A firm lock on Main StreetWednesday, January 19, 2011
BY CHARLES ERICKSON
Hackensack Chronicle
Correspondent
HACKENSACK - The Main Lock Shop opened in 1958, when a store's name often conveyed its purpose and frequently the location. A locksmith that services and sells related hardware, the operation has always been on Main Street in Hackensack.
David Kerr, co-owner of The Main Lock Shop, stands near some of the store's many key blanks. Making keys for automobiles, including the high-security keys used for newer models, has become an important source of revenue for the shop.
PHOTO BY CHARLES ERICKSON
David Kerr, co-owner of The Main Lock Shop, stands near some of the store's many key blanks. Making keys for automobiles, including the high-security keys used for newer models, has become an important source of revenue for the shop.
One of its owners believes the shop's name is the only simplistic part of the enterprise.
"It's a very knowledgeable business. People don't realize it," said David Kerr, standing near a row of depository safes of the type used by attendants at gasoline stations. He was comparing the occupational expertise of his employees to plumbers and electricians.
"You need to know a lot more," Kerr said. "You're dealing with hardware from 1900 up to 2010. You don't do that in the other types of professions."
Safes are displayed in a corner of the store, but sales and service of them represent only about two percent of sales, according to Kerr.
Main Lock Shop employees open about 50 to 60 safes each year, without using sensitive fingers, a good ear and a stethoscope. They use a drill.
"There are guys that can do that," Kerr said. "We don't. It's too time consuming. We're too busy."
There 14 people on the payroll. Seven trucks are sent out to service customers, mostly in Bergen County. Kerr estimated that 60 percent of his business comes from commercial accounts with organizations such as real-estate management companies and schools. The trucks visit some of these accounts, and some of the accounts dispatch their employees to pick up things at the store.
"We do a lot of churches," he said. "We just did complete lock jobs on two churches this week."
The remaining revenues are from sales to individuals needing security components for their homes or keys for their automobiles.
While those seven trucks are important for trade, the Hackensack store contributes about 50 cents of every dollar of revenue, Kerr said. The store is often a busy place - which is necessary because of the owners' low-margin business model.
"The huge amount of volume that we do inside the store makes up for not having huge markups," Kerr said. "I probably undersell everybody by 30 percent."
Kerr said sales are off about 10 percent from where they were before the economic recession began in 2007, and had fallen about 20 percent by last summer, when trade began to improve. About 12 months passed before this business was impacted by the weak economy.
"We stayed pretty busy," Kerr said, "because people were getting fired and businesses were moving out."
The Main Lock Shop was founded 52 years ago at 803 Main St. and moved to its present location in 1966. Kerr bought the business in 1969, and Blackley was a sold a share about 15 years ago.
As he searches for parts and products, Kerr routinely comes across new-old-stock items that date from before his purchase of the business. Other products are contemporary in their manufacture.
"We do a lot of electronic business now," he said. "Access systems, a little bit of TV monitoring, door magnets, things like that."
Kerr and Blackley lease their store, but they own a former service station across the street. That property is used as a warehouse and a parking lot.
The store sells door locks for $10 and door locks that cost $400. There are classroom-type locks, so named because they can only be locked with a key, and lever locks - which feature levers instead of doorknobs and are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The managers of apartment houses favor the locks made by Kwikset.
"I sell tons of this stuff," Kerr said, holding a Kwikset lockset. "I just got a 22-case order in this week."
Rows of automotive key blanks hang from hooks behind the front counter. A customer recently ordered an ignition key for his 1971 Chrysler, and automotive keys are an important segment of sales. But newer keys, with their microchips and ability to unlock doors and trunks from a distance, are more complex and more expensive than traditional car keys.
The key for that '71 Chrysler was $1.90. If the same customer had come in needing a key for a 2010 model, the cost would be $75.
"Especially Saturday, the high-security key is a big business for us," Kerr said, noting how they had sold $500 worth on a Saturday in early December.
One line of high-end locks is made by a company called Mul-T-Lock, and is based in Israel. Customers often ask Kerr to see the Mul-T-Lock products.
"They're very popular, because of the population of this area," he said. "They're very hard to defeat, very hard to pick."
