Bud Tetrault uses putty to make a bed for a new pane of glass Thursday at Tessier’s General Store in Pawtucket. Tetrault has been working at Tessier’s for nearly three decades.   Times photo/Butch Adams 

By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — After 91 years in the paint and hardware business, the Tessier family knows what sells.

They also know just where — in a 3,000-square-foot store that is jammed with merchandise — to locate that odd-sized bolt or hard-to-find plumbing fixture.
“We always try to give good service,” said longtime owner Edward “Bud” Tessier with a smile. “We try to be your store of first resort, instead of last resort.”
A wide array of merchandise, competitive pricing and most importantly, a helpful and knowledgeable staff make up the business plan that has allowed Tessier’s General Store, at 837 Central Ave., to thrive in the sea of “bigger box” stores that have sprung up in the last couple of decades.
“If a customer comes in with a leaking faucet, we help them fix it,” Bud said. “From the 20 cent washer to the $500 compressor, we have the goods.” 
Tessier’s slogan, “An Old Fashioned Paint and Hardware Store,” reflects the fact that they will gladly order an item they don’t happen to stock, fully assemble the wheelbarrows, lawnmowers and snowblowers they sell, and, in general, just take the time with their customers to see a job through. “If you come in and we make you a key, it usually works,” noted Tessier.
Bud’s grandfather, Lucien, started the business back in 1917, selling a combination of dry goods, food, clothing and bedding, along with hard goods.
Tessier’s father, Edouard, took over in the 1920s when Lucien, a tinsmith by trade, wanted to spend more time working outside. The merchandise was eventually switched to paint and hardware lines, which has been the store’s focus ever since.
Today, offerings reflect both the standard items of the past — those fittings and fixtures that were designed for older houses — and the innovative products of the present, such as the state-of-the-art “Mosquito Magnet,” and the latest in camping lanterns, pneumatic tools and insulated work clothing.
There is also the recently introduced line of California Paints, a brand favored by today’s contractors and decorators, and a computerized color-matching system.
“That’s how you survive ... keep on changing with the times,” Tessier said.
He added that the store’s mix of merchandise is geared mainly toward two types of customers: the contractors, painters, plumbers and other tradespeople who come in on weekdays, and the “home fix-it person” who generally shops on Saturdays.
“These types of customers have different needs, and we have to blend the two together,” he explained. The contractors are looking for staple items while the homeowner is interested in the newest trends.
Tessier said he has managed to survive the onslaught of the larger home improvement stores by trying to keep his pricing competitive and by stocking merchandise that is more tailored to local customer requests than the “regionalized” inventory approach common to big box retailers.
This does, however, lead to having to maintain a huge inventory, which fills the store’s basement and second floor.
In addition, Tessier said he will special-order items he doesn’t have in stock. Longstanding relationships with a broad range of suppliers mean that Tessier can usually get such items delivered quickly.
Tessier rotates about 30 percent of his stock with the seasons, currently replacing the hoses, lawnmowers and grass fertilizer with ice scrapers, shovels and snow blowers.
In addition to its hardware and supplies, Tessier’s offers such services as glass and screen repair, and tool repair and sharpening. Bud Tetrault, a former contractor who has worked at Tessier’s for almost 30 years, is the store’s “fix-it specialist,” Tessier noted.
Bud Tessier began helping his father in the store as a child. He remembers many Christmas seasons when the two would be feverishly working to assemble bicycles and Radio Flyer wagons, back when the store carried toys.
He took over store operations after his father suffered a heart attack. Bud estimated that the elder Tessier, who passed away in 1972, put in about 50 years with the family business.
Likewise, Bud Tessier’s three children have also grown up in the paint and hardware business. Son Edward, also known as “Little Bud,” has taken the initiative to moving Tessier’s into the computer age. He has set up the company’s Web site, and also sells some of Tessier’s most sought-after items over the Internet via sites such as Amazon and eBay.
For example, the store has sold some hard-to-find plaster ceiling screws and a Lurex 3 Mosquito Magnet product to customers all over the world, and has shipped its Dickies thermal worksuits and Iron Clad products to places as far away as New Zealand, Russia and Iceland.
Tessier’s daughter Nicole and her husband, Austin Golding, both artists, also do their part: The couple designed and painted the new outdoor mural advertising Tessier’s General Store that depicts Pawtucket’s landmarks. The mural gives a nod to the past by showing a circa-1925 can of Tessier’s floor wax balanced by the logo for the new California Paints line, which boasts, “The Colors of America.”