Approaching 100, The Key Shop preparing for the long haul

The Key Shop is a venerable Columbia business on an inconspicuous corner of Taylor Street: to passersby, it might appear to be just a modest storefront with a neon sign on it — until they need a key.

The company, founded in 1925, specializes in repairing and re-keying locks, duplicating keys and fitting locks to keys. And while it has a long history in Columbia, the company is planning for an expanded future.

On New Year’s Eve, company president Jesse Nix gave orders to close the store early. He had a surprise to spring on his employees, who came to work that morning prepared for a full day’s work.

Senior employee Tracy Smith, who has been with The Key Shop 40 years, locked the doors at 1:30 and led the company’s seven employees — who include Nix’ son — in a car caravan across town. Their destination was a 10,000-square-foot storefront and warehouse a couple blocks from the former S.C. State Hospital on Bull Street.

Inside the facility, previously occupied by CMS Commercial Maintenance Service, Nix had set out a feast of barbecue pork and chicken with all the fixings. That’s when the employees learned this would be their new workplace.

“We had some good fellowship, they toured the building,” Nix said.

Local boy does well

Nix, born in Olympia Mill Village in 1962, said he went to work at The Key Shop in 1979 with only an eighth-grade education.

In those days, 40 to 45 percent of The Key Shop’s business was residential, Nix said. Today, after the advent of such one-stop big box stores as Home Depot and Lowe’s, 85 to 90 percent of the business is commercial.

Work in a key shop includes moving new tenants into buildings, where locks must be re-keyed, doors and locks repaired, and card entry and master key systems put in place.

“We’ve got a core group of customers where, it doesn’t matter how much they (would) save by going elsewhere, they are going to call us and we’re going to take care of them,” he said.

Business has been good to The Key Shop over the years, Nix said. Keys and locks are a recession-proof business: when the economy slows, people are more prone to protect what they have, and when the economy is good, people generally have more valuables to protect, Nix said.

Nix said he wishes he could find more young people interested in going into the business, which pays from $10-an-hour for inexperienced help to $65,000-a-year for the most experienced.

“It’s still a viable, good business to be in,” Nix said, noting The Key Shop is patronized by some of the same customers as when he was hired 37 years ago. “We’ve been blessed. We’ve been real lucky. We’ve got some wonderful employees and absolutely terrific customers.”

One of those loyal customers is Birthright of Columbia, an emergency pregnancy center downtown that has done business with The Key Shop for 36 years, said Hank Chardos, executive director. The center, which responds to girls and women who face unplanned pregnancies, often without the birth father, helps the women continue their pregnancies safely and healthily, sometimes assisting them day to day, Chardos said.

But the center also racks up numerous “calamities” when it comes to locks on the building, he said, and over the years, The Key Shop has always specialized in making each customer feel as if they were the only customer, Chardos said.

“We’re a hop and a skip (away),” Chardos said. “At the same time, what’s amazing about The Key Shop is their responsiveness to emergencies. What I’ve got to do is find out where the new location is going to be, ’cause I need to know.”

People tell Nix they drive by the store every day, and have for the past 10 years, but never knew The Key Shop was there, he said.

The new digs

The “break room” in The Key Shop’s current 1,800-square-foot location barely has room enough for a microwave and a refrigerator, Nix said.

Though a date has not been set yet, when The Key Shop moves into its new digs, the business will have more than triple the space as it does now, Nix said.

His four locksmiths on the shop floor will gain some much-needed elbow room to continue making keys, re-keying locks and installing new ones. The warehouse in the rear of the building will allow The Key Shop to stock much more inventory and also allow Nix to park his vehicle fleet inside at night for better security, he said.

Nix recently purchased the 10,150-square-foot facility from Commercial Maintenance Service for $650,000. CMS will downsize its business in that location and rent space from Nix, he said. The Key Shop will occupy 6,500 square feet that will give Nix a new executive office and create a more appealing showroom, he said.

The biggest driving force behind Nix’ decision to leave the little business nook on Taylor Street was his deepening desire to see The Key Shop continue as a viable business in Columbia and to leave something for future generations.

“I’m stoked to get my grandson in this,” said Nix, who will turn 54 next month. “You don’t see many businesses that have three generations in them. That youngest grandson is mine. (He) keeps saying, ‘I’m going to work with Pa-Pa with I get older — I’m going to work with my Pa-Pa.”

“I WISH HE WAS STILL HERE”

The Key Shop was started 91 year ago in Five Points by Arthur Adams. It was a key and bike repair shop at that time, Nix said. There might also have been a gun lathe in the shop, which allowed the owner to do light gunsmithing, he said.

The Key Shop next moved to Main Street and was taken over by Adams’ son, Buddy, after his father’s death in 1946, according to Nix. Buddy Adams ran the shop until 1972, when he sold it to Dave Weigle. Weigle — who sold the business in 1975 but repurchased it 1980 — sold it to Nix in 2014.

The Key Shop has flourished at the Taylor Street property for 50 years, which was part of the sentiment Nix had in purchasing the business, he said. But while Weigel sold the business, he still owned the property.

“So, I decided I needed to go ahead and establish myself in a location where I can be there in 15 years when I get ready to retire. And it worked out real good,” Nix said. He witnessed his father’s death at age 59, his mother’s death at that same age, and his sister’s unexpected death at age 54, he noted.

Nix, who has had an aortic aneurysm and several heart attacks, including a massive one four years ago, said he hopes his health holds out long enough to see The Key Shop hit the century mark in 2025.

“My dad was illiterate,” Nix said. “He couldn’t read or write. I wish he was still here to see what my wife and I have been able to accomplish.”

This story was originally published February 14, 2016 at 12:27 AM with the headline "Approaching 100, The Key Shop preparing for the long haul."