After 63 years, family business prepares to close

Ronnie Cione, 72, has been the owner of Ronnie’s Hardware, at 187 Franklin Ave. in Franklin Square, for the past 31 years. Before Ronnie took the reigns in 1979, his father, Ronald R. Cione, owned the store. The store has been a well-known local business for the past 63 years, and is now planning to close its doors in April.

Cione, who was raised in Elmont and graduated from the Sewanhaka High School in 1956, started working for his father — who owned the Ronnie’s Hardware when it was located at 681 Franklin Ave. in Franklin Square — when he was only 10 years old. “I know plumbing like the back of my hand; I know this whole business,” he said. “I worked on Saturdays with my dad, when my friends were out playing ball in the summertime.”

Not only did working for Ronald R. Cione teach Cione a lot, it was a great experience for him. “My father was very well-liked in the community. He knew everybody by last name in the 1940s, ’50s and even ’60s,” Cione said. “People looked to us for hard-to-find items, for one-on-one service.”

Cione, who now lives in West Hempstead, kept that family service going when he took over Ronnie’s Hardware in 1979 and moved it to 187 Franklin Ave. The store, which sells small supplies such as electrical wires, paint, tools, plumbing hardware, snow shovels and ice melt, is closing due to a business slowdown and a changing industry.

From the 1940s to 1960s, he explained, more people did their own handy-work at home, and people needed hardware stores for their home projects. “In those days, people didn’t hire landscaper, plumbers … today, people make big money but they don’t know how to put a faucet together. They hire someone to do it,” he said. “The times have changed.”

Additionally, the increase of large department stores over the past 40 years has created less of a need for hometown hardware shops. “There is no more loyalty to ‘mom and pop’ shops … younger generations are flocking to the big stores.”

John Randazzo, the owner of Sandy’s Party Supply Center in Franklin Square, said the community already misses Ronnie.