By Victoria Gaither
In 1969, the Woodstock Festival was held on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York; Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon; Vermonter’s picked up trash on the first Green Up Day (a state tradition now held on the first Saturday in May), and Vermont Public Radio broadcasted for the first time.
While all that was happening, Bill Shaw opened Killington’s Goodro Lumber, now Mountain Lumber and Hardware.
The lumber yard and hardware store still occupy the same space at 4489 U.S. Route 4 in Killington, but the family business is currently getting a makeover — including a new name, logo and sign.
Seth Shaw, Bill’s son and now business partner, explained, “We are tearing the store apart. We are putting in a new floor, taking all the existing inventory, and shuttling it from one corner to the next, laying a new series of floors down, new lighting, new paint, a new experience for our customers.”
The plan also calls for converting some of the warehouse space into retail. Seth said, “We don’t need the warehouse space anymore because there is such a frequent flow of shipments in there. We don’t need to backstock as much as we used to.”
The remodel will better allow Seth to look through inventory and take stock of what is selling and what is not leaving store shelves. He said store flow is essential for better customer service. And many things will not change in the makeover, he added, “We want folks to walk in and easily find what they are looking for. The entry isn’t going to change; the exit isn’t going to change.”
To hear Seth discuss the renovation project is to listen to a man who cares deeply about his family’s business and community.
“Family-run businesses are somewhat of a dying breed, or if they aren’t dying, they are poised to be less and less setup to be successful and transitioned down through generations,” explained Seth Shaw.
It wasn’t a given that Seth was going into the family business despite growing up at the lumber yard. He left Vermont as a young man and had no intentions of joining his dad and mother, Cathy, but in his 20s, Seth had summers off because he was a teacher and would work in the store; that later life experience changed him.
“In my 20s, taking a stab at it during the summers, I began to get a keen sense of what it meant to work in an established relevant enterprise and a kind of a machine in our summer community. We are a part of this industry that supports local builders and enhances the homeowner’s experience for so many people who walk through our doors.”
Perhpas it was the hammering, saw noise, and phones constantly ringing at the shop, that reminded Seth fondly of his childhood, that drew him back in his 20s and helped him decided to join his mom, dad, and now wife, Jenny, in the family business.
The Killington community is beloved by the Shaws, as their businesses is beloved as a staple in the local and regional community.
When Killington Homeowner Anne Kirby needed new windows in 2018 for her classic Vermont Farm House, she went to Mountain Lumber and Hardware and ended up saving money.
“I ordered all new windows for my 1900 house, 13 windows in total. Seth was very thorough and came and measured everything. Since I wasn’t going to find anyone to install in the fall, people were booked out. Seth encouraged me to take advantage of a sale, purchase now, and store the windows over the winter in my barn so they would be ready in the spring. It was a cost-saving solution that he thought of.”
Kirby says the knowledge and expertise make Mountain Lumber and Hardware a gem in the Killington community.
Kirby is an artist who sometimes needs her boards sized and help to navigate paint, and said they are always helpful. She also loves the “last minute Vermont products like honey, at checkout, feels good to buy local.”
Seth said, “Showing up and being there for our customers every day is the key to what we do and ensuring the product here will last. There is no use in selling products to people that will be falling apart.”
“I am conscious of the fact that builders have the option to come here or go elsewhere to source their product. It’s exciting to think that I can point to many locations in town over the last 25 years built from our materials, that are still thriving,” he added.
Over 55 years, serving thousands of people from construction builders to homeowners building a backyard shed or trying to find the right screw for the project, Mountain Lumber and Hardware continues to move forward with technology and makes life easier in many ways.
Seth smiles about how things used to be done with some customers, “I got napkin drawings,” he remembered. “But now technology has changed. Now people are taking pictures of a plumbing problem and saying, hey, this pipe is leaking and is connected like this, and they pull out their phones and show me the picture of what’s not working, and I can do so much more with a picture than a drawing.”
Jenny Shaw, his wife and partner in business, has a background in business and once worked for the National Park Service and says old and new can work hand in hand. “I can contribute using more digital tools and things like shared Google Drive, and we can look at the same document, which saves time and is more efficient.”
She mentions that working alongside Cathy allows her to pick up tips and pointers on how the business works, and joining old and new techniques makes it a better company.
Seth Shaw works to dismantle shelves to get the store ready for a complete facelift to enhance the customer experience and add efficiency.
Family businesses are unique in hiring people, so when then-customer Bruce Pauley needed help with his home in Plymouth on a recommendation from a neighbor, he turned to Mountain Lumber and Hardware. After working with the staff on his nine-year home project,
“I found myself with some extra time on my hands. Although I am retired, I don’t like being idle and prefer working, so when Seth offered me a part-time job, I was ready.”
Pauley has been tasked with some of the renovation work and is excited about the improvements. Adding that customers needing to use the restroom “are welcome!”
Reflecting on the work experience, he added, “Everyone tries exceptionally hard to be very helpful, whether you are looking for a single screw to match one that was lost to someone needing thousands of board feet of lumber.”
Customers will see everyday seasonal items on the shelves, and, if Jenny Shaw has her way, gardening and pet supplies eventually, too!
But for now, what excites Seth about the future of Mountain Lumber and Hardware “is continuing to be a relevant entity selling products that work to build this community whatever shape or form that might take.”
