Spencer store stocks eclectic mix of supplies

Saturday, May 30, 2009 3:06 AM  |  Printer friendly version | E-mail to a friend |

Store stocks eclectic mix of supplies

By Steve Huffman

shuffman@salisburypost.com

SPENCER — Ken Bean said that for the first time in his life, he has a shop to go to when he wakes up in the morning.

"It's kind of neat," Bean said. "I've never worked inside my whole life. I like getting up and having somewhere to go."

Bean, 48, recently opened Spencer Home Supply. The business is at the intersection of Salisbury Avenue and Fourth Street in the heart of the town's business district.

The business is in the building previously occupied by Two Worlds Apart, an auto parts store.

Steve Waddell, the owner of Two Worlds Apart, died earlier this year. Bean and his wife, Teresa, are renting the building from Waddell's widow, Margaret.

Teresa Bean will soon open Posh Ltd. Boutique in the building that's adjacent to Spencer Home Supply. There, Teresa, who for years owned an Arthur Murray Dance Studio franchise, will sell a variety of women's gifts and accessories.

Describing exactly the inventory of Spencer Home Supply is a tad difficult. Ken Bean stocks everything from nails and hammers to air conditioners and water heaters.

He's got lamps and weed trimmers, volleyball nets and ceiling fans.

"Whatever I can come across at a good deal is what I've got," Bean said. "I've got a lot of sources."

He gets his merchandise from auction sales and wholesalers, as well as purchasing a fair amount via the Internet.

He sells a good deal of his merchandise at discount prices. The water heaters at Spencer Home Supply, for example, are scratch-and-dent versions that sell for half their retail prices.

But, as Bean points out, when was the last time you wandered down to admire your new water heater, anyway?

Bean was for most of his life a home builder. He said the economic decline of recent years put a hurting on the demand for new houses.

Bean also owns a variety of rental properties in and around Spencer, and said that whenever he was performing any repair work to one of those properties, it almost always necessitated a trip to Lowe's Home Improvement in Salisbury for materials.

The drive was something of an inconvenience, Bean said.

"I saw the need for something like this in Spencer," he said of his business.

And so he's giving it a shot. At the moment, Spencer Home Supply is open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. six days a week. Bean said he'd consider staying open on Sunday afternoons if he saw the demand.

Meanwhile, Bean and his wife have been busy stocking both their stores, hoping the businesses do well and lead to bigger things.

"We're hoping to outgrow the place," Teresa said.

"We're hoping the community welcomes us."