Twelve times in one hour Friday morning, customers ask owner Mark Wenner when he’ll finally close the doors at the Browns Point Ace Hardware.

The answer: May. Sometime probably by late May.

Billie, the store shih tzu, settles into a slice of sunshine falling onto the welcome mat just inside the front door.

Customers have learned to step around the dog.

When she heard the news about the closure, Browns Point customer Judy Findley said, “I went home and cried.”

She turns to Wenner.