Leiser Rental rentalbarn.com

I have been working on a history of the business for 20 years. For 19 years, I have been trying to condense the book into a story.

In January 2026, Leiser’s Rental and Sales entered its 78th year in business. My father founded the company in 1948 as a Toro lawn mower dealership. I started assembling mowers at age eight in 1963 and, over the years, worked in nearly every part of the business, from tractor-trailer driver to wedding planner.

My father’s business grew alongside the suburbs, as new homeowners created steady demand for lawn equipment.

As the postwar housing boom continued, we expanded by introducing new products to the area. In addition to lawn equipment and chain saws, we added backhoes and bulldozers and became an International Harvester construction equipment dealer. When small tractors for suburban homeowners appeared in the 1950s, we also took on the Wheel Horse line.

By 1955, my father’s business had outgrown his father’s garage, so he built a showroom at 2960 Linden Street in Bethlehem. Additions followed almost every year. By 1969, the place had two attics, six distinct levels, and 17 doors to lock every night.

We entered the rental business in 1960 with old trucks, camping gear, and tools from our own remodeling projects.

By the mid-1960s, we had grown into a full-service hardware and garden center, selling lawn and construction equipment, swimming pools, live plants, custom-mixed grass seed, and outdoor furniture. We became the largest rental center in the Lehigh Valley and the only rental store capable of staging complete outdoor weddings. Along the way, we introduced many new products to the area, including skid steer loaders, lawn ornaments, bird feeders, and Bethlehem’s largest selection of Christmas decorations.

Each December, our outdoor Christmas lighting contest in Bethlehem awarded a new Toro snow thrower to the winner. Other favorites of the era included snowmobiles, lava lamps, skateboards, and Flexible Flyer sleds.

By the late 1960s, our 17-door fire trap had become a concern for the city of Bethlehem. In 1968, we opened a branch in Palmer Township with a more focused inventory, and in 1970 we replaced the old Bethlehem store with a new location in Bethlehem Township.

Competition from Two Guys and Kmart, along with the move to a smaller building, forced us to abandon fringe products and refocus on lawn equipment and rentals. In 1975, we added a third store in Macungie. A few years later, my father built a drive-in restaurant on the Macungie site.

At one point, my father planned to buy an established rental business in Reading, open another store in Pottsville, and consolidate and expand the party rental operation in Bethlehem. Those plans would be canceled when he changed course and opened a camping and recreational vehicle business.

The Palmer store closed in 1982. The Macungie store and Sandy’s Drive-In followed in 1984, and the lawn equipment business was pushed into a dark corner of the Bethlehem store.

In 1985, my father opened the Forks Township store as something of an experiment, using surplus equipment from the closed stores and a farm property he had bought as an investment. Diverting rental profits into the RV business has already weakened our position. Our construction fleet was aging; the party rental business was no longer being promoted, and competitors we once barely noticed had grown into serious rivals.

By the early 1990s, my father was spending much of his time away from the business, yet he still refused to put a transition plan in place. In 1993, my brother acquired the RV business, and in 1995, I bought the Forks Township store.

My father died in 2006 without a transition plan. In the confusion that followed, vague deathbed instructions and years of poor planning allowed my sisters to take control of the main business from the other stockholders and me.

Without my father, the Bethlehem store lacked leadership, and the decline was swift. The business was evicted from its building in 2018, and a year later, the remaining assets were auctioned off to pay creditors.

My Forks Township store continued to do well despite the township’s refusal to allow us to expand. In 2007, our 59-year relationship with Toro ended. We had been one of the oldest Toro dealers in the country, but Toro’s decision to create a low-cost line for big-box and hardware stores drove away many long-time full-service dealers, including us.

Without room to grow the business, and with no family members interested in carrying it forward, I knew it was time to step away. I turned 65 in 2020 and decided to put on the brakes. Rentals ended in 2024, when our trade association stopped supporting neighborhood rental stores. I still love the business, but like every long story, this one had its ending.

When my father started the business in 1948, buying a lawn mower was a major purchase that could cost several weeks’ wages. Over the decades, we witnessed—and adapted to—profound changes in retail. Today, a customer often picks a color and wrestles a boxed mower into a shopping cart. That shift says as much about the times as it does about the business we built.

Propane
Our insurance company has notified us that we need to stop retailing propane by May 26, 2026, or our policy will be canceled. We started selling propane in the early 1970’s, for 50+ years, we have pumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of propane without a safety incident. Unfortunately, insurance companies see small businesses as a nuisance they can eliminate.
We added Charmglow Gas Grills to our Garden Center offerings in 1968. For those who watched “The Price is Right,” Charmglow was a recurring item and a “Price is Right” sponsor. In Eastern Pennsylvania, an unknown $300.00 product that needed to be concreted into the ground didn’t sell well. However, the propane tank filling station was convenient for our construction customers and our rental heaters.

When Kmart moved into the valley with low-cost propane grills on wheels, our propane refilling business increased. By the mid 1970’s, our 500-gallon storage tank would be emptied on a holiday weekend. The Propane storage in Bethlehem eventually reached 2000 gallons. The hand-me-down 500-gallon tank in Forks Township was increased to 1500 gallons by 1990.

Before the Blue Rino Propane cages started popping up in front of every convenience store and Home Center, we were the only game in town. If you ran out of propane when we were closed, you had no option but the stove and frypan. We initiated an after-hours propane program. We had decaled propane tanks located in front of the store filled with enough propane to finish dinner. The idea was to borrow the tank for dinner, return the tank, and refill yours the next day.

On the first weekend, 5 tanks were taken; two never returned. Most customers appreciated the service; however, as the program progressed, it became clear that it was being abused. The tanks we used were outdated and couldn’t be refilled. They had a big yellow Leiser’s decal and were permanently marked with paint. The program lasted 5 years, and we lost about 200 old, unusable tanks. After the program ended, some tanks would return. Some years after the program ended, 6 of our tanks were found in the garage of a Lafayette College official with a million-dollar salary.
Our propane sales slowed as the exchange cage locations grew. However, our prices were always 20% to over 50% less than even Walmart and Home Depot.

Our propane sales are steady year-round, driven by Grillers in the summer, Turkey Friers during the holidays, and heating customers in the winter.

Our last propane idea was Propane Happy Hour. The problem was dropping what you were doing to fill a single tank. We offered $2.00 off on a Saturday morning, and customers would line up, making our workday less disruptive.

In Retailing 101, you learn to study humans. We sold more propane on rainy days. Customers knew refilling was done outside, but didn’t care if we got wet. The Propane tanks in cages are only 75% full. Read the fine print on the tank decal. Propane sales were not a big moneymaker, but they did bring traffic into the store. Having a full tank of propane in your shed is 10 times safer than a ½ full gasoline can. All of our employees needed to pass the propane safety program.