Opening in 1945, Miller’s is our town’s oldest family-owned business. For three generations, Miller’s credo has been “service, service, service.” If you’re looking for chandelier cleaner, flea repellent, giant mouse traps, underwater weed cutters or fancy fireplace accessories, then Miller’s has it.
When you stroll into Miller’s, you notice a whiff of nostalgia that clings to the nooks and crannies of this venerable building. It takes you to a different era. In fact, it is another era. The store still offers that rarity in a credit card driven world, a house charge account. At one time, Bob Miller says that there were more than 1,000 accounts billed out each month by his wife, Mary Con. Surely that had to be about every residence in town.
In fact, Bob's son, Steve Miller, says that moving from handwritten bills and inventory management to automated billing and ordering systems is the store's most impactful change. What once took 20 hours, now is finished in one hour.
During this Covid period, Miller’s has thrived on homeowners who, driven nuts by staying inside, have become obsessed with home gardening projects. In the past year, the best-selling items have been grills, plants of all varieties, garden tools and mulch. At one point, the mulch was in such demand that it became as hard to find as toilet paper.
Steve Miller has been managing the store since his dad’s retirement. But his dad, Bob, 93, still drops in every few weeks. Miller’s today is still about personal service, but it’s about tradition, too.
Miller’s stays trendy by selling cool socks, an extensive line (24 feet of shelving) of hard-to-find bottled soda pop, old-style candy, and so much more. During the presidential election, the hot items were these colorful, candidate sodas.
Our Oral History with Bob Miller is now available to be listened to here, on our website.
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