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Paul's Do-It in Garrettsville selling off items

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By Diane Smith

Record-Courier staff writer

GARRETTSVILLE — The pickings were slim as the last of the inventory at Paul’s Do-It center was being sold.

The French Street landmark business was selling what remained of its nuts, bolts, furnace filters and lumber — all at 70 percent off the prices marked.

The rest of the contents — locks, blocks and, yes, barrels — are to be sold at an “absolute auction” at 10 a.m. June 19.

  The following Monday, the remaining contents go on the block at Paul’s store in Middlefield.

The mostly bare shelves were lined with remaining hardware as well as office equipment, such as adding machines, desks and maps — the kind you hang on a wall. An electronic gadget that included everything from a food processor to a coffee grinder was placed at the front of the store. Any remaining cabinetry was placed on the porch.

Assorted pipes, florescent lightbulbs and various furnace filters of odd sizes and assorted plumbing and electrical components were there, awaiting a savy buyer.

A customer who walked into the store said he did not even know the store would be closing. The Garrettsville resident, who did not give his name, lamented that he would now have to drive to Niles to get his lumber, and the gas from the drive would negate any savings those stores might offer.

“The time and money I’d spend going to Niles, I could spend right here in town,” the man said.

Items promised in the Kiko auction include trucks, kitchen displays, plumbing, electrical, tools and buildings — including an early railroad depot building.

Fran Hoskin, a Nelson resident who grew up on French Street, recalls playing baseball between the sheds at the store. When the 6 p.m. trains would come through the railroad depot, the conductor would toss comic books to waiting children.

“It’s just kind of sentimental to me,” she said. “I really hate to see it go.”

She picked up a souveneir — a wooden stand, made to hold ketchup bottles upside down — which bore the Paul’s logo. The item was a former promotional item by the store and now was being sold for a mere 30 cents.

“I have to have something with the name on it,” she said.

Owner Marty Paul did not return calls seeking comment.

Last year, the same owners closed the Ravenna location on North Chestnut Street. That store remains vacant.