Maine news, sports, weather from Waterville Morning Sentinel

Family's hardware store open in Bingham

By Erin Rhoda erhoda@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

BINGHAM -- The new family-owned and operated Staples Hardware is the first business to open in town in at least a year.

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FAMILY EFFORT: Staples Hardware in Bingham is a family affair. Pictured, from left, are Nancy Staples, Debbie Staples with Alexis, 1, Mike Staples, Morgan Staples, Molly Staples and Stefan Staples.

Staff photo by Erin Rhoda

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Owners Mike and Debbie Staples said they opened the store as a way to keep their family employed and in the area they have always called home.

Mike Staples and his uncle Maynard Lagasse largely built the new Staples Hardware store themselves, converting a building that used to hold heavy equipment.

The hanging flowers in the front of the building are cared for by Mike's mother, Nancy. The Staples' oldest child, Stefan, 22, helps with the register and customer service.

Their youngest, Teagan, 14, who is home-schooled, will use the store as one of his classes, to learn how to run a retail business. Their only daughter, Morgan, 20, helps out when she's not taking college classes. In the office space is a play pen for Stefan's daughter, Alexis, 1.

The Staples say they hope the store, at 3 Taylor Ave. and a stone's throw from Riverside Inn, will fill a need in town and provide a way for the family to stay together. It's been open about a month.

"We love the area. We don't want to move," Mike said. "There's no opportunity in the area. Work is hard to come by. We're just trying to make an opportunity for our family to grow up here and stay here."

Mike and Debbie, both 45, graduated together from Upper Kennebec Valley Memorial High School in 1983. He lived in Moscow, and she lived Bingham.

In addition to providing for their family, they said they want to help their local economy and provide a needed service.

"We just wanted to be a simple, hometown hardware store," Mike said.

With shelves lined with paint cans and supplies, brooms, plumbing fittings and hose, power tools, hooks and hinges, circuit breakers, electrical conduit, rakes and sink faucets, they supply what one would find in any hardware store. They also sell canning goods and basic lumber.

They say they are tapping into the culture of their area where most people do their own home repairs.

"If you're going to live in this part of the world, you have to be diversified. You have to be a jack-of-all trades," Mike said.

The store has roots with his father, Carlton Staples, who he described as a handy-man who taught him about fixing things. His father worked for the Quimby Veneer Mill in the late 1960s. One day at work, a wall of hot ashes caved in on him.

Third degree burns covered 85 percent of his body. "He wasn't expected to live, but he did," Mike said. Over the years, he continued to do basic repair work.

In 2005, after helping his son make a furnace delivery as part of his other business, Central Maine Classics, Carlton Staples came home, sat in his chair and died of a heart attack.

If he were alive, he would undoubtedly be involved in the hardware store with the rest of the family, Debbie said. "He would have loved this."

Although many people have asked if the store is hiring, Debbie said, the jobs are staying in the family. Hiring will hopefully come later, once the business grows, she said. They have a goal to expand into a sporting goods store, possibly supplying guns and camping equipment.

"The area's very depressed. We're just trying to fill a void and hopefully supply a few jobs down the line," Mike said.

According to the U.S. Census bureau, 19.3 percent of the people in Bingham live below the poverty line. Statewide and nationwide it's around 13 percent.

Erin Rhoda -- 474-9534

erhoda@centralmaine.com