Sharp family plans to reopen its hardware store

August 17, 2022 by G. Chambers Williams III

The descendants of C.L. Sharp plan to reopen the family’s longtime hardware store in Andersonville, which has been closed for the past six years.

Kate Bennett, whose grandfather Conley Sharp Sr. started the business three-quarters of a century ago, will be the owner and manager of the store – just as she was when the store closed in 2016.

Since that time, the store building – near the northwest corner of Andersonville Highway (Tennessee 61) and Park Lane – has sat closed and mostly untouched, with most of its merchandise still on the shelves.

Bennett is now trying to sell off the old merchandise to make way for a restocking of the store, and hopes to have it open for business again sometime in September, she said.

This past Saturday, she opened the store from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. to begin selling the remaining stock, but decided to hold on to some of the merchandise, such as items that don’t go out of date, including nuts and bolts, nails and such.

There was a steady stream of customers browsing through the aisles on Saturday, and Bennett was kept busy at the counter ringing up the sales – at half the original, posted shelf prices.

C.L. Sharp & Son Sentry Hardware began in another location across the highway and a couple of blocks west of the current location, and moved to the current location in 1998, said Sandra Sharp, who is the daughter-in-law of Conley Sharp Sr. and mother of Kate Bennett. She married Conley Sharp Jr., who went by the name Lewis, she said.

In the right rear of the store, a deli with dine-in and takeout service operated for about 12 years, and closed about 10 years ago when the operator, Winton Landrinou, died, Sandra Sharp said.

There are no plans to reopen the deli, even though the countertop, refrigerated display case and other equipment are mostly still in place, she said. Even the printed, plasticized hand-held menus are still in the deli area.

“The deli offered Cajun and hillbilly food,” Sharp said.

Plans are to cut the current store’s floor space in half by blocking off the rear area, so there won’t be as much merchandise space as before, she said. But there still will be plenty of space because the interior is huge.

“We will be catering to the homeowner looking for everyday items,” Sharp said. “That will be our primary focus – not contractors.”

Merchandise will include electrical, plumbing, paint, tools, she said. “We’re trying to gear it toward items that will move quickly.”

Tentative hours and days will be 8 or 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with an earlier closing time on Saturday, Bennett said.