s wife, Maxine, gave up being a teacher to work at the store. And as their sons, Mark and Monty, grew older, they also worked there after school and on weekends.
The business became Howarth’s Radio Shack in 1975, when the family decided to take on the Radio Shack franchise. At that time, the business’ focus shifted away from furnishings and into the booming electronics market.
“When Radio Shack came in in 1975, it kind of pushed the furniture out. It wasn’t a real big store to start with,” recalled Mark Howarth.
“We were carting appliances downstairs by hand because there was no room upstairs for appliances.
“I still remember that first Radio Shack order,” he later added. “That was just like Christmas opening up all the stereos.
“It was fun back then.”
In 1979, Murray Howarth passed away and Maxine took over with the help of Mark, who then took the reins fully once his mother retired in 1991.
In 1994, Mark moved the business to 288 Scott St.—the former Stedman’s—which was a much bigger location with more than 26,000 sq. ft.
“It was big and bare. When we first started it, we kept half of it kind of empty for a while,” admitted Howarth, noting it was expensive to renovate such a large store.
“I think we had Pinewood Sports and some others put boats in here for a while.
“[But] once we got organized, we got into furniture and now we’re right full,” Howarth added.
The store was renovated and expanded to include the downstairs area in 1998.
Today, Howarth’s Home Centre sells everything from furniture and appliances to computers, cellphones, and other electronics. It is affiliated with The Source, Panasonic, Whirlpool, Kitchen-Aid, and TBayTel, and employs 12 staff.
The store is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a customer appreciation day tomorrow (March 25), complete with coffee, cake, barbecued burgers, and pop.
As well, promotional sales will be held tomorrow through Saturday.
