The Work We Do: Robert Patchell, Cutchogue Hardware
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Hi, my name is Rob Patchell.
I’m in sales here at Cutchogue Hardware. I’ve been here for about eight and a half years now.
A typical day — it starts out, I come in in the morning, get all the merchandise out that we keep in the front of the store; we have bulk items like grills, rakes.
We get that outside, make sure that’s all lined up nice, so customers who drive by see it and see what type of merchandise we sell.
Typically, we’ll get deliveries. We get two deliveries per week from our major wholesale supplier.
So, I’ll go over that, price stuff up on the shelves, get it out there.
The rest of the day I really just help customers. I help them find, you know, what they’re looking for, help them out if they have any problems and stuff, and just assist them any way I can.
I’ve just become interested in hardware over the years. I like solving stuff, helping people out with problems.
Like, for instance, say, someone’s doing an irrigation problem — they have a leak. I like to help them fix that. I actually like plumbing. I kind of look at it like a puzzle. So, I like plumbing and helping people fix stuff, you know, put together parts. It keeps it fresh and keeps your mind sharp, if anything.
I like the people. We have great customers that come in here. People walk in a lot, and it’s a lot to look at. It’s like, ‘Where is this? I don’t want to spend all day looking for it.’ So I’ll help them find, say, they’re looking for a screw behind the counter, I can help them with that. Say, if someone comes in, they say, ‘Look, I got a leak under my sink, I need help with this part.’ I’ll go in the back with them, show them what they need, so they get the job done correct.
One thing that, you know, we value here is our customer service. We look at our customers as family. We really look at them as one of our family, like a brother, a sister, something like that. So we treat them nice and fairly, and we’re lucky that we have a great clientele and they make work enjoyable every day.
“The Work We Do” is a Suffolk Times multimedia project profiling workers on the North Fork made possible by Peconic Landing.
