FOWLERVILLE, Mich. (AP) — A hardware store in Fowlerville is closing after 122 years in
business.Theeconomy and competition with big-box stores were too much forFowlerville True Value Hardware to
overcome, the owners told theLivingston County Daily Press & Argus of Howell (http://bit.ly/190cHmq
).The business owned by the Burnie familyfor the past 69 years closed Dec. 7 to prepare for liquidation
salesstarting Monday, said Doug Burnie, who owned the store from 1974 to2008.Current owner Jim Burnie signed
a purchase agreement withthe Fowlerville Downtown Development Authority in 2007 to expand thestore, but he
withdrew it the next year when Wal-Mart opened a184,000-square-foot store in the village."We never
reallyrecovered so it was profitable," Doug Burnie told the newspaper. "Thebottom line is that
customer bases dwindled simply because they aredeciding to go to one-stop big-box stores."Doug Burnie,
who acquired the store from his father in 1974, said he always looked forward to going in to
work."Ifyour heart is in the hardware business, when someone walks in the frontdoor and has a problem,
it becomes your problem," he said.FowlervilleDowntown Development Authority Director Fred Dillingham
said it’s sadfor many in the community to see the store close."I don’t thinkit’s fair to call it a
big-box-store-versus-small-business issue," hetold the newspaper. "The business environment in
small communities haschanged over many years, and there’s new opportunities businesses haveto take advantage
of."The store will permanently close once nearly everything is sold.___Information from: Livingston
County Daily Press & Argus, http://www.livingstondaily.comCopyright 2013
The Associated Press. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten
orredistributed.