08/21/2026
Mitchell Hardware is in the Red Chair with Swiss Bear
Lindsay Simms & Winnie Smith, Owners
Mitchell Hardware, 215 Craven Street, New Bern
How was the decision made to take over the business? Were either of you working here at the time?
Lindsay: We were not working here, and we never talked about it. We just both knew. It was literally like, "When are you gonna be here, when are YOU gonna be here?" We didn't ask each other any questions. Everybody has asked us that. They're like, “Well, did you have to decide?” I was like, "No, it was what we were meant to do." I was in Atlanta running a design showroom, and I told the owner of the company what happened, and she said, "I'm gonna miss you." I didn't even have to tell her.
Winnie: I was living in New Bern, had only been back for a couple of years, working right down the street. So, I came a couple weeks later, and Lindsay was here a few months later, and we've been here for eight years. We both like managing things.
We had talked over the years, or at least with Dad, but we just never expected it to be so soon, and we also thought that we would learn from him. So that was a really hard part of having to come here, you know, after his passing and find little traces of him. But it was really crazy when we were preparing for our first staff meeting, of all days, we were going through this file, and I found a folder, and it said Staff Notes. It was in dad's handwriting, and they correlated with what we had already prepared to talk to our staff about, and it was so similar to what he used to talk to them about. It was kind of like a nod, and a pat, like you're doing something right, or your instincts are very similar, and so that was beautiful.
Lindsay: It's been in our mission to remain a neutral and positive place for people, because the world is so polarizing. We just go through so many seasons, and we've been through Covid, we've been through elections, we've been through hurricanes, we've been through so much, and we make it known to our customers that you can come here, and it is the safe space for everybody. We have people of all walks of life who approach us the same way, and I want that to continue to be that way. And a lot of business owners and people are very vocal when it comes to a lot of negativity, and I think we've just dedicated ourselves to say nothing or just be nice. You know, it's like the saying, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all, that's what we believe. Not because we don't have opinions, but because we love everybody.
