Hamden’s beloved Spring Glen Hardware store is closing after 75 years, and customers say it’s hard to see it go.
“It’s sad. It’s sad. The Landino family have been an icon here in Hamden for decades,” said Rick Gentile, who used to live in Hamden and still drives to the store.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” said Craig O’Connell. “I think we’re all feeling a huge loss here in this neighborhood as a community.”
Frank Landino is an owner and the third generation to run the family store.
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“My father’s 95 years old and he worked until six months ago, coming in a few hours per day, more for the socializing. But our customers are great,” Landino said.
The family has created a family of its own with loyal customers who come to them for everything from making keys to repairing shoes.
“It’s sad because this has been a part of my life forever,” said Marybeth Keating. “I’ve lived here since I was 6 years old, and you know, we bought our first Christmas gifts here for parents and things like that.”
The people are what Landino says kept them in business for more than seven decades. And when NBC Connecticut asked him about his favorite memory, he said it was hard to come up with a specific one.
“The friendships I made along the way," he said.
Friends and customers have a few more weeks to walk the aisles and get the personal help they come back for time and time again.
“It makes you feel good at the end of the day, when you go home, that you helped somebody,” Landino said.
He said they’re closing for health reasons and he’ll get time to spend with his children. Keating said this space will leave a void that’s hard to fill.
“Our little hamlet here, it’s going to lose a lot of charm you know,” Keating said.
