Cheswick Ace Hardware to close, consolidate with Oakmont store

The Ace fix-it Hardware store in Cheswick is closing.

The store at 1500 Pittsburgh St. will close Nov. 27, according to owner Chuck Bickel. It will be consolidated into another store Bickel owns on Oakmont’s Allegheny River Boulevard.

The Cheswick store has been around for more than a decade.

“The black and white of it is it’s not profitable,” Bickel said Tuesday. “We certainly have tried many things. Investment in different product lines, in different categories. We’re just not able to generate enough sales traffic to afford to pay its own way.”

Liquidation sales began Friday.

Officials said they will consider serious offers of bulk purchases of entire product sections such as plumbing, fasteners and electrical products. Store fixtures also will be available for purchase.

Bickel also owns stores in Tyrone, Huntingdon, Dillsburg, Duncansville, Grove City, Green Tree, Everett, Mercer, Brookville and DuBois.

He is not closing or consolidating any of his other stores.

“Of all the decisions I’ve had to make in my life, this is certainly one of the most difficult,” Bickel said of the Cheswick store. “At some point we just have to realize we can’t afford to keep it open.”

The Cheswick store employs five people, who were told they can continue to work at the Oakmont store, Bickel said.

The company advised anyone with questions to call 814-695-9840.