The Ony Hardware & General Mercantile store near Ethel has a new owner — 19-year-old Michael Howard.
Born and raised in Onalaska, Howard originally got his start working retail at Ed’s Morton Auto Parts. He knew Ony Hardware’s previous owner, Tamra Lane, and heard that she was looking to sell the business.
“When this popped up, I saw an opportunity and decided to jump in with both feet and see what happens,” Howard said.
While he declined to say how much it cost to buy the business, Howard told The Chronicle the three years he spent working at Ed’s Morton Auto Parts helped him save up.
“I’ve been working since I was old enough to work, really,” Howard said.
He got plenty of work in the machine shop at Ed’s, but also enjoyed working retail with the customer, he said. Now that he’s a business owner, he has a whole new list of responsibilities to oversee, but he feels he can handle the challenge.
“It’s been good so far. Lots of big responsibilities and big decisions. But you don’t know if you don’t try,” Howard said.
Howard was an Onalaska High School student, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, he switched to homeschooling through online Primer Microschools.
“They pretty much said, ‘Here’s what you need to get done to graduate,’ and I said, ‘Oh that’s easy’ … and I ended up graduating a year early,” Howard said.
According to Howard, Ony Hardware has been in the Onalaska community for nearly 40 years. While it has had many owners, all of them have been from Onalaska, and he’s proud to be keeping the business in town and operated by a resident.
“It’s been through a couple different owners. I don’t know how many, but it’s always been owned by people in the community and it’s always stayed in the community,” Howard said.
As for the store, he plans on completing some minor renovations and slowly changing the store’s stock based on customer needs.
“I’m always trying to put more in and tailor it more toward the community’s needs,” Howard said. “There’s a lot of potential here really. They had a really good start on it and there’s still room for bigger and better and more, to get in whatever the community needs.”
Currently, he offers a variety of both mechanical and gardening tools along with construction materials. Additionally, Ony Hardware is in a partnership with U-Haul and offers moving truck and trailer rentals.
For more information, call the business at 360-978-5500 or email onalaskahardware@gmail.com. Ony Hardware & General Mercantile is located at 112 Brim Road, just south of U.S. Highway 12. It is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.
