building materials cooperative, gave
Christopher’s its Best in State Hardware
All Stars award. In 2017, the comptroller
of Maryland presented Christopher’s
with a certificate of recognition for
“your long-standing, active community
involvement, outstanding one-on-one
customer service and your helpful,
friendly staff.”
project, Tom Christopher can guide you
through it.

“My independence gives me the
freedom to buy from whoever I want to
have the best stocked store possible,”
Christopher says.

His diligence at maintaining inventory
and customer service haven’t gone
unnoticed. Stihl, the manufacturer of
chainsaws and other power equipment,
named Christopher’s the best hardware
store in Maryland in 2018. Also that
year, Do It Best Corp., a hardware and
“These accolades come when you get
up and do the best you can every day,”
says Christopher, whose passion for the
hardware business has obviously not
faded. “It’s a relationship thing. You
have to give the customer what they
want.” A lot has changed since Christopher
opened his first hardware store in
Gaithersburg in 1980. The fasteners,
garden tools and plumbing supplies
haven’t changed much, but the
competition, the marketing, the Internet,
the digital way of doing business have
Christopher and every independent
retailer looking at uncertain futures.

“I think there’s a future for the
independent hardware store,”
Christopher says. “The question is what
is the model for it.”
When Christopher opened the
Gaithersburg store 40 years ago, Home
Depot was a fledgling start-up with two
stores in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.

Lowe’s stores were still local “indoor
lumberyards” in smaller towns, and the
company was hesitant to move to the
big-box concept.

Eventually, both opened nearby and
the competition forced Christopher’s to
close their original Olde Towne
Gaithersburg store and one they had
opened in Muddy Branch. But the Glen
Echo store and the one in Sandy Spring,
which originally opened in 1995 as
Ashton Paint and Hardware, remain
strong in the face of the competition
from both the big-box stores and the
Internet. Christopher’s is focused on the
communities the stores serve, which are
communities not within easy reach of
the major home improvement centers.

“You can come in here and we’ll find
what you need and you’ll be out the door
in the time it would take you to drive to
the big-box store,” Christopher says.

Christopher and his wife, Glenna,
continue to run the business, but as their
son, Tom, takes on a larger role in the
family business, the Internet is becoming
the next wave to competition in the
hardware industry.

“Online retail is a growing threat,”
Christopher says. “Millennials are a
small portion of our business, but a
growing segment. Our older customers
are retiring and moving away and
Millennials are more accustomed to
shopping online, so online retail will
become a bigger issue for us.”
What that may mean is emphasizing
products like paint that aren’t easy to
buy online, and continuing to offer the
personalized service customers can’t get
at the huge home improvement centers.

And for Christopher, being involved in
the community is important.

“In order to give your business some
relevance, you have to get out in the
community and help out,” he says. MM
Montgomery Magazine // February/March 2020
35