Crookston Hardware Hank’s announced that Bruce Arvidson is retiring as the store’s General Manager tomorrow after nearly nine years of managing the store.
Arvidson began work at Hardware Hank’s in 2014, soon after the current store owner, Craig Buckalew gained ownership and turned it completely into a hardware store. While Arvidson has lived in Crookston for 25 years, it wasn’t until he began working at Hardware Hank that he got to know the people in the town. “I’ve enjoyed meeting a lot of people. Betty and I have been in town for 25 years, but I was over at Target before this, so I didn’t know a lot of Crookston people, but I’ve enjoyed making new friends, and Crookston is a great place to live,” said Arvidson. “We’re not going anywhere, so we’re still going to be around, so I’d like to thank the Buckalews for giving me the opportunity to spend the last nine years here, and I wish them well. I also want to thank the people of Crookston for being so cooperative for the last nine years.” Arvidson stated he always planned to retire around the time he turned 65 and use his new time to take care of some health issues and travel. “As of right now, I have no plans, I have a couple of health issues I have to take care of, but when I get those done, we’ll see what happens, but I’m just going to take it a day at a time,” said Arvidson. “I’m going to be 65 in June, and that was always on my mind that at 65, I wanted to retire and enjoy life with the time you have left. They say you want to be able to travel and see things.”
To fill Arvidson’s place, Hardware Hank’s has hired a new General Manager and Assistant General Manager whom Arvidson has trained to help the store continue to run smoothly. “We have a manager already in place, Jason Klinnert, and he’s been here for four to five months, and we just hired an Assistant Manager three weeks ago, Amanda Kasper, and she’s a Crookston native that came from Euclid, and she moved back to help,” Arvidson explained. “Those two are more than capable of taking over, so the store’s in good hands.” Arvidson has worked with them to teach them the procedures and set them up with product knowledge and training they have to complete, but shared he feels confident they will do a good job taking care of the store.
Arvidson will work his last day as Hardware Hank’s General Manager tomorrow, February 23, until noon.
