This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Merriam Hardware is a family hardware store and small-engine repair shop on Merriam Drive, opened by two brothers in 1978 — the place people in northeast Johnson County take a mower, a chainsaw, or a snow blower that has stopped working.

Description

Merriam Hardware trades at 5652 Merriam Drive, on the industrial-edged stretch of Merriam Drive that forms Merriam’s historic downtown. It describes itself as a “family owned hardware store for over 40 years who specializes in small engine repairs,” and holds dealerships for Stihl, Snapper, Briggs & Stratton, and Troy-Bilt.12 The trade is repair-led: neighbours report bringing in lawn mowers, weed eaters, snow blowers, chainsaws, and power washers, and the shop is credited with blade sharpening, tune-ups, and diagnosis of more involved engine faults.3 It also sells outdoor power equipment including riding and zero-turn mowers, and stocks OEM parts.4

It keeps trade hours rather than retail hours — open 7:30 a.m. on weekdays, closing at 5:00 p.m., with a Saturday morning only and closed Sunday — which is the schedule of a shop whose customers are landscapers and homeowners dropping equipment off before work.2

City-designation note. The street address is 5652 Merriam Drive and the ZIP is 66203. The business’s own Facebook listing gives the city as Merriam, KS; aggregator listings (Yelp, Birdeye, MapQuest) give the postal city for 66203 as Shawnee, KS.124 “ — which municipality the parcel actually sits in has not been confirmed against a Johnson County parcel record or a City of Merriam boundary map. The name, the street, and the store’s own listing all point to Merriam; the ZIP’s postal city does not settle municipal boundaries.

Why this one matters

The store sits inside the stretch of Merriam Drive that the City of Merriam has been acquiring and, under one engineering proposal, would raze. Merriam has been buying downtown properties for Upper Turkey Creek flood mitigation and possible redevelopment — $2.2M for two properties in 2024, and up to $3M in 2026 for the four storefronts occupied by KC Strings, one of the best-known businesses on the street.56 HNTB’s early proposals call for razing all of historic downtown between Johnson Drive and the Merriam Drive bridge.56 Residents opposing the programme have publicly located the demolition front by reference to this store — “the other two buildings between the farmers market and Merriam Hardware.”7 “ — whether 5652 Merriam Drive falls inside any acquisition phase is not established by any source consulted, and no reporting reviewed names Merriam Hardware among the affected properties.

Ownership and history

Merriam Hardware was opened in 1978 by Ray Masters and his brother Gerald Masters. In 1984, Ray became the sole owner.8

Raymond Clarence Masters was born in Kansas City, Missouri on 6 July 1950, graduated from Shawnee Mission North in 1968, married Cynthia (Cindy) Simpson in 1971, and worked as an ADT installer for ten years before opening the store. He was active in the Travelers Protective Association and ran a competitive barbecue team, F.O.M.S.B. He died of cancer at home in Merriam on 2 October 2017, aged 67, survived by his wife Cindy, five children, and ten grandchildren.8 A City of Merriam business-history feature records Ray and Cindy Masters as “owners of Merriam Hardware” from the perspective of a neighbouring downtown business, describing them as the kind of neighbours who “would always lend a hand.”9

“ — who owns the business now. Ray Masters died in 2017 and no source consulted names a current owner. Third-party corporate-record aggregators list “Raymond Masters, President, Merriam Hardware Inc.” — evidently stale data predating his death — and are not cited here. Candidates for succession include Cindy Masters and the couple’s children (Carrie Cunningham, Michele Spiezio, Leslie Fong, Raymond Craig Masters, Trish Bray), but no source consulted states that any of them took over. Do not publish a current owner name without a Kansas Secretary of State filing, a dated press item, or a first-party statement.

“ — the store’s tenure at 5652 Merriam Drive specifically. The 1978 founding is well sourced; whether it has always traded from this address is not. One dealer-locator listing gives 5654 Merriam Drive, suggesting the business may occupy or have occupied more than one bay in the building.10

Services

Reported services, from the business’s own self-description and from customer accounts:

  • Small-engine repair — lawn mowers, weed eaters, snow blowers, chainsaws, power washers13
  • Blade sharpening3
  • Engine tune-ups, maintenance, and fault diagnosis3
  • Stihl, Snapper, Briggs & Stratton, and Troy-Bilt sales, parts, and warranty service12
  • Outdoor power equipment sales including riding and zero-turn mowers; OEM parts4
  • General hardware12

“ — the service list is assembled from a Facebook about-line, an aggregator business description, and a summary of customer reviews. No first-party service or price page exists to confirm it.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Merriam Hardware, Facebook page — asserts: “Family owned hardware store for over 40 years who specializes is small engine repairs. Stihl, Briggs & Stratton, Troy Bilt dealer..and many more”; address given as 5652 Merriam Dr, Merriam, KS; phone 913-677-0061. First-party self-description; retrieved via search-result rendering of the page’s About text — the page itself could not be fetched directly. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Merriam Hardware — aggregated Google review and business listing, Birdeye. URL — asserts: “Small Engine repair shop, Stihl, Snapper and Briggs & Stratton Dealers, Hardware Store”; 5652 Merriam Dr, Shawnee, KS 66203; 83 reviews at 4.8; hours Mon–Fri 7:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Sat 8:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., Sun closed; live “Open now” status on 2026-08-26; profile unclaimed by the business. Operating signal only — not used as a source for owner, founding, or history facts. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Merriam Hardware, Nextdoor business page — asserts: summary of verified-neighbour recommendations describing service on lawn mowers, weed eaters, snow blowers, chainsaws and power washers; blade sharpening through to complex engine problems. Customer-report aggregation; operating and service signal only, not a source for owner or history facts. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Merriam Hardware, MapQuest business listing — asserts: 5652 Merriam Dr, 66203; specialisation in outdoor power equipment including riding and zero-turn mowers; postal city rendered as Shawnee, KS. Directory listing; cited for the merchandise line and the city-designation discrepancy only. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. “KC Strings selling iconic downtown properties to Merriam in up to $3M deal,” Johnson County Post, 2026-03-04. URL — asserts: Merriam City Council voted 7-0 on 2026-02-23 to spend up to $3 million on four KC Strings properties (5826, 5830, 5842, 5844 Merriam Drive) plus three other storefronts under the same ownership; purpose stated as flood mitigation and downtown revitalisation; HNTB proposals call for razing all of historic downtown between Johnson Drive and the Merriam Drive bridge. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩ ↩2

  6. “Merriam purchases two more downtown properties for $2.2M,” Johnson County Post, 2024-07-23. URL — asserts: city purchase of 5718 Merriam Dr. for $1 million and 5700 Merriam Dr. for $822,000. See also “Merriam residents fear downtown flood plan could level historic buildings,” Johnson County Post, 2025-06-02 — johnsoncountypost.com — which reports that more than a dozen buildings, many from the early 20th century, would be displaced under the HNTB alternative. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩ ↩2

  7. Resident campaign post on the Merriam downtown demolition, Facebook — asserts: demolition under way in downtown Merriam; “the other two buildings between the farmers market and Merriam Hardware” identified as next. Partisan campaign material; cited only to record that residents use the store as a landmark on the demolition front, not for any factual claim about the store. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩

  8. “Raymond Clarence Masters” obituary, Cremation Center of Kansas City. URL — asserts: “In 1978, Ray and his brother Gerald opened Merriam Hardware in Merriam, KS and in 1984, Ray became the sole owner”; born 1950-07-06 in Kansas City, MO; Shawnee Mission North class of 1968; married Cynthia (Cindy) Simpson 1971-04-17; ten years as an ADT installer; died 2017-10-02 aged 67 in Merriam, KS; survivors including wife Cindy, brother Gerald Masters of Merriam, and five children. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩ ↩2

  9. “Spotlight: Baker’s Marble,” City of Merriam, Moving Merriam Forward — Downtown resources. URL — asserts: in a first-person account by the proprietors of Baker’s Marble (5718 Merriam Drive, operated more than 30 years, property purchased by the City of Merriam in 2024), “Ray and Cindy Masters, owners of Merriam Hardware, were like family and would always lend a hand.” Municipal publication. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩

  10. Merriam Hardware Inc, Joy of Mowing dealer locator — asserts: 5654 Merriam Drive, Merriam, Kansas 66203; phone 913-677-0061; page last updated 2022-12-10. Stale listing — cited only for the 5654 address variant and the “Merriam” city designation, not as an operating signal. (Accessed 2026-08-26.) ↩

See also

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/merriam-hardware · record updated 2026-08-26