The family-run hardware store on McMechen Street survived the economic collapse of 2008, the Freddy Gray uprising and two years of COVID shutdowns and supply shortages, but Mickey Fried, who runs the place, has posted going-out-of-business signs and said the store would close sometime in June.
As The Bulletin closed this edition, there were rumors that the St. Louis-based Save-a-Lot grocery holding company that owns the strip mall where the store sits is willing to sell it to a local developer and the developer says he would work to keep the hardware store operating. Details, perhaps, in the next Bulletin. Meanwhile, we are reprinting Bolton Hill resident and ex-Sun journalist Ed Gunts’ warm tribute to the store and its owners, which appeared first in the Baltimore Fishbowl.
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