POWASSAN – This month marks the end of a two generation main street business as Pat Moore and his wife Shirley prepare to close the furniture and appliance business, ML  Moore and Sons, opened by Pat’s father Murray in 1947.

“Family folklore says he opened with just a kettle, an iron and a toaster,” said Pat.

His mother Monica confirms that her husband “didn’t have any stock to speak of when he started. Before the war, the gas station next door had been an agent for appliance sales, but had decided not to start up that business again. Murray knew the appliance sales rep and decided he would take over the agency,” she said. While stock was limited, he was able to take orders for a variety of Westinghouse appliance, “and gradually he kept adding to what he had in the store.”

His decision was met with skepticism by other main street merchants of the day.

“The town’s business big wigs told him he was crazy,” said Pat. “They told him he’d never make it.”

Murray Moore proved them all wrong with his salesmanship magic.

“Back in those days, businesses closed on Wednesdays,” Pat remembers. “That was the day dad would go out to the surrounding villages and make sales door-to-door. One day he put three refrigerators in the back of the truck, went to Loring and sold 12. I’ll bet you peanuts to dollars that there’s one of those machines still working today.”

At that time Murray was sharing a building with the drugstore and paying $16 a month for rent.

“A year or so after he started, hydro went in to communities west of Powassan and there was a growing demand for appliances,” said Monica. “His timing was excellent. Refrigerators and washing machines were in great demand, and there were no taxes on them back then.”  A yellowed receipt still kept in the office shows that a refrigerator sold for $390 in 1948. “That was a lot of money back then, but everyone wanted to have one,” she said.

Murray Moore’s father had owned the general store in Nipissing, “and when he was growing up all of the kids had to take their turns behind the counter,” said Monica. “I think selling was in his blood.”

In 1958, Murray decided to move on to other challenges and sold the business to his long-time employee Fred Toeppner. During the next few years he continued to prove his sales ability in the insurance business by gaining the position of Number One salesman for Imperial Life.  

However, when he got the store back in the 1960s, he knew it was time to expand.

By then the second half of the building had changed from a drugstore to the Bell Telephone switchboard, “but when the area went to rotary dial, there was no need for the telephone office any more,” said Pat. “That’s when dad decided to take over the whole building and expand into furniture.”

In addition to being a natural at sales, Murray Moore had a knack for knowing what people would purchase. “He did all the buying for the store,” said Monica, admitting “every once in a while I would throw my oar in. But I was too prone to buying just what I liked, so Murray and the sales reps made the purchasing decisions.”

The mid 1960s brought some emotional challenges to the family when Pat’s brother Mike, who helped out in the store, was killed in a car accident.

“I was away in Strathroy playing Junior B hockey at the time, and came home to help dad out,” remembers Pat. “That was a pretty rough time for everyone and dad seemed to lose his interest in the store. It was my mother who encouraged him to keep going and that’s when she started coming in with him every day. She’s now 87 years old, and she’s still here every day.”

On Easter Sunday, 1997, Murray and Monica Moore took Murray’s mother to North Bay for dinner. Returning home that night, “they got to the hill outside town and could see flames coming from the main street,” said Pat. “Dad said ‘something’s on fire,’ and it was. It was his store.”

With Pat and Monica at his side, Murray rebuilt on the site and reopened the furniture store, later adding a Steadman’s store next door, where the current Home Hardware is located, run by Pat’s brother Gerry.

Though Pat continued to work with his father, Monica had her doubts about him taking over the business. “I didn’t think he should take over until he knew for sure that this is what he wanted to do,” she said. “I’d heard too many stories about children who said they had to go into the family business because it was expected of them, and I didn’t want that to happen to Pat.”

However, after two years working in North Bay, there was no doubt in Pat’s mind that he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and in 1973 he could be found in the store full time. He remembers the year well.

“That was the last year you could get front loading washing machines,” he said. “Everyone was going to top loading, and we bought the last five front load machines in captivity. After that no one wanted one and today, they’re back and everyone has to have one. Everything goes in cycles.”

Drawing customers from across the region, Pat says “business here has been consistently good, up until about four years ago. Then we started to see a change in the economy and more big stores in North Bay. It was another pig at the trough, but no one is putting any more slop into it.”

He admits, “you can’t keep people from going to the larger centres, especially when we are a bedroom community with most of our residents working in North Bay and cashing their pay cheques there, they spend the money there as well.”

An offer to purchase the building last year, although it fell through, started Pat and his wife Shirley thinking about drawing the Moore family business to a close. Shirley, who has been coming in to help out for the past few years admits she’s “tired of moving queen-sized beds and sofas,” she said.

While Pat admits, “I’m 60 years old and I think it’s time for semi-retirement.”

With negotiations now well underway for the Home Hardware store next door to take over the building, “things just seem to come into line,” he said. “With the big box stores cutting in deeper and deeper every year, things just seem to come together at the right time.”

Home Hardware store owners Ron and Lana Geisler hope to expand their hardware line and move the Auto Value section of their business into the former furniture location. While there are no plans for adding a furniture section, Lana says “we’ve outgrown our current space. The automotive section is constantly expanding and is a big part of our business with sales to local garages from South River to Port Loring.”

While plans for expansion have been in the Geisler’s minds, when the hardware operation recently joined the Home Hardware family, “that brought it to a head sooner than we had expected, because we have such an increased product line to draw from,” Lana said.

Space will also be needed to store items that local residents will soon be able to order from Home Hardware’s online catalogue www.homehardware.ca for pickup at the Powassan location. No date for the new hardware opening has yet been set.

While Pat Moore looks forward to increased time on the lake and the golf course, he also intends to find “something to do part time,” he said, but having been rushed off his feet by activity generated from his going out of business sale, still underway, he plans to take a few weeks to catch his breath. Monica Moore admits she’ll miss coming to the store every day, but plans to keep busy with new projects.

“I’ve looked out the front window at the Powassan main street for close to 50 years, and nothing has really changed that much,” Pat said. “I don’t know who is going to find retirement tougher, me or mother.”