Tinsel and Tools
By Cinton Kelly
Look, I appreciate wood as much as the next guy, but I’m not exactly the type to hang around lumber yards. So when I pull into Williams Lumber in Rhinebeck, I’m not sure what to expect. But I can tell you “major North Pole vibes” was not even on the bingo card.
Right in the center of the store, amidst the aisles of caulk, tools, and screws, sits a sparkly winter wonderland. Toy trains chug around ornately decorated faux evergreens, while onlookers belly up to the white picket fence that keeps overeager hands from causing a mini-derailment. The other customers and I, we’re all sort of mesmerized, like we’re accessing some deep childhood memory from arm’s length. I spend about ten minutes just staring. Ten minutes! Do you know how much doom scrolling I could get done in that amount of time? What’s going on here?
“This is my way of telling people to slow down, to enjoy what they have,” says Kimberly Williams. Seems to be working. Parents bring their kids in after school to watch the trains circle. Men linger a little longer than their wives might have anticipated. Even seasoned contractors pause for a gander, undoubtedly subtracting that time from their billable hours.
All this holiday spirit is the passion project of Kim, senior VP of Retail Operations and Marketing, who runs the store and its six other locations with her father, Sandy, and sister, Kelly. Their grandfather founded the company in 1946, making it a nearly 80-year business.
Kim is endlessly entertained by the transplants who’ve moved upstate in recent years. “All these New Yorkers came in during the pandemic,” she says, “and desperately needed matching Carhartt jackets to bring firewood inside. It was hysterical.” She can also tell a country newbie by their approach to choosing the right snow shovel. “They’ll sort of scoop up imaginary snow, seeing if it feels right. The locals just grab one and say, ‘Yeah, this’ll do.’”
Though she may chuckle at the occasional city fish out of water, they are, after all, why she’s here. A second-generation Rhinebeck native, Kim loves retail and knows the business from the ground up. She started at the age of 14, taking inventory in the lumberyard and learning grading (whatever that is—I didn’t ask). “I had to earn a lot of respect, being the boss’s daughter,” she says. “People would think, who’s this snot-nosed brat coming in? Especially being a female. It took some time, but I did it.”
She did indeed. And as I stand here, watching these trains locked in their never-ending loops, I can’t help but reminisce about a time when retailers prioritized joy the way Kim does. And I also ask myself, do I really need another Christmas ornament that looks like a tekka maki roll? And the answer is yes. Yes, I do.
Williams Lumber and Home Centers, 6760 Route 9, Rhinebeck