Ericson Cash Hardware in Stromsburg has closed. Local reporting in June 2025 noted that since it shut, people in Stromsburg and the surrounding area have had to drive to York or Columbus for hardware. The store deserves recording. The building went up in 1945, and Sterling Anderson started work there in 1946 straight out of high school, bought a half share in 1954 and became sole owner about nineteen years later when his partner died. He was ninety-two and still running it in December 2020, when a Lincoln television station profiled the store as a local landmark; longtime employee Carolyn Nielsen had been there over thirty years. Anderson’s summary of the trade: over the years we have known all of the customers, and it has always been about trying to help the people of the community.