We never really had a chance (or a need) to frequent the former Somerville Lumber Company (eventually called Somerville Home Center) off Chimney Rock Road in Bridgewater, NJ.
We found out that they closed for good at the end of October 2019.
Looking at their online reviews – it appears that they were a little rough around the edges with their customer service (an aggregate 3.6 out of 5-star rating these days is “fishy.”)
This is one of those businesses where online “reviews” can really impact them negatively, it seems. It doesn’t help that most people now nickel and dime – even if a company like this spends a lot of time “pre-sale” to help a customer with a complicated project. I guess when everything is made in China and sold exclusively online, will people miss family stores like this. Too bad.
They indicated that they were “retiring,” but to us – we wonder if this was a “semi-forced” closing for economic reasons. I mean, they just had a super-fancy “re-opening” a short year and a half ago. No one on the edge of wrapping up goes through such a process to re-vamp their business like that.
No one planning to retire bothers to upgrade their business like this.
Also, with day-laborers, cheap big-box stores, and other private contractors undercutting – it’s probably not easy to maintain a large retail footprint along with the huge overhead of staff, sales, and administrative people.
Certainly, a tough industry to be in these days. A few bad reviews spread quickly online and rapidly affect you. Most people these days take what they read online as utmost truth, and have no desire to find out for themselves, it appears. That’s what happens when you put too much faith in robots, artificial intelligence, and computers.
Auction December, 5 2019 for Somerville Lumber
Anyway, if you’re interested in buying up whatever inventory they have left – plus retail store apparatus – there is an auction this week via AJ Willner.
Here is the link for the auction.
You might be able to score a good deal on something.
