By Natasha Brenneman Staff writer
Corrin Electric Supply Co., the oldest family-owned business in Oil City, will close its doors for good later this month.
Cindy Amsler assists a Corrin Electric customer with a sale in the building’s warehouse on Friday. Amsler has worked at the store for 25 years. (By Richard Sayer)
Managers at the store say the death last August of owner Rich Moulton led to the decision to end operations on Feb. 17.
Corrin Electric has been around for 128 years, and the business has seen many changes. But many other aspects have stood the test of time.
Instead the filing system, sales and all other day-to-day operations are performed manually on a card catalog filing system.
All sales are recorded on the cards, and money is tallied in an ornate, antique cash register. The store has never accepted credit cards.
“We do things the old fashioned way,” said Cindy Amsler, who has served as an office administrator for 25 years.
Amsler said Moulton saw the business flourish without the technology, and he felt continuing without technology was the best course of action for the company.
Walking through the warehouse, the shelves are lined and labeled neatly with a vast array of supplies to meet the needs of many local businesses that Amsler said frequent the store daily for odds and ends. The inventory contains more than 11,000 items even as the closing process has started.
She said the company added specialty items to the stock over the years to meet the needs of various industries in the area.
In addition to Cindy Amsler, the business has a core of loyal employees. They include Marian Amsler, who has been part of the staff for 41 years as the office manager; and Bob Sweeney, the warehouse manager for 38 years.
Sweeney said he performed many daily functions, but his favorite part of the job was always the customers.
“We (the staff) always felt the customers were our special people,” said Sweeney. “I feel we serviced our community very well, and I have no regrets about that.”
Since Moulton’s death, the company has been under the close supervision of Chris Schnatterly, who is operating as the business manager.
His firm opened two years before electrical service came full-scale to Oil City.
“The business came in at a very opportune time, shortly before the electrification of the entire area,” said Schnatterly.
The office soon moved to larger quarters, the second and third floors of the Cowell Building on Center Street.
Corrin again shifted the business site in 1912 to the Paul Building at the intersection of Main and Center streets where it remained until a major city redevelopment project in 1966 resulted in the demolition of numerous buildings along that corridor.
Moving to Seneca Street, the company changed the name from W.H. Corrin Electrical Contracting Co. to Corrin Electric Supply.
Its business as a wholesaler of electrical supplies to industrial and commercial contractors and electric suppliers remained unchanged over the past many years.
The building will be taken over by Caldwell Signs as a way to consolidate several area offices when Corrin closes up shop.
