By SARA FURLONG

s.furlong@bradfordera.com

MOUNT JEWETT Nate Smith has purchased the former Mount Jewett Market Place and aims to open Worth W. Smith’s seventh location there by the end of this year.

In its 96th year in business, Worth W. Smith currently has four locations in New York and two in Pennsylvania.

‘We bought the building and are currently remodeling it,’ Smith said. ‘We’d like to be open by the end of the year.

‘We found a really nice building for sale and it’s right in the middle of Mount Jewett. We like the town and we like doing business in Pennsylvania.’

It’s easier, Smith said, to do business in the Keystone State than across the state line in New York.

He added the 5,000-square-foot building will be ‘very similar’ to Worth Smith’s other locations.

‘It’s going to be a great store, I’m very optimistic,’ Smith said. ‘The town has been very welcoming, which we appreciate.’

The Market Place, which before changing ownership was a Shur Save grocery location, closed in late 2022.

Mount Jewett Mayor Brianna Howard said, ‘We’ve obviously had a

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The former Mount Jewett Market Place, which closed in late 2022, will be the newest Worth W. Smith Hardware location.

Era photo bit of a gap not having a business in that location, so we were very excited to hear that they would be opening a hardware store there. Especially because it’s something the community will really be able to take advantage of.”

While Smith isn’t completely sure just yet how many jobs the store may bring to the borough, he estimated five. Howard said, “Any business that brings jobs to the community is a win in my book.”

Smith is the third generation of his family to own and operate the business. His grandfather was Worth W. and his father, Dale, was its second generation.

“He’s 88, alive and well,” Smith said of his father. “My wife, Theresa, and I have been doing this over 20 years.

“She is an integral part of our business. She does all of the accounts payable and accounts receivable for six stores. That’s a lot of bookkeeping,” Smith said. “She’s very pretty and also very smart.”

The company’s Olean locations are at 1624 W. State St. and 840 E. State St. Cuba’s store is at 65 Genesee St. and Salamanca’s is at 100 Main St., Suite 15. In Pennsylvania, Bradford’s store is at 949 E. Main St. and Eldred’s at 147 Main St. The new Mount Jewett store’s address will be 28 W. Main St.

“A lot of folks in our town are contractors or hobbyist builders, so this should be a really busy location for (Worth Smith),” Howard noted. “It’s hard to have a grocery store in a small community because things go bad easily. Hardware store items have a much longer shelf life, so this is a really good fit.

“The next closest hardware store is in Kane or Smethport, so everyone in between will be able to come to the store and get what they need,” she reasoned.

Asked if he had any other plans for expansion, Smith said he “better take it one bite at a time. But I’m always thinking, always looking.”