Local hardware store opening second location after 25 years of business
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TERRETON – A local hardware store is expanding its footprint in eastern Idaho.
Rocknak’s Hardware is opening in Terreton next month. Store Manager Allen Newcomb tells EastIdahoNews.com the 8,500-square-foot store will open inside the old Mud Lake Market at 1391 East 1500 North in mid-March.
“It’s kind of a maze in here right now. We got about 25 pallets of freight in this morning,” Newcomb says.
A grand opening is in the works May 1.
The store will be equipped with all the hardware items customers are familiar with, including power tools, housewares, plumbing, electrical, farming and ranching supplies. It will also include an automotive and outdoor/hunting/fishing section.
A grocery section offering basic items like milk, lunch meat and canned goods will make it different than the Idaho Falls location.
“We’ll have a freezer and refrigerated section, some canned (items). We just won’t have any produce or anything like that,” Owner Brian Rocknak says.
Newcomb says the lack of grocery stores in Terreton is what prompted the addition of a grocery section. Convenience stores are currently the only option available to customers.
“People are still going to do the bulk of their shopping in Idaho Falls … but for those things that you need right now, it’s a lot quicker to come here than to go there,” he says.
Rocknak says having a building that had previously been used as a retail space made it ideal for adding grocery items.
“It just worked as a retail business. It had the parking and big enough floor space to put our inventory in,” he says.
There weren’t any plans to open a second location initially, but Rocknak says people in Terreton were requesting one.
“The owner of the building approached us and we’ve had a lot of people from the community asking us to put a hardware store up there. We looked into it and there was an opportunity to do it, so we decided to take the risk and go for it,” Rocknak says.
The conversation that set the project in motion took place in August. Mud Lake Market closed about two years ago.
Rocknak’s first opened in 1996 at 2250 West Broadway in Idaho Falls. Rocknak says there are no immediate plans to open a third location.
Newcomb is excited to open for business and begin serving customers. He’s hoping for a great turnout on opening day.
Store hours at the new location will be 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.