OB Hardware to Close by February 2019

The OB Rag has confirmed the OB Hardware store on Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach will be closed by February 2019.

Carl Weidetz, the owner, saying he was very proud of “the beach people and our loyal customers”, told this reporter by phone that he is indeed shuttering the doors of his famed storefront. “Fifty years in the business,” he said, “is enough.” He started working in the store in 1969.

The store, formally known as Ocean Beach Paint and Hardware, is one of OBceans’ favorite local “mom-and-pop” businesses. It is often cited as the prime example of a locally-owned storefront, in contrast to corporate franchises that love the community.

Carl acknowledged the 100th centennial of the store – as it first opened in OB in 1919 – but he wasn’t certain what kind of celebration they’d have.

He bought the business in 1981-82 from Harold Sulek. It was Sulek’s father who had opened the original OB Paint, Hardware and Feed store on Bacon Street nearly a century ago.

Carl’s father was also in the hardware business and he owned Schechler’s Hardware – where the Black is today. And back in the sixties, Carl worked for his dad.

Today, on the phone, Carl had nothing but praise for his loyal OB customers. “I’m very happy,” he said, “with beach people and our customers. I’m very proud of OBceans.”

Weidetz did acknowledge that rents at the beach are tough. His rent has gone up about 4% each year for the last decade. But he assured me that Eli Ben-Moshe, his landlord, has not pressured him to move out. In fact, Carl said, if it hadn’t been for Eli, he would have had to close the hardware store five years ago.

Is he open to sell the business? I asked him. Carl said he has spoken to a few potential buyers, but once they realize how stiff beach rents are, they don’t call him back. Is he still open to selling? Sure, he said, but the window to sell is very short. He plans to be completely out by February.

Carl will have a couple of sales, he said, before he closes up shop. And whatever he doesn’t sell, he’ll donate to groups, such as Habitat for Humanity.

I told him that many people in OB will be very sad. And again he lavished praise on his loyal customers, saying he has kept the store open these last few years just for them. But after half a century, it’s time for him to call it quits.