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LAMBERTVILLE: Jonah Helmer is fourth generation at ‘Finkle’s’

By John Tredrea, Special Writer
   LAMBERTVILLE — The fourth generation of the Finkle family is on the job this summer at the family’s well-known Lambertville business, Joseph Finkle & Son, Inc.
   Started in 1917 by Joseph Finkle and billed as “The World’s Most Unusual Hardware Store,” the place, at 7 Coryell Street, is commonly called just “Finkle’s” by folks in and around town.
   With school closed for the summer, teenager Jonah Helmer is working side-by-side with his mother, Rachel Finkle, and father, Sven Helmer, at the family business.
   ”I like working here,” Jonah said Monday. “I like interacting with the customers and staff. It’s good experience for me, and it’s fun. I’m here weekdays and every other Saturday. I’ll be here until the last week of August. We’ll go on vacation then, and then it’ll be back to school.”
   Rachel Finkle is happy things are working out with Jonah on the job. “He has a very mature personality,” she said. “He’s waiting on customers, putting away stock. He’s keeping his eyes and ears open, learning where everything is and learning what the customers are talking about.”
   There’s a lot to know at Finkle’s. When you think of a hardware store, you think of a retail establishment inside a building. There are four buildings at Finkle’s.
   ”We have 35,000 square feet of retail and warehouse space,” Ms. Finkle said. “It’s not only a hardware store here, it’s an industrial supply house.”
   With the exception of lumber and drywall, contractors can buy just about anything they need at Finkle’s. “We sell electrical and plumbing supplies, decorative and industrial hardware and steel shapes — angles, beams and channels,” she said. “We sell multiple categories of all our stock. We have both great breadth and depth in our inventory.”
   Ms. Finkle has been on the job there for 20 years now. “I have the 1917 deed in my grandfather Joseph Finkle’s name,” she said. “His son Abe, who was my father, worked here, too. So I’m the third generation here and Jonah is the fourth.”
   Will Jonah make working at Finkle’s his life’s work? “It’s too soon to tell about that,” his mother said. “He’ll have a lot of choices and options. We’ll see.”
   Meanwhile, Jonah spends his non-working time doing things that befit his age.
   ”I like to visit my friends and do active things outside, like paint-balling,” he said. “I worked here Saturdays last year during school and plan to do the same thing this year,” said Jonah.