Best Place to Get Your Saws Sharpened

With the closing of Johnson Sentry Hardware on 39th, Kansas City is rapidly running out of creaky-floored, narrow-aisled competition for Home Depot and the like. But 75-year-old Smith Bros. Hardware is doing just fine, thank you. And with customers such as the Chiefs, the Royals and the grounds crew for the Kansas International Speedway, the Raytown institution is likely to hang on for a few decades more. Greg Glidewell first put on an apron here 35 years ago and bought the place in 1983. Son Todd Glidewell expects to take over next year. Don't expect much change. Glidewell says the men who talk customers through plumbing and wiring problems are "half way knowledgeable or damn good bullshitters." And the old National cash registers work even when the power goes out, though they are labor intensive on sales of $100 or more: A $300 sale calls for three bangs on the $90 key, then one hit on the $30 button.