Total bummer:

Talked to Bill Wood of Wood’s Ace Hardware at Roanoke’s Southwest Plaza today. He said he will close the store by the end of October after almost 28 years in the business, and it was not his choice.

Rather, he had a buyer who couldn’t agree on a lease with the owners of the shopping center. The deal fell through, and Wood faced the choice of signing two five-year leases and paying twice the current rent on his 13,000 square feet of space or closing up.

At 68, he chose to close.

As Wood showed some metal shelves in his warehouse to a prospective buyer,a woman customer told a sales clerk, "It just breaks my heart."

He has similar feelings.

"I’m very upset and very disappointed," he said.

His father operated Turner Drug Co. on the Roanoke City Market, which closed in 1978. Wood opened the hardware store at Southwest Plaza the next year.

With his busy manner and compact build, he looked made for the job and it looked made for him.

Hardware stores require a vast knowledge of a million things. He and his staff had that knowledge — still do, until the store closes — and have always shared it in a straightforward way.

Seven jobs will be eliminated by the closing. Wood has no idea what the center’s owners plan to put in his space.

He takes pride in having helped people who needed help the most, including many elderly widows who have said they are lost without their husbands to fix things. One woman came in earlier this week and cried.

"I grew up here," said Wood’s daughter, Christi Nicely, an occupational therapist for Carilion Health System. She bounced her son, Noah, 11 months old, on her knee and said the store had been a constant in her life. Losing it, she said, is like losing a family member..

Monika Wood, Bill’s wife, has mixed emotions. Closing will enable them to do other things, but leaving after all these years makes her sad.

Bill Wood plans to continue working, possibly in South Carolina, where they have a residence. A son, Bill Jr., and his family live in the Roanoke  Valley.

The sudden change in plans prompts prompts Wood to tell young people not to depend on the sale of their businesses to provide for their retirement.

Since he opened in 1979, individually owned hardware outlets in the area have dropped from 15 to five or six, he said. Small drug stores are outnumbered by chain pharmacies and full service gas stations have dwindled, as well.

Change comes. We adapt. But Wood believes that whether we’ve meant to or not, we have become a society where neighborliness and caring for one another have disappeared. We’re separating into the ultra-rich and the ultra-poor, he says. And without personal friendships and caring, we have nothing.

He thanked all the customers he won’t see again.

He excused himself, said he had to get some lunch and then see his doctor.

He has lost 16 pounds since August.