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Tom Cost: The ‘Value’ of Community

For over four decades, the Cost family has been the center of all things hardware for the shoreline and their Middlesex County customers. Since 1983, Tom Cost, son of the original owners, and the Cost family have been an integral part of the community, from the weekend warrior to the busiest general contractors in the area.

Killingworth True Value opened in July 1983, when Tom’s dad, Tom Cost Sr., and his mom Jackie purchased Killingworth Village Hardware, originally located in the Killingworth Village Shopping Center. Soon, they dropped Village from the name, added the trademark True Value, and began establishing themselves as the most trusted supplier in the area, according to Cost.

Long-time residents know that the store has moved its location several times along Route 81 to serve their expanding customer base better, says Cost, but the store has always remained the go-to vendor for pretty much everything from nails to snowblowers to generators. The store moved from its long-time site on Route 81 in 2008 and is now situated just south of the 80/81 traffic circle, serving a large geographic area.

Cost says his family’s journey with the store hasn’t always been a smooth one, but it has been one he and his staff have taken on with pride and determination.

“My dad first started taking over the store back in 1983, and I’m sure my father’s vision was, ‘We’ll start this thing as it is, and then we’ll just go from there.’ Unfortunately, he was never able to leave his full-time job. He would come home and do the finances in the evenings, go in and help customers on Saturdays and Sundays,” says Cost. “My mother was a dietician at the VA in West Haven, but she took early retirement from that job, took a two-week accounting course, and started learning how to just do a general ledger.”

Cost jokes that his father’s retelling of the story was, “The original owner taught us how to make keys and run the register and then just left.”

Cost says he and his brother Adam grew up working at the store and the family farm in Guilford. According to Tom, he joined the store full-time after completing his business and marketing degree from the University of Maine in 1992, something that he wasn’t necessarily planning on undertaking at that time.

“In ‘91 to ‘92, I was preparing to graduate up in Orono [Maine] with a business degree, and I needed to do some sort of exit thesis, and my professor said, ‘Hey, Tom, everything you’ve done in this class has had something to do with your connection to your parents’ store; do that.’ So, my thesis was really a business plan of how to grow this thing because, at that time, my parents said, ‘We’ve given this thing a try; it’s been about ten years, we haven’t been able to grow, we are maxed out, so we need the plan to grow, or we’re going to sell,” says Tom. “I did not go to school with a plan to come back and run the store. The feeling was at that time that second-generation or third-generation family should have real work outside the business for four to six years; I obviously didn’t get that. So, my first project after graduation, mostly on my father’s coattails, was navigating the small business administration. We did that, put a package together, and got it done. It was a phenomenal success when we made that first move.”

Cost grew up with a work ethic instilled by his upbringing on the family farm in North Guilford. Maple Grove Farm has been a working farm for several generations of the Cost family, and according to Tom, his and his family’s ability to undertake the operation of such a large business was literally seeded on the farm.

“Our background was growing up on the family farm. I wasn’t the best student in high school,” jokes Cost. “And despite all of the higher education I have, it was that farm experience that was far more valuable to me. The ingenuity, the way your mind works, if something breaks and you’re in the middle of a field, and you only have three things to fix it with—this, is all you’ve got. Those are skills that come from being on a farm. I try to instill that in my staff today. I tell them to sell the customer what they need, not what they think they need. Because lots of time you don’t need to replace something. We may not have exactly what you need, but with a little Yankee ingenuity, we can make it work.”

Cost says the sudden passing of his father in October of 2021 was an immensely difficult time for the entire family and for the employees, many of whom have been with the store for more than a decade. They were overwhelmed by the generous and kind words from so many patrons.

However, Cost says, it brought to light how much his mother, Jackie, has meant to the company and how much the store meant to the community.

“My mom grew up a farm girl too. And she gets it. This is a tough industry for women. She had to endure a lot from people. Some male customers simply didn’t understand the knowledge and value of my mom. She took it on the chin quite a bit,” recalls Cost. “There were times people said some not-so-kind things to her, but my mom really is incredible. She still works about 15 hours a week, and she keeps her mind sharp. She is needed and wanted and a very important resource for us. Her experience can’t be replicated. We actually have a great crew here all around. More than half of my full-time employees have been here for more than a decade. We are very fortunate in that respect. My parents, our family never would’ve been able to do this on our own. We need quality people that have the same goals and respect for the customer.”

Cost says that the store’s relationship with the community has been the driving force behind his family’s commitment to their store. Whether it is hurricanes, blizzards, or floods, Cost has kept the doors open and procured vital equipment when other area hardware stores weren’t open and didn’t have the processes to track down critical supplies.

“We instill, and we got this from my father, it’s important to watch your numbers; obviously, we’re a business, but if you are fair and you are honest and you take care of your customers, all of that other stuff is going to work out okay,” says Cost. “Two feet of snow? We’ve got to be open. Irene, Sandy, that freaky Halloween storm. Through all of those, we were open. Stop by, have a cup of coffee, and charge your phone. I had the guys drop everything and just concentrate on generators and making sure folks were able to keep them running. Our service department gets prioritized on whatever is needed; generators, chainsaws, pumps. Whatever our customers need in an emergency.”

Cost adds, “Our customers are why we succeed and why we’re in business in the first place.”