Open
Monday - Friday
8:30am-7pm
Saturday
8:30am-5pm

TRYGAR'S
44 Ferry Street
South River, NJ 08882
732.254.2112
trygar@att.net

© 1997 Trygar's

In May of this year (2004) we were invited to attend two classes that Professor Thomas Hubbard teaches on Competitive Market Strategies at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.  Professor Hubbard uses the Wall Street Journal article about us verses Villager Hardware as a case study for his MBA candidates.  He has been teaching the class since the article came out and has been e-mailing us over the years to stay up to date on our progress.  After Home Depot decided to drop the Villager Hardware concept Tom was excited that we survived the Villagers threat.  Part of the class he teaches emphasizes that owner operated busnesses can do things that large corporations can't.  He thought it would be fun for the students for Bonnie and I to come to Chicago and sit in on the class.

So we sat in the back of the class, incognito, and listened to his lecture and class discussion period.  The class discussion period was fun.  Some of the MBA candidates thought we should close our store and work for Villager because there was no way we were going to stay in busness against Home Depot.  Others thought the Villager Hardware concept was a mistake because it replaced stores that Home Depot had put out of business.  Finally at the end of the discussion period Professor Hubbard askes if anyone knows what happened to Villagers.  That's when he called me down to tell the class about Villagers going out of business.  The students asked some questions of me and Bonnie (who was sitting in the back of the class, she's shy sometimes) and then we hung out afterwards with Tom and a few MBA candidates and had some beers in the faculty lounge (sweet!).  In was a great time, we had a lot of fun and we both thank Professor Hubbard for the opportunity.

One last thing.  A couple weeks later Tom had his college reunion at Princeton University so he stopped by the store for a short visit.