La Boîte à Clous is bringing back the friendly neighbourhood hardware store. Opened by longtime friends Yan Xu and Emmanuel Richard in March 2014, the store is one of a handful of quincailleries in the province that are completely independent. “I had a plan to open something of my own because I knew everything about hardware stores,” says Emmanuel, who worked for eight years for one of the bigger chains. “I live right around here, so I knew this area was missing a hardware store. There are also a lot of people without cars here, and a lot of people who don’t like big box stores.”
Emmanuel and Yan’s plan was set into motion quite unexpectedly one day when they happened to spot a "for rent" sign in the window of the space that for 19 years had housed the famous Video Beaubien, an independent movie rental store. They knew at once that this was their window not only to go ahead with their plan but to keep the space independent, which was important to them and, they believe, the people of the neighbourhood as well.