Portland’s Hippo Hardware, hurting for business, gets outpouring of support: Branded T

The longtime owner of Portland’s Hippo Hardware & Trading Co. store, which overflows with building materials rescued from the Victorian era to the midcentury modern “atomic” age, issued a call for help on Aug. 17: Customers were needed to keep the doors open.

“It seems like more of our favorite stores are closing by the day, and we are gutted – It can take just one bad year to be added to that list, and we’re having a bad year,” owner Steven Miller posted on Hippo Hardware’s Facebook page about the second-hand business he co-founded in 1976.

People responded. “The outpouring of love and support today has been amazing and overwhelming,” Miller, 75, posted on Facebook the next day. Since then, he’s heard from previous customers who had moved faraway but were shopping remotely to buy hard-to-find lighting, plumbing, “trinkets, whatnots, and whoziwhatsits,” as described on hippohardware.com.

Hippo Hardware-branded T-shirts sold out and were reordered. Restore Oregon preservation organization posted an endorsement on its Facebook page: “Check out this incredible business and let’s help them celebrate nearly 50 years in business!”

“It is so humbling, overwhelming to hear that this company has touched so many people,” said Miller. “I never knew we had that kind of impact.”

Regulars and first-timers have been wandering through the three levels of the store at 1040 E. Burnside St., pointing out oddball objects, from doors used in “Grimm” episodes to a bucket of rusty nails. One corner of the store is filled with antique duel gas/electric light fixtures.

Some items like a gilded, steampunk-style faucet aren’t for sale in the store often referred to as a museum. But most every item — like an unused 1963 Electro-Sink-Center — stirs exuberant reactions and starts conversations.

Before Miller’s social media plea, traffic had been slow inside the store with 30,000 square feet of floor space. “People are buying experiences as opposed to objects,” said Miller on Sunday, sitting in a movie theater chair made by midcentury-modern furniture maker Heywood-Wakefield.

Owner Steven Miller sits in a movie theater chair made by Heywood-Wakefield, a midcentury modern furniture manufacturer.Janet Eastman/The Oregonian/OregonLive

COVID-19, competition from other salvage stores and fewer spontaneous buys from window shoppers on the block are to blame, he said, along with rising costs of rent, utilities and labor. He’s not increasing his prices, but he can’t discount them either. He said his 10 employees give their heart and soul and deserve the living wage and benefits he provides.

“We would just like the flow of customers to be greater,” said Miller. “The goal is not to make a lot of money, but for the people who work here to have a good life.”

He acknowledges that fewer people are restoring historic homes or want vintage items. Cam Em posted on Facebook about older dwellings being bulldozed to make room for new housing, “so have not been motivated to do needed bits & pieces on my 100 year old home.”

Em ordered T-shirts and shared Hippo Hardware’s request for support, then added, “Some of the amazing small businesses we’ve lost have left holes in our hearts. Hang in there. Portland needs you.”

Staffer Jackson Woldrich said Thursday that people who had been delaying home improvement projects “because they just assumed we’d always be here, came in as soon as they learned we might not always be here.”

People new to the store have also shown up “as a result of this social media push,” said Woldrich.

Deborah Higginbotham commented on Facebook that she relied on Hippo Hardware’s inventory when renovating a 1899 Stick-style house three decades ago. An antique chandelier and four-panel solid wood doors were installed in her home. She was able to replace missing doorknob plates, door locks and double-hung window latch exchanges that were sold individually at the store.

“Thank you for all you do and have done for Portland with your iconic business,” wrote Higginbotham. “I’ll head to the website and grab a T-shirt now. Long live Hippo Hardware!”

— Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072

[email protected] | @janeteastman

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