E. C. Simmons Hardware was a very successful hardware distributor, commonly called a jobber. They were in business in the same era as our Parker Company, Mr. Simmons entry into hardware ownership began as a junior partner in the firm he worked with, Wilson, Leavering & Waters in 1862 within 6 months one of the partners died and the firm name was changed to Waters, Simmons & Co. and continued as such until 1872 when it became E.C. Simmons & Company. A corporation was formed in about 1874 and called itself Simmons Hardware Company which absorbed the previous company. They were located in St. Louis.
The first jobbers catalog in 1881 used a slogan, "A jobbers first duty is to help his customers to prosper". Keen Kutter had been chosen as the brand name label of the company. The motto throughout their life was, "The recollection of quality remains long after the price is forgotten".
In 1922 Winchester and Simmons joined forces as Wincheser was a hardware jobber as well, they were called Winchester-Simmons. That arrangement did not work out so successfully and in 1929 the assets were divided and Simmons Hardware reverted back to the original status.
Shapleigh Hardware Company was a competitor and bought or merged Simmons into their company about 1940, they maintained the Keen Kutter logo on varios lines of their products. As with our guns the depression and the war had a very negative effect on business and the way business was done.
The time line for the hardware business glory days mirrored Parker, and as the need for hardware including axes, woodworking tools, etc. waned with our country's flourish, the hardware distributors became less successful, they just couldn't figure how to change their market strategy to the masses. I have an original 1930 Simmons Hardware Co. catalog and they sold everything you can imagine. The catalog was 2090 pages.
My understanding is that Parker sold jobbers their products at about 1/2 of list and the retailer had adequate mark-up left to retail, to the point that some retailers sold below list.
Probably more than you wanted to know.
Mike
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