When Gerardo Marasco first stepped foot into the Jean-Hebert Hardware store in 1983, it wasn’t meant to be more than a summer job. “It was my father that didn’t want me to stay home during the summer. So, he asked the owner for a job. And I eventually got one,” Marasco said. Marasco stayed on for 47 years and even bought the business 25 years ago from the family of founder Jean Hebert. The hardware store opened in 1917, when the Saint-Louis ward—now part of the Plateau Mont-Royal borough—was a far different neighbourhood, dominated by French Canadian bourgeoisie. With time, it became working class again, eventually resurrecting through gentrification. “It was really exciting with the people, the customers. Fun to help our customers through their projects and all that. I loved it,” he said. But at age 63, Marasco has had enough, so he is shutting down. Although business remains good, he said things changed after COVID-19 and finding reliable staff became an insurmountable task. “I think the staff from what I have seen since the pandemic must have changed something because they don’t want to work anymore. They don’t want to do hours. They don’t want to work weekends. They don’t work nights. If they want to work, it’s with a big salary, but do the least amount of work,” Marasco said. Now he only has one employee left and far too much work for his age. “Now 50 hours a week, standing up without sitting seven days a week. Some days I closed because I can’t take it anymore,” he explained. And it’s not like Marasco didn’t try selling his business. “Once it gets to financing, the banks are tough on lending money. Most of them wanted me to finance a portion of it, which I was not interested in. And some of them they found it was too much work.” For Marasco, it seems the work ethics of a new generation are simply no match for what his little business built over a century — and something he alone cannot fix.
