Hardware offers ‘True’ values

By SUSAN LYNN
Register Editor

True Enterprise employees include, from left, Teresa True, Tracy True, Cody Murray and Dale True. Free giveaways, refreshments and drawings for Christmas stockings will highlight Saturday morning’s open house.

The success of Teresa and Dale True’s hardware and construction company is its customer service combined with high-quality merchandise.
True Enterprise, 1326 N. Main St., sits at the northern edge of town. The building was more than doubled in size in 2004 when the True’s contracting business expanded to include a full-size hardware store.
Dale and Teresa work as a team, she said, a combination that has worked well in business as well as marriage. Both are from the area. “We know our people and their needs,” Teresa said, a fact that sets their business apart from big box stores and keeps customers returning. They also can get just as many items as a bigger store offers. “We’re happy to order anything a customer wants,” Teresa said. They sell American Standard and Delta faucets, for example, and can easily get all their makes and models with days.
Teresa and Dale began their business in earnest in 1989 after foregoing farming. They went into partnership with Richard Snider in the contracting business along with a small “nuts and bolts” hardware store.
The Trues bought out Snider and in 2004 expanded the store to handle a large paint line, electrical and plumbing items and heating and air conditioning equipment.
Business is good, Teresa said, but is aware that “it can turn quick.” Being diversified in their services and inventory has helped them weather the ups and downs of either construction and retail, she said.
At Saturday’s Christmas open house, True Enterprise will be decked out in holiday lights. The store carries the energy-saving LED Christmas lights. Wafting through the air will also be the sweet scent from Circle E Candles, a popular line of candles known for their ability to burn completely with no waste.
Free giveaways and refreshments will greet customers Saturday morning as well as a drawing for Christmas stockings. The store will be open from 8 a.m. to noon.
True Enterprises also carries a large supply of knives and knife sets; gas fireplaces, kitchen cabinets, tile and stone countertops and coin Critterz Banks for children.
If you need to see just how the newest line of appliances, hardware, countertops or cabinets look, Teresa and Dale use their home, just up the road, as a model home. Not a bad deal, she says with a smile. She has recently installed new stone countertops in her kitchen. The Silestone is 90 percent granite and 10 percent manmade and has a lustrous shine.
True Enterprises specializes in its paint service. They carry Expression Gallery by Behr and Modern Masters paint. When she had more time, Teresa formerly taught classes in how to apply paint in creative ways. She still keeps abreast of new techniques and she and her daughter, Tracy, are available to show customers how to turn walls into works of art including stenciling and bas-relief.
“Faux finishing has come a long ways,” Teresa said.
Tracy joined her parents in the business in 2004. She works in bookkeeping and retail.
The business has a full-time staff of six, one part-time employee and is “on the lookout” for another part-time employee, Teresa said of the increasingly busy time of year.
The Trues also have a son, Brian, who is shop foreman at Mid America in Le Roy.
They have four grandchildren, Paiton True, Brett Stout, Dergan True and Jalea True.