Photos courtesy of Lyle Patzer Brothers Lyle and Mark Patzer have worked at their family’s business in Marshall for decades. This week, the Patzers announced that they are liquidating Patzer’s Hardware Hank, including the hardware, furniture and appliance side of the business. Mark Patzer plans to keep running Patzer’s outdoor power equipment and small engine service business.

MARSHALL — It was a busy afternoon at Patzer’s Hardware Hank, with a steady stream of people stopping in at the counter. While there was a lot of activity at the store, there were some changes coming, co-owner Lyle Patzer said.

“It hasn’t hit me that this is coming to an end,” he said.

This week, Patzer’s announced that it was liquidating its hardware, appliance and furniture business. Lyle Patzer said the change is coming as he and his wife Rose are planning to move closer to family. It will be the end of a hardware, home and appliance store that’s been part of Marshall’s downtown for 58 years.

The liquidation doesn’t mean that the Patzer family will be gone from Main Street, however. Lyle’s brother Mark Patzer plans to keep running Patzer’s outdoor power equipment and small engine service.

The Patzer family have been part of Marshall’s downtown business community for two generations, starting with Lyle and Mark’s parents, Archie and Bea Patzer.

“My father moved to Marshall in 1966,” Lyle Patzer said. Archie Patzer was general manager of the Gambles hardware store on Main Street. At the time, Gambles was located next to the Marshall city offices.

Archie and Bea went on to purchase the Gambles store in 1969. As boys, Lyle and Mark also helped out at the family business.

“We’ve both been working here since we were 10 years old,” Lyle Patzer said. He said he actually looked forward to coming to the store after school.

Patzer said working with his father taught him a lot about how to be successful.

“You have to pay attention to every small detail,” he said. “Our dad taught us if you’re going to do something, do it right, and do it thorough.”

That extended down to putting some elbow grease into chores like cleaning, Lyle said.

“One thing I’ve thought about — one of the first things I did (at the store) was push a broom,” he said. When Archie saw the job he was doing, “The first thing he did was take the broom from me, and show me how to run a broom.”

Over the years, the store went through a few changes. Patzer’s became a Hardware Hank store in 1987, after Gambles went out of business. In the 1980s, Patzer’s also moved across Main Street to its current location. The buildings, at 411 and 415 West Main Street, were once home to Woolworths and JC Penney.

Archie Patzer died in 1996, and in 2002, Lyle and Mark acquired ownership of Patzer’s from their mother. Bea Patzer stayed with the business until she retired in 2011, at the age of 81.

Over nearly 60 years, there have been challenges in keeping a family-owned hardware store running, Lyle Patzer said. Competition from big box stores was a major challenge, but Patzer’s tried to work around that by staying flexible.

“Every time a major competitor moved in, we were small enough to shift gears,” he said. The strategy of “shifting gears” was part of how Patzer’s came to build up its outdoor power equipment and small engine service, he said.

Customers also enjoyed working with the Patzer’s crew, and the level of service they received, Patzer said. He said he and Mark built up relationships with customers.

“We’ll call people by their first names when they come in the door, and we’ve known them through generations,” Patzer said.

Patzer said he has also enjoyed getting to know and work with Patzer’s employees. Some, like Dave Sandquist, had been with Patzer’s for many years, he said.

“A lot (of employees) have stayed for many years. I’ve enjoyed those relationships,” he said.

Patzer said the decision to close the hardware store in Marshall was something that his family had been thinking about and discussing for around four years. Mark wasn’t ready to close up shop, but Lyle said he and Rose wanted to move closer to their children and grandchildren near the Twin Cities metro area.

Even before the official announcement that Patzer’s would be liquidating its hardware, furniture and appliances, there were a lot of people coming into the store, Patzer said last week.

“Most people coming in now are aware of it,” he said.

Patzer said the actual liquidation process for the hardware, furniture and appliance business would likely take some time. In the case of the hardware store, it could take a few months. The plan is for the Patzer’s hardware store area to eventually become a space for outdoor power equipment and TORO products, he said.

Lyle Patzer said he isn’t retiring just yet – he does plan on continuing to work after moving away from Marshall. But it will be a change in routine, and he won’t be working together with Mark.

“That’ll be the biggest thing for me, is saying goodbye to that,” Patzer said. “I’ve worked with my brother every day for the last 40-plus years.”

“It’s a gargantuan change,” he said of the move. Being part of his family’s business was “really all I’ve ever known.”