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Wankel's Hardware featured on NTV Nippon Television: Wankel's Segment

Following an industrial explosion in New Jersey and a deadly fire at a nightclub in Rhode Island, Americans were advised to seal their windows with duct tape and plastic sheeting in case of an emergency. Nippon Television News, one of Japan's leading daily news shows, visited Wankel's Hardware, the red, white and blue hardware and housewares store on the Upper East Side, for reactions from New Yorkers and an interview with fourth generation business owner Katherine Wankel.

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Wankel's Hardware featured on NTV Nippon Television: Full Story

Following an industrial explosion in New Jersey and a deadly fire at a nightclub in Rhode Island, Americans were advised to seal their windows with duct tape and plastic sheeting in case of an emergency. Nippon Television News, one of Japan's leading daily news shows, visited Wankel's Hardware, the red, white and blue hardware and housewares store on the Upper East Side, for reactions from New Yorkers and an interview with fourth generation business owner Katherine Wankel.

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New York Times: From Hardware to Harvard in a Few Hard Years

By LYNDA RICHARDSON
New York Times
Published: June 22, 2004

VAN TRAN, a young man only six years removed from Vietnam and now bound for Harvard, stands in an aisle of Wankel's Hardware on the Upper East Side, pointing to objects he did not know existed when he first passed through the store's turnstile. He picks up an air-conditioning filter. A filter? What was an air-conditioner? And what was that turnstile all about?

"Forgive me," Mr. Tran said, placing his hand over his heart, awkwardly trying to explain how he has changed since those days. "I am not the person you see here."

''Every item, you name it, was totally strange to me,'' he said softly. ''I felt so inferior. I am all of a sudden thrown into this country. I don't know anything. I just know two things were clear. Somehow, I have to get a job and somehow I have to get an education.''

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Van Tran Interview on NPR

Van Tran spent most of his life as a Vietnamese refugee living in a camp across the border in Thailand. When he and his family were told they could come to the United States five years ago, they could bring only their most treasured possessions. Van Tran brought his books--287 books. On Tuesday, Mr. Tran graduates from Hunter College in New York City with a grade point average of 4.0, and he earned that degree while working full time at Wankel's Hardware Store in...