Spectators packed the bleachers on a warm Saturday night at Highland Speedway, as the race cars lined up under the lights. Among them is the 2005 Crown Vic T3, piloted by Sheryl Plocher. On the side of the car is the Tonnies Hardware & Rental logo that is clearly visible as she sprints around the track.
For Sheryl, Tonnies Hardware & Rental is never far from her mind, whether she is racing for a win or working with customers at the family store. Sheryl has been managing this community retail landmark for five years and is now the fourth generation of her family at Tonnies Hardware & Rental in the village of Albers, part of a rural stretch of Metro East.
“I take a lot of pride in being different, but one thing that’s constant is Tonnies is always on my mind,” Sheryl said. “Even when I’m not there, I’m advertising for Tonnies on my race car.”
Born into the business
For many adults, childhood memories are built around playgrounds and backyards. For Sheryl, her formative years were rotted in shelving units, nails, screws, power tools, and the creak of a front door swinging open for the first customers of the day.
“I’ve been here my entire life,” Sheryl recalled with a smile. “People ask me, how long have you worked here? I’ve been here almost 48 years. I’ve been here since I was little. This was our playpen.”
As Sheryl and her sister grew, so did their responsibilities at the family store.
“I would go with my dad every morning at 7:30 before school started, and I would start the computer system for the day, and then I would go to school,” shared Sheryl. “As soon as I got home from school, then I would start working again. I would stock the shelves or run the computer just doing whatever I could do.”
Tonnies was Sheryl’s favorite place to spend time as a child, and her dedication to the store was tested early.
“I clearly remember one day, and I was probably in about fourth grade or so. I was eating at grandma’s house, which was across the street, and I had gotten into trouble,” grinned Sheryl. “I don’t remember why, but my mom grounded me from coming to work with my dad in the morning, and I was devastated. Because I wanted to go to work. That’s all I wanted to do.”
Sheryl looked around the store as she laughed, shaking her head at the memory.
“I have always been that way, and nothing has changed. You can find me here 12 hours most days. I just don’t leave. I don’t want to go home. I just absolutely love being here.
“There is always a reason to stay,” continued Sheryl. “There’s always something to do. There’s always something that can be improved upon. There’s always paperwork to be done, or orders to be entered. Or creating an ad for Facebook, because that’s where I gain a lot of my business and my followers. There’s just always something to do and something you can do better.”
A store as old as a famous shipwreck
The roots of Tonnies Hardware & Rental runs deeper than most businesses in this stretch of the state. Steve Tonnies, Sheryl’s father, also serves as the keeper of history for this family business.
“Everybody knows where we are,” Steve said with pride. “We’ve been at this same location since 1912. That happens to be the same year the Titanic sank. So it’s easy to remember when we started.”
More than a century after its founding, the store remains a place that meets the needs of its customers.
“It’s a retail hardware store that also offers industrial rental as well as rental for the home and gardener,” Steve explained. “We’re proud of our store. And we’re proud of the over-100-year longevity.”
Steve’s wife, Susan, tells us that Tonnies sold more than hardware in its early years, serving as a general store for the community.
“We had groceries back in the day. Dry goods, quilting materials, some cards, also some clothing,” noted Susan. “We have evolved through the years to whatever the customers needed, and we tried to fulfill that need in whatever way we could.”
For Steve, the store’s history is not merely something he inherited. Steve says he was literally born into the business.
“I was born in 1943,” Steve recalled. “I guess it happened at a Valentine’s Day party that year. My dad delivered me, because the doctor couldn’t make it. I was born upstairs above the store.”
Now 82 years old, Steve has spent his entire life within a block of Tonnies. Retirement, it turns out, is a flexible concept when the business is in your blood, as Sheryl explained to us.
“Theoretically, he retired 20 years ago,” Sheryl said with a playful smile. “Did he really quit? No! We probably just stopped paying him, but Dad had real trouble giving it up. He liked to be here every day.”
Everything but the kitchen sink and maybe that, too
Step inside Tonnies, and the sheer scope of the store stops you. This is not a place that carries a limited selection of general hardware. Sheryl is quick to point out that the store means business.
“We are in a community of about 1,200 people, and you’re wondering why people would come to us? We have a wealth of knowledge. We train our staff to know a little bit more about our products,” said Sheryl. “We are well stocked, so they know we should probably have it on hand. If we can’t get it, we’ll find it for you.”
Tonnies motto, Sheryl noted, is simple. “We sell everything. If we could make our store bigger to carry more, we absolutely would,” Sheryl proclaimed.
The inventory reads like a checklist for every project conceived by a homeowner or contractor. But one department in particular has put this small-town store on the map well beyond the borders of Metro East.
“One of our draws is our Milwaukee Tool department. It’s very expansive,” Sheryl explained. “Milwaukee Tool is a leading power tool and hand tool company. I’m sure most people have heard of it. We bring in customers from all over. We’re the largest distributor in this hardware channel in Illinois and Missouri currently, and one of the larger ones in the nation. We have over 2-thousand sq. ft. of Milwaukee products.
“We combined everything to basically make it into everyone’s little dream zone,” continued Sheryl. “We had a young girl come in last year and she said, ‘Dad, this is like the cosmetic store Sephora, but for men.'” Sheryl laughed. “People are just drawn to the store. They ask for Milwaukee Tools for Christmas. For their birthdays. They can get gift certificates so they can buy whatever Milwaukee tools they desire.”
Many of the customers are locals, but not everyone. Sheryl says some make a pilgrimage of sorts just to get to Tonnies.
“There was a guy that flew in from North Carolina,” Sheryl remarked. “He was visiting family, and he brought an extra suitcase just so he could fill it up with Milwaukee tools to bring back home, because he didn’t have a good local source.”
Tonnies Hardware & Rental has sold products to customers all over the United States and even as far as Africa. When an employee was on deployment there, the store sent a variety of products to him overseas. There is a map behind the counter that tracks the hometown of customers who visit the store and purchase Milwaukee tools. Over the years, the pins on the map have grown substantially with no sign of slowing down.
“It’s almost like a challenge to see where we can sell to next,” smiled Sheryl.
“What brings customers back over and over makes practical sense,” Sheryl added. “If you’re doing a project, you don’t want to run 20 minutes to the box store, you want to come as close as possible. I also think a lot of people in the area are community minded, so they want to support the small businesses.”
As good as it gets
Running a hardware and rental operation is demanding work under any circumstance, noted Sheryl, but she stated that her position, in what has long been considered a man’s world, requires a special kind of grit.
“Growing up, they always wanted my dad,” Sheryl recalled. “Is Steve here?’ You’d answer the phone: ‘Is Steve there? I need to talk to Steve.’ They’d come in the door: ‘Is Steve here? Well, I need a guy to help me,’” recalled Sheryl. “Well, this is as good as it gets, and you’re looking at me.”
The doubters rarely stayed skeptical for long, according to Sheryl. A customer needing help with a pressure tank gets his answer before he finished asking. Someone needing special wiring discovers that Sheryl knows exactly what’s needed. A contractor wanting to rent a Bobcat gets an offer from Sheryl to help load the dozer.
“Definitely, being a woman in a man’s world is challenging,” Sheryl stated. “And I am up for it? Ask me something. And if I don’t know the answer, I will find it for you.”
“I legit have guys calling me now asking how to get a pump going and that’s pretty flattering, because I’ve come a long way,” Sheryl said with a prideful smile. “I always say ‘I don’t have all the knowledge yet, because my fingers aren’t even. But I try to learn something new all the time, because you can never know everything.’”
Her parents say they have boundless pride in Sheryl, whom they noted has grown sales at Tonnies and expanded the footprint of the store.
“We are very proud of Sheryl because she has taken this business to the next dimension,” Susan noted with a loving smile. “The contractors love her because she knows her stuff. She’s fun to work with, and she gets it done. They trust her. I think that is very important.”
For Sheryl, the trust runs in both directions, including toward the team she has built around her. The staff at Tonnies includes four part-time employees and two full time, including Sheryl.
“I know my workers have become my family. My extended family,” observed Sheryl with a grin. “In fact, my rental guy, Travis, is in the family now and he’s my pseudo brother.”
Failure is not an option
There is a weight that comes with a long legacy of any business, and Sheryl seems to be very aware of the family history that ties Tonnies to this small community.
“This place means so much to me, because it’s all I have,” Sheryl said quietly. “I saw my dad work hard growing up, and I saw how much it meant to him. Since I’m fourth generation, I don’t want to fail. Failure is not an option. I do whatever I can to make the business keep going. I definitely don’t want to let my parents down.”
“I don’t find it to be a job being here,” said Sheryl. “I love everything about being here. I love dealing with the customers, even the difficult ones. Every day is a different game. You never know what you’re going to get. You never know whose well pump went down, or what water line you’re going to have to help somebody figure out to fix. Or maybe they got their faucet off Amazon, which is not an ideal place to buy your faucet. But yes, we will help you figure out how to hook it up. Maybe you need to figure out how to dig up your sewer line. Well, let me go rent you an excavator.” She smiled. “It just never gets boring.”
Sheryl’s commitment to selfless is not confined to the operating hours at Tonnies.
“We were raised growing up that you give back,” Sheryl explained. “If somebody needs help with something and it’s 6:00 at night and you’re in the middle of cooking dinner, you stop dinner and you go help them.”
Sheryl describes times when customers had frozen water lines, or cattle were without water, and her father dropped everything to open the store after hours.
“I think the community remembers that,” Sheryl stated. “We’re always there to help them. They know they can count on us.”
That tradition was on full display during a recent stretch of heavy rain with five inches falling in a single event. Sheryl, who had just moved into the apartment above the store, was in the building around the clock. She posted on Facebook that if anyone needed help with pumps or flooding, she would be there.
The calls came in through during the night. One customer needed a transfer pump to start clearing a flooded gas station. Then, at 11 p.m., the phone rang one more time.
“The guy says, ‘I hate to bother you, but my basement is flooding,'” Sheryl recalled. “I said, ‘not a problem.'” At quarter past eleven, Sheryl was downstairs pulling sump pumps for a neighbor in need.
“Helping anybody, any time of the day,” she said simply. “I’m going to make my best effort to help you.
“Tonnies Hardware has mattered to this community for generations and for over 100 years,” continued Sheryl. “I think mainly because we support the community and we are here to help them. They know they can count on us. I think that is one of the big reasons we’re still here.”
Advice from the floor
For anyone thinking of owning a retail business, Sheryl explains her life is not a 9 to 5 job.
“Don’t expect to leave your work at the door. The questions follow you home. What could I have done better today? What can I do better tomorrow? What can I change? Is my pricing correct? What can I do five years down the road to draw in more people?” explained Sheryl with confidence in her voice. “I find it so rewarding to be here. At the end of the day, you helped so many people, and you continue to let them grow their business.”
There is a particular kind of pride that comes not from stumbling into success, but from willing it into existence with hard work.
“I’m very proud of what I have accomplished in the store,” Sheryl said. “I think I make my parents pretty proud. I’ve kept it going, which is a huge task in this day and age. Box stores have killed so many small businesses. It’s a real struggle out there. But I’m definitely proud to keep it going. I just never imagined I would be running it, even though it was my dream since I was little.
“I saw my dad helping people, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” Sheryl said with emotion. “I wanted to help and have a purpose. In other aspects of life, I didn’t think I fit anywhere. But I feel like I fit here. I love helping my community, and people leave happy.”
