The owner of the new Daugherty's Appliance Center said he is excited for the prospects of his business.
"We decided we want to keep the tradition going, hopefully for the next 100 years," Scott Boedigheimer said.
Operating under a name similar to the former Daugherty's Hardware & Appliances wasn't free. The rights were purchased in May from the former owners. Boedigheimer wanted to keep the name because of the more-than-100-year reputation the store built.
Unlike its namesake, the new store doesn't sell hardware. It sells appliances and employs service and repair technicians. Boedigheimer said the new store will continue the tradition of excellent customer service to attract and retain customers.
"So far things are going good. We're getting a lot of traffic through here. It's not like the traffic we saw at the old store yet, but I am impressed with what I've seen so far," Boedigheimer said. "The customers from the old store are really glad we're still in business because they've bought appliances with us forever, so I think this worked out for them."
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The store is staffed by about 10 former Daugherty's employees. Like the new owner, they are excited about the new store.
"We've had a mixture of old and new customers," said Mike Stauffenecker, former manager of Daugherty's closed Superior location. "Considering we just opened, and wedidn't really advertise to begin with and everybody thought we were closed, we're happy with what we're seeing so far."
Visible from the freeway, the new store, which opened June 2, is on 40th Avenue West and First Street. It's open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and until 3 p.m. Saturdays. It has a slightly larger sales floor than the previous store.
The new Daugherty's sells Samsung appliances, which are high-tech and will appeal to younger customers, Boedigheimer said.
Although the store's opening was not advertised, Boedigheimer plans to start advertising more over the summer, culminating with a grand opening celebration in September. He is delaying the grand opening until loose ends such as making more parking spaces and painting the exterior are complete.
The Lundbergs, the former owners of Daugherty's, still own Poplar Hardware in their hometown of Poplar and helped Boedigheimer get his new store up and running.
"All along, the Lundbergs helped me out with this, everything from where to go, who to talk to, and how to get things set up," Boedigheimer said. "The last week of May, we were moving from the old store to the new store, and Scott Lundberg was here for four days helping us uncrate appliances, get everything moved in and make sure that we got everything up and running."
He added that throughout his employment at Daugherty's, the company treated him like family, and that relationship wasn't thrown out when the business closed.
