Getting keyed up in Plainfield

Plastic on the original key had split open.

Central Paint & Hardware (formerly Park Hardware)
to the rescue.

When the key pictured above slipped off my keyring and bounced underneath my car and out of reach while leaving church the Sunday before Christmas, I took it as a sign that it was time to get a replacement.

The heavy black plastic into which the key was embedded had split, making it easy for the key to slip off the ring.

So, on Thursday I headed over to Grove Lock & Safe on Grove Street just off West Front Street.

Closed. Gate shuttered, and the building next door as well, which they had also been using. A passerby said they had been closed for more than a month.

In the age of Google this was hardly daunting, or so I thought.

Googling "locksmith" and Plainfield, I turned up a list of three -- including Grove, another on Park Avenue in South Plainfield and Walmart in Watchung Square Mall.

Since I was right around the corner from the South Plainfield address, I toodled on over (it was near the city line).

To my surprise, the storefront in the Google listing was vacant (it had been an auto supply store; I guessed that the locksmith worked at a booth inside).

That was OK, I had the company's phone number, which I dialed.

A young man answered and when I told him I was sitting outside the address given online but there was nothing there, he said they were undergoing renovations (the sign I was looking at in the window clearly said "For Lease") but that they were offering mobile service and could come to me.

Then he quickly asked me what key I needed. When I said for my old Toyota, he asked what year and model.

Then he said, "I can come to you right now, but I have to tell you beforehand that the service will start at $140 minimum."

"No thanks," said I (thinking to myself, WTF? for copying a car key?).

OK, so my fallback now was to go the the Walmart.

After Walmart Customer Service fumbled my initial question (they didn't know what a "locksmith" was), a young man was called to the counter who said, "Oh, you mean you want a key!" Yup.

After getting directions I headed to the key counter in the farthest rear corner of the store in the sporting goods section.

A very pleasant and chatty middle-aged woman took my key, chucked it into a couple of slots that evidently gauged which blank to use (smart idea), and decided on the blank that was needed.

When she pulled out the little bin in which the blanks resided, it turned out to be empty. Foiled!

"They'll be in in about a week to ten days," she said.

"OK," says I, "I can come back."

Driving back into town, the thought crossed my mind that perhaps Home Depot could cut a replacement key.

But by this time I was turning onto Front Street and decided not to go all the way back out -- just in case.

While calling a friend about an entirely different matter, I told her of my little "key" adventure. She confirmed that in fact Home Depot does do keys, but she thought that the hardware store on Park Avenue near 7th Street also made keys.

NO LONGER PARK HARDWARE

Park Hardware started out near Rapp's Pharmacy and had been there for years -- we had used the store when we first bought the house in 1983. After the owners (a father and two sons) died a few years ago, a new owner took over and moved the store up the block into the Masonic building.

Since then it was recently bought by George Piahaleos, and the name was changed to Central Paint & Hardware, joining his stores in Jersey City and Paterson.

Looking them up on my phone, I called and a helpful young woman told me they indeed made keys -- providing it was a key with no chip in it.

"No chip," says I, "my car is ancient."

Within minutes I parked in the lot by Ferraro's Pizza and whizzed across the street to the hardware store. Once inside, I spotted the racks of keys immediately.

A pleasant gentleman behind the counter quickly picked out the right blank and put my key in the duplicating grinder. Cost: $4.95.

While the key was being cut, we talked about the store and its new owner and the expanded offerings -- including Benjamin Moore paints.

 

I left with this shiny new key. Cost: $4.95.

With Young's in Fanwood having closed, this is the now only paint store for miles around.

Joking, I said, "So you can match any color someone brings in?"

"Absolutely!" he and the young woman said uno voce. To prove it, he held up a strip of purplish plastic that looked like a baseboard or a counter splash and said he was custom-mixing a paint to match it.

So, whether you need a key, custom paint or any other hardware need (including kitchen cabinets), Plainfield has you covered!

CENTRAL PAINT & HARDWARE
623 Park Avenue
Plainfield, NJ 07060
(908) 754-9137
Cindy Figueroa, Manager

 
Check them out online here.

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 -- Dan Damon [ follow ]

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