Kidron icon kicks off yearlong 55th anniversary celebration
In 1955 one of the most unique stores in Ohio, if not the world, opened its doors for the first time in Kidron.Fifty-five years later, the legendary Lehman’s Hardware kicked off a yearlong celebration of its 55th anniversary with the first in a series of open houses.
With drawings, activities and product demonstrations from one end of the store to the other, visitors seized the opportunity to learn more about what Lehman’s vice president of marketing, Glenda Lehman Ervin, describes as “the Lehman’s lifestyle - eating healthy food that is fresh, homegrown or local, and home-cooked.”
“People want to know about canning, churning butter, baking bread, gardening,” said Lehman Ervin, noting that while the members of her mother’s generation knew how to do these types of things many modern families simply don’t.
“Now people come and they have planted tomatoes and grown apples and ask what do I do with them. It’s a learning experience,” she said.
The family owned business learns a lot from its customers, too, which in large part accounts for its phenomenal growth from a small two-room store founded by Jay Lehman and his close relatives to the 33,000-square-foot store of today.
“All we ever did was try to listen to what our customers were saying and try to figure out ways to do it better,” said Galen Lehman, president of Lehman’s.
“It’s all about the customers,” said Lehman Ervin. “The customers wanted food processing equipment so we tripled the size of the housewares department,” which now features expanded product offerings including everything from cherry pitters to canning equipment.
While the store’s founder, Jay Lehman, is still very much a part of the business “over time he has passed off duties to Glenda and I,” said Galen Lehman. “At one point he passed off the responsibility of handing out the paychecks so that gave me the privilege of going to my dad and saying thanks for a job well done, here’s your paycheck.”
“The truth is the first two years he worked he didn’t get a paycheck,” said Lehman Ervin.
As Jay Lehman prepares to celebrate his 81st birthday, Lehman Ervin joked that what most people call his overnight success was actually 55 years in the making. “He worked hard his whole life, six days a week.”
“A lot of water has run under the bridge since then,” said Jay Lehman. “It was fun then, too. It may have been more fun then.”
Since those early days more and more people have become a part of the Lehman’s success story, including other small family run businesses that Lehman’s frequently partners with.
From the school fundraising group which gained exposure for their book by providing samples of the finished recipes prepared using Lehman’s appliances to the owner of a local farm who demonstrated how to make the signature sauerkraut she sells using a Lehman’s cabbage slicer, the partnerships Lehman’s has built have kept the company growing through good economic times and bad.
The company has also gone decidedly high tech in the way it sells its products by utilizing everything from an Internet site to social media like Twitter and Facebook.
“We use high tech to sell low tech all over the world,” said Lehman Ervin. “I tell people if we can do it – a small family owned business in Amish Country selling non-electric appliances – anybody can do it.”
For more information on Lehman’s, including details on the open houses planned for July, September and December, visit the Lehman’s website at www.lehmans.com.