Nationwide Locksmith

Original Article

NORTH BRUNSWICK — The pink awning lives. It just moved around the corner.

That’s the message Lexine Skinner is trying to get out. Her company, Asbury-Ms. Locksmithing, recently relocated from the front of Skinner’s building at 1048 Livingston Ave., to the back.

“People think we went out of business because of the brown paper in the window,” Skinner said.

That brown paper covers the front windows while a new tenant prepares to move into that space. Skinner’s locksmithing company, still in businesses after more than 30 years, has moved to a former garage space. Customers now can enter through the Clarke Road door on the side of the building, which the company’s trademark hot-pink awning now sits atop.

The move coincides with other cutbacks at the business. Skinner has closed three retail stores in the past five years, leaving only the current, flagship location. James Skinner, Lexine Skinner’s son and co-owner, said homeowners are no longer replacing the locks throughout their homes with deluxe security packages, and unlicensed locksmiths — many of whom don’t have the necessary skills to do the job — are siphoning off business because they advertise lower fees.

But James Skinner said his business is stronger because of the cutbacks.

“The economy has hit us hard, but we’re still strong,” James Skinner said.

Lexine Skinner started the company in 1978 when she was a locksmith at Rutgers University. She was a quick study.

“Not even a year into my apprenticeship with them, I started to make my own business out of the trunk of my car,” she said.

Skinner was the only female locksmith on staff. Not much has changed since then.

“There still are not (many women),” Skinner said. “The trade is predominantly a male-oriented trade.”

What has changed is the technology. Car keys now have transponder chips that must be programmed before a replacement key will work on the car. Homes and businesses now use high-tech keys and security systems. But while the business has the latest key-making and programming equipment, it also thrives on the basics — replacing keys and locks, installing safes, and helping people who locked themselves out of their cars — 24 hours a day.

“We’ve done work for people who have locked their children in the cars,” James Skinner said.

Lexine Skinner said she originally called her business Ms. Locksmithing, but added the word “Asbury” so the company would appear sooner alphabetically in the telephone book.

Sometimes people mistakenly think the business is called Ms. Asbury Locksmithing. Though she is not “Ms. Asbury,” Lexine Skinner has become synonymous with her business.

“This gets in your blood,” she said.