ace hardware

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SPECIAL PROFILE ON ACE HARDWARE
ACE
HARDWARE
Built By and For Retailers
Serving Hardware, Home Center
& Building Material Retailers
2014
CONTENTS
72
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT ON ACE HARDWARE
FEATURES
86
COMPANY FEATURE
90
PROGRAM FEATURE
Ace Celebrates 90th Anniversary
Follow the company through its
triumphs and challenges and see how
it maintains its spot as the largest
hardware cooperative in the industry.
Ace Launches New B2B Program:
“The Supply Place™”
Ace sets out to redefine the B2B
market. By targeting local small
businesses, The Supply Place™
program helps retailers become
community solutions and capture
potentially overlooked sales.
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ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
The Paint StudioTM
Ace pours efforts into a new paint and paint sundry
reset with the ultimate goal of gaining 10 percent
market share of the consumer paint category over
the next 10 years.
68
72
88
89
91
100
104
116
120
Ace Overview
CEO John Venhuizen
Helpful 101 Program
Zone Pricing Strategy
Your Place Program
Lutz Ace Hardware
Kingsland Ace Hardware
McAuliffe’s Ace Hardware
Ace Hardware Stokes Market
ON THE COVER
Todd and Scott Andrews, owners of
Lutz Ace Hardware in Lutz, Fla., were recently
honored for their differentiation efforts in Ace’s
“Coolest Hardware” contest.
NRHA photo by Lynnea Chom.
86
90
This special section on Ace Hardware is published
by Hardware Retailing magazine, which holds and
reserves all copyright on the content contained herein.
This special Hardware Retailing supplement is
part of a year-long series profiling the home
improvement industry’s distributors.
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HARDWARE RETAILING
Ace Hardware
Corporation
Headquarters: Oak Brook, Ill.
Number of Distribution Centers: 14
Current Number of Members: Approx. 2,800
Current Number of Retail Stores: Approx. 4,700
Number of Non-Member Accounts Served: 622
Dollar Volume Most Recent Fiscal Year: $3.8 billion
HARDWARE RETAILING
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DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
J
ust months into his official role as CEO at
Ace Hardware, John Venhuizen used his
more than 20 years at the company to sum up
the co-op and the retailers who define it.
“I’m not Ace; the retailers are Ace. They aren’t
the retailers landing in headlines in the Wall
Street Journal because of big IPOs; they’re the
retailers quietly running successful businesses
and making their communities better places.
Frankly, I find that inspiring.”
Celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2014, Ace
Hardware is renowned as the helpful hardware
place, building its success largely through its
retailers’ dedication to delivering exceptional service and establishing customer relationships.
A History Rooted in Retail
Ace Hardware made its debut in 1924, when
it was founded by Richard Hesse, E. Gunnard
Lindquist, Frank Burke and Oscar Fisher in
Chicago. These retailers named the company
after the ace fighter pilots of World War I, who,
like the company, were able to overcome all odds
to succeed.
In 1928 the company was incorporated as Ace
Stores Inc., to provide a centralized purchasing
organization to supply home improvement
goods. Its retail network expanded to hundreds
of retailers by 1949, when annual sales reached
about $10 million.
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HARDWARE RETAILING
After Hesse retired in 1973, Ace was sold to its
retailers and became a co-op. Independent owners
became retailer-owners and shareholders in the
company. (For more on the co-op’s history please
see the article on Page 86.)
Who Are Ace Retailers?
Ace retailers operate stores and businesses
of many different types, shapes and sizes. Ace
added 36 new domestic stores and closed 21
domestic stores in the third quarter, a net of 15
stores, bringing the company’s total domestic
store count to 4,136 at the end of third quarter.
Another 500 international retail businesses operate under the Ace name. Today, Ace remains the
world’s largest hardware co-op, with more than
4,700 stores locally owned and operated around
the world.
According to a survey of 300 Ace retailers,
75 percent of respondents indicated 2013
would be the most profitable year in their
organization’s history.
Ace continues to develop opportunities to
help fuel retailers’ growth. The Paint Studio™,
Your Place™ and The Supply Place™ are just three
initiatives that demonstrate an ongoing dedication to strategies designed to specifically work
to build customer traffic, outstanding environments with relevant products and varied revenue
streams for each retailer.
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Ace Today
Headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill., the Ace co-op
operates 14 distribution centers in the U.S. and has
distribution capabilities in Shanghai, China; Panama
City, Panama; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Its
retailers’ stores are located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and approximately 60 countries.
Ace Hardware remains the highest-grossing distributor in the home improvement sector. The company reported total revenues of $1 billion for the
third quarter of 2013, an increase of $84.4 million
or 8.9 percent from the same period last year. Retail
same-store sales in the U.S. were up 6.9 percent for
the quarter and stand at 4.4 percent year to date.
To meet its goals, Ace executives say they will
continue to keep a watchful eye on operations,
develop calculated strategies for the future and create unique ways for independent home improvement
retailers to differentiate themselves from competitors.
A Consistent Brand Identity
Ace Hardware hinges on a strong brand with
clear positioning and great public recognition. Ace
Hardware’s long-time slogan “The Helpful Place”
is seen regularly in national advertising, usually
accompanied by the co-op’s popular jingle, “Ace is
the place with the helpful hardware folks.”
The co-op also works to have Ace stores exhibit
some similar features such as core product lines,
design and layout characteristics to help make
stores more universally recognizable as Ace
Hardware retailers. However, the company still
supports retailers efforts to add whatever unique
touches help their stores maintain dominance in
their local markets.
HARDWARE RETAILING
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&
Q A
Sitting Down with John Venhuizen,
CEO of Ace Hardware
I
n 2012, Ace Hardware announced a strategic leadership decision that would transition then COO John Venhuizen to CEO upon
Ray Griffith’s retirement in spring 2013.
Venhuizen’s career at Ace is extensive, with
more than 20 years at the co-op. Since joining Ace
in 1992, Venhuizen has served in numerous roles,
including COO and vice president of business
development, retail development, retail training
and international.
Wasting no time since becoming CEO, Venhuizen is spearheading a long-term, customerfocused strategy, “20/20 Vision,” which is
designed to grow the Ace brand and help Ace
retailers improve their stores’ performance.
When the editors of Hardware Retailing talked
with the energetic visionary, it was clear he has
high aspirations for both Ace and the independent
home improvement sector.
Hardware Retailing (HR): How are you feeling
about Ace Hardware’s position in the market as
2014 begins?
John Venhuizen (JV): We feel very good about
2014 and the plans we have in place. Every
single category is up through October 2013. We
actually did a survey of more than 300 retailers
and asked if they believed they would outperform their numbers last year if they continued
at their current paces. Nearly 75 percent of our
retailers said it would be the most profitable
year they’ve ever had. Those stories motivate
everyone here at the Ace headquarters to further
strengthen our support of the retailers who are
working so hard.
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HARDWARE RETAILING
HR: 20/20 Vision has been at the heart of many
of Ace discussions lately. Can you explain what
this plan entails?
JV: Ace’s 20/20 Vision is a long-term strategy
designed to deliver store-specific, profitable growth.
It is based on several pillars, but there are four on
which we need to focus our immediate attention.
The first pillar is to further invest in the brand.
Plain and simple. We believe the Ace name carries a
weight with consumers that no other home improvement outlet can offer. But there are very good competitors out there doing good things for customer
service. You can’t assume victory. We have to continuously improve and get better every year.
The second pillar is our belief that brands
are promises and therefore, we need to fulfill
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those promises. Spending a lot of money to
merely say something is meaningless; you have to
fulfill that promises. We tell people we’re more
helpful than any competitor, so we’d better be. To
achieve that requires education and training. One
of our best initiatives has been Helpful 101—a
training program for our retailers and their associates. We have more than 1,200 stores certified
through the program. What’s more, that certification isn’t the headquarters saying the employee or
retailer is certified; but rather we have customers
answer a survey to prove the employees extend
that Ace promise. It is no accident or coincidence
that in the very year we won our seventh
J.D. Power and Associates award, we launched
this global initiative to underscore two of our values: humility and continuous improvement.
The third pillar is enriching the assortment.
Have the right price and right assortment. If we
want to make money selling stuff, we better sell
the right stuff. Assortments have to be local, highquality and, in today’s price-transparent world,
the assortments have to offer differentiation. To
achieve this pillar, we’re focused on continually
improving our categories. We’ve done a host of
resets that have led to double-digit increases in
gross profits in each category.
The fourth pillar is to become The Supply Place™.
We’ll be launching TheSupplyPlace.com early next
year. It’s a tool to help local business owners sell to
other local business owners. The proposition of having
4,100 stores with local owners who stand behind what
they’re selling to supply local business is powerful.
I’m not talking industrial sprockets to the big national
corporations but rather the local schools and churches
who want to buy their cleaning supplies at a local
store. We believe it’s a billion-dollar opportunity.
HR: We know Ace plans to double its national
ad budget without additional expenses to the
retailers. How exactly do you do that?
JV: Let’s put it in perspective. If Ace meets its
goals this year, it’ll make $100 million, but the
combined P&Ls of our stores in the United States
will make half a billion dollars. Even if we dent
Ace’s P&L a little to disproportionately give our
stores an advantage, we all win. Our willingness
to invest in that retailer support is among the
many advantages to being part of the Ace
Hardware network.
Two percent less at corporate so our retailers get
2 percent more at retail is more money, period. Plus,
we believe in investing in the future. We don’t think
in quarters—we think quarter centuries.
I give credit for our success to our board. They
believe we have an obligation as the biggest wholesaler in the industry to continue to grow.
HR: How does Ace address competitive
challengers such as Amazon?
JV: New competition is always a concern for us
and for Ace retailers. To be honest, Amazon has
an impressive business model, but we’re not trying
to out-Amazon Amazon. I truly believe there will
always be a place for face-to-face interactions. We
don’t try to say we have the lowest prices, but we
will always win when it comes to people-to-people
relationships. There’s a misconception that retailing
is a margin game, but it’s not; it’s about relationshipbuilding. Ace delivers tools to help retailers develop, maintain and grow those relationships. They’re
not just customers to us, they’re neighbors.
HR: You speak a lot about the importance of
small business and relationship building. Is
Ace doing anything to help retailers leverage
more B2B business?
JV: Absolutely. We’re in the midst of rolling out a
brand-new program, The Supply Place. This program
puts a new brand on industrial supply needs for local
businesses in our retailers’ communities. The brand
helps leverage collective power, but the program
allows retailers to localize the plan to their specific
markets through the power of their own brands.
The cornerstone of the program is a website
called TheSupplyPlace.com. The website will integrate with retailers’ computer systems. Our retailers
have the ability to add and adjust inventory, pricing
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and dating for specific customers. We’ve invested a
lot of time and resources into this initiative, and we
truly believe this will give our retailers another way
to serve their communities.
HR: How does what is happening (and not
happening) in Washington affect the home
improvement industry and Ace retailers specifically?
JV: It would be less than genuine if I didn’t say
our retailers would prefer less uncertainty, less
regulation and lower taxes. Those changes would
be good for Ace, small business and the economy
in general. But the reality is, we try not to let external influences that we can’t change paralyze our
businesses. Productive paranoia is always alive and
well at Ace, but there are actually a lot of macro
trends that are working in our favor, such as the
shop-local movement. It’s cool to be small.
HR: What are some of the challenges retailers
face that they do have direct influence over?
What about Ace as an entity?
JV: There are always challenges facing retailers,
but we believe the biggest challenge or opportunity to focus on is profitable growth. This refers to
everything from transactions to customer counts to
margins. This growth is a challenge for any retailer,
but home improvement retailers have been hit
especially hard.
That’s exactly why we launched Ace’s 20/20
Vision program. The program’s not about participation; it’s about performance and profit. We say it’s
a flexible-prescriptive, store-specific plan to garner
more profit. We understand, as a wholesaler, that
unless store-level economics are working, we’ll
go nowhere. We feel fortunate to have some of the
best retailers not only in the industry, but also in
the world, running Ace stores. They may not be
the retailers landing in headlines in the Wall Street
Journal because of some big IPO; they’re quietly
running successful businesses in their communities. Frankly, I find it inspiring. They understand
it’s not just what you do, it’s how you do it.
HR: At Ace’s last convention, you unveiled a
new zone pricing structure. Can you tell us a
little more about this strategy and why Ace
invested in this area?
JV: I’d like to say what drove these zones was a
great vision, but the truth is, the market drove it.
The empowered consumer and the market forced
this change. This integration required a lot of
time and resources, and our team did a great job.
The result was 75 pricing recommendations for
regional zones.
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HARDWARE RETAILING
The benefits of these zones are twofold. Retailers can no longer get away with being priced
overtly higher than the competitors. It’s what
we call insult pricing. Similarly, the zones help
retailers recognize where they’re leaving money
on the table, and where their prices are significantly lower than the competitors’ prices. The
goal with the pricing zones is to meet the consumer price perception, while at the same time
optimizing profit.
HR: What role do operational and wholesale
efficiencies play in Ace’s growth?
JV: We get excited talking about retail strategies,
but our mantra is, unless we’re the best wholesaler first, it doesn’t matter. We have to be able to
procure products at the lowest cost and ship into
stores as efficiently as anyone in the world with
record fill rates. That’s table stakes today.
I couldn’t be more impressed with the folks on
the supply chain side of Ace. Our DC team will
set a record for the ninth consecutive year of productivity, efficiency and expense-to-sales ratio. So
that means for nine years, the supply chain team
has created better results with less. I don’t know
how could you ask for anything more. Our inventory is down $100 million, which means our turns
are high, and I think we’re just getting started.
I’m particularly impressed by our fill rates,
which are 97.3 percent. Fill rates are one metric
by which an Ace retailer determines the efficiency
of the company. We went through some pain in
the past with SAP and we’ve learned from that.
On the retail side, shipping large amounts of
stuff into stores isn’t enough. We have to help
retailers get those products out the front door. We
have focused on helping retailers take all those
day-to-day operational tasks and lean them out so
they have more time to spend with customers.
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HR: Succession and generational transfer
continues to be a challenge for all retailers.
How does Ace plan to help its retailers through
these transitions?
JV: The first thing we did was stop burying our
heads in the sand. We told our retailers it needed
to be a goal to reduce store atrophy. We set up
a three-point plan to target this goal: Education,
facilitation and tools. We continue to educate
owners that there is a better way to monetize
your life’s work than liquidating for 50 cents on
the dollar, and we can prove it to them. We also
believe we have to help facilitate a better system
to help folks that want to buy and sell. Finally,
we believe the industry has to offer these retailers
the tools to make the transitions.
We’re working on programs and tools to help
retailers with incentives to sell. For example, our
Ace-to-Ace Acquisition program offers helpful
ways to transition stores seamlessly. This past
year was the second year in a row Ace enjoyed a
net positive store count, netting an excess of 70
stores in 2013.
HR: What do you believe the outlook for the
independent home improvement retailer is?
JV: I don’t see anyone developing an app that
allows people to not live in a home. So that tells me
there will always be a place for the best neighborhood hardware store. Customers want to preserve
their homes, and we’re all about home preservation.
Sure, our industry presents a complex, capitalintensive, fiercely competitive model. And while
we know consolidation is likely, we as a wholesaler
want to help our retailers be positioned to be the
major player coming out of that. We believe it’s not
enough to just be a great wholesaler. We have to
leverage our scale not just to buy inventory, but to
help all our retailers become more profitable. The
future is bright.
HR: Where do you see Ace in five or 10 years
down the road? And what do you do to help?
JV: In terms of quantifying our future, I look to the
overall industry. Currently, there is about $300 billion in the industry and about $40 billion of that’s
convenience hardware. Our stores currently get about
$10 billion of that. Our goal is to get the rest.
Customers love this brand and our local owners
are great. That growth vehicle has a long runway.
A lot of macro trends are working in our favor:
local, small and the aging population for example.
The time to grow is when things are uncertain
and everyone is panicking. We think our stores
were better positioned than the competition in
2008, 2009, 2010 and that’s why they’re coming
out ahead.
I think I’ll go to my grave saying there is a place
for the local neighborhood hardware store that is
high-touch—they’ll be here forever.
HARDWARE RETAILING
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A New Age of Paint
P
aint continually ranks as one of the best-performing categories among high-performance
retailers. So it’s no surprise Ace is pouring
efforts into helping its retailers drive additional
sales within the category, with the ultimate goal of
gaining 10 percent market share of the consumer
paint category over the next 10 years.
“Ace’s continued, aggressive focus on expanding
the company’s share of the paint department is part
of the company’s overall strategy to assist retailers
in delivering on Ace’s helpful brand promise,” says
says John Surane, senior vice president, marketing,
merchandising and sales for Ace.
“We’re reinventing the paint departments across
America at Ace Hardware,” Surane says. “We
want to put our stores and associates in the best
possible position to serve the customer with an
amazing experience in Ace paint departments
across America.”
To do that, the co-op has partnered with
Valspar®, to launch a new boutique-style storewithin-a-store paint department called The
Paint Studio™ and is upping its marketing,
advertising and training efforts focusing on the
paint category.
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HARDWARE RETAILING
Valspar®
A key portion of Ace’s paint category reinvention
starts with the co-op’s long-term relationship with
Valspar, which began in early 2013.
As part of the deal, Valspar agreed to manufacture and supply Ace-branded paint products to
Ace retailers while acquiring Ace’s paint manufacturing assets, including two manufacturing
facilities near Chicago.
The decision to sell the co-op’s paint manufacturing facilities was not made lightly, Surane notes.
“The Ace paint division served Ace very well
for more than 25 years. It was a profitable entity
that made quality products for our retailers,
and there was no problem with it,” he says.
“But strategically, to win in the incredibly
competitive paint category, the best thing to do
long-term was to partner with a highly reputable
organization like Valspar, a leading brand in
the market with world-class R&D and
manufacturing capabilities.”
The Paint Studio™
The Valspar brand also plays a central role in
Ace’s $75 million investment in the co-op’s new
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Paint Studio program, set for a consumer launch in
May in more than 3,200 Ace Hardware locations.
The new department includes many aesthetic
updates, including new color chip racks featuring a large selection of colors along with smaller,
curated collections of color and boutique drawers
offering creative paint project suggestions and
style ideas.
The Paint Studio also features an expanded product assortment of Valspar-branded paints targeted to
the needs of retailers’ diverse customer bases.
According to Surane, while the Valspar brand
will be a featured component of The Paint Studio
marketing plan, the Ace-branded Clark+Kensington®
line continues to gain momentum and will be a very
important player in the strategy going forward.
Clark+Kensington® continues to rank high in
Consumer Reports surveys and complements the
Valspar products with a new palette of 120 designer-selected colors.
“Clark+Kensington offers the consumer a designer-quality, high-performance paint and primer in
one product at a value price point, and is available
only at Ace Hardware, which our retailers love,”
he says. “Consumers seeking a leading national
brand will be able to find it at Ace as well with the
launch of Valspar.”
Both Valspar and Clark+Kensington paints can
be custom-tinted with the help of the new NovoColor® HP water-based colorant system, another
new feature of The Paint Studio rollout.
Not only does the new colorant system give consumers more customized color options, it also helps
retailers’ bottom lines and operational efficiency.
“Moving retailers who in the past have had to
invest in multiple colorant systems down to one
zero-VOC, high-potency colorant system represents
a great benefit for retailers,” Surane says. “The new
automatic colorant dispensers will also be significantly more accurate than previous manual systems.
And best of all, the store associates only need to
learn to operate one system to tint all their paints.”
As the company strengthens its relationship with
Valspar and continues to grow Clark+Kensington,
Ace remains supportive of retailers who carry the
Benjamin Moore brand, Surane says. “Our job in
merchandising is to support the stores with the
brands and products they need in their local markets,” he says. “Benjamin Moore is important to
some Ace retailers, and we respect that.”
Focus on Training
The solution The Paint Studio gives Ace retailers
involves much more than just putting pretty cans
of paint on the shelf. Since selling paint requires
well-trained sales associates, Ace has put together
a complete training team designed to convey both
product and project knowledge.
Called “The Color Crew,” the training team
includes 50 Ace dedicated paint professionals, who
will assist retailers and their employees during the
rollout of The Paint Studio and beyond.
So far, the retailer response to the concept has
been overwhelmingly positive, Surane says—3,200
stores have signed up to reset their paint departments
with the boutique-style concept by May 1, with more
expected to sign on to the program after that.
“It’s a testament to their belief in our vision and
the tremendous growth opportunity the paint category represents,” he says. “They’re putting their
hard-earned money and trust on the line to support
this massive undertaking that will transform the consumer paint experience in the hardware store.”
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Ace Hardware Corp.
Celebrates 90 Years
I
n 1924, when four Chicago-area hardware retailers decided to combine their individual buying
power to get better deals from suppliers, there
was no way they could know their idea would grow
into the home improvement industry’s largest distribution operation.
That’s exactly what happened, however, after
Richard Hesse, E. Gunnard Lindquist, Frank Burke
and Oscar Fisher joined forces to form Ace Hardware 90 years ago.
Today, the company has its name on more than
4,700 locally owned and operated hardware stores all
over the world, making it the largest hardware cooperative in the industry. Kane Calamari, vice president of retail operations and new business for Ace Hardware Corp.,
says that over the years the Ace brand has
remained relevant in the consumer market because
the company has remained steadfast to its core
tenets of convenience, service and quality while
expanding beyond its wholesale roots to embrace
the retailer cooperative model.
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HARDWARE RETAILING
“Our core principles are the bedrock of our
company and we leverage retail initiatives to further advance the organization,” he says. “You can
be the best hardware wholesaler on the planet, but
if your stores aren’t succeeding, you’re not going
to have anyone to serve.”
Focused on Growth
From the beginning, Ace has been a growthminded company. Just four years after Ace was
founded, 11 retailers joined the company, with its
first 25,000-square-foot warehouse opening a year
after that. A quarter-century later, the company’s
ascent continued, as its retail network expanded to
hundreds of retailers and annual sales reached to
about $10 million.
In the years since, Ace has kept a keen eye
on development, improving merchandising and
developing innovative displays and promotions
for its customers, always encouraging its
retailers to expand their solid hardware image
by adding new merchandise and, of course,
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delivering it with exceptional customer service,
Calamari says.
Those efforts have paid off: Ace reported total
revenues of $1 billion for the third quarter of 2013
and consistently takes top honors from
J.D. Power and Associates for highest customer
satisfaction among home improvement retail stores.
Today: An Industry Standout
Despite its position as the largest hardware cooperative in the industry, Ace continues to look for new
ways to grow and help its retailers be successful in
an ever-changing retail landscape, Calamari says.
In an effort to focus more on retail success,
approximately 15 years ago Ace started collecting
point-of-sale data and made the decision to have one
preferred POS provider, a fundamental difference
between Ace and its competitors.
Additionally, in response to consumers’ changing
shopping habits, Ace also introduced a new retail
pricing model after its Fall Convention last year. As
part of the new initiative, Ace created 75 retail zones
across the U.S., designed to better align with competitors in each market.
“Today’s customers are really price-conscious; the
hardware store model needs to achieve a higher gross
margin than big boxes, challenging us to make sure
our retail pricing is right, and to make sure we’re also
providing an experience in our stores that will attract
and keep customers coming back,” Calamari says.
Striving for Lower Cost of Goods
Since 1924, Ace always has remained committed
to its “helpful” brand promise for its customers, but
also is continually pursuing financial growth opportunities for its retailers, Calamari says.
As Ace has grown into the largest co-op in the
industry over the years, the company has been able
to leverage its scale to ensure that it provides retailers
the best cost of goods every day, Calamari says.
“We prove our cost of goods advantage by providing a one-year, 5-percent gross profit dollar increase
guarantee for competitive retailers that join the Ace
family. If in your first year as an Ace retailer, your
gross profit dollars don’t increase by 5 percentage
points, Ace will make up the difference,” Calamari
says. “Since its inception, we have had more than
100 retailers join Ace Hardware, and we haven’t
paid out a single dime.”
Ace understands each store’s market has unique
needs and works with retailers to maximize growth
by building upon a solid hardware store model.
“We stand by the philosophy that localizing
stores and making them unique to their
communities outweighs the potential of a store
losing its identity,” Calamari says. “We can give
you the recipe for a great hardware store—15 years
of POS data helps—but what you build around that
and how you localize it is what makes it stand out.”
Unique Store Concepts
Full-scale hardware stores have been the core of
the Ace business model since the company started
in 1924, but today it’s also branching into other store
concepts. One prime example is the Ace Express format, which takes Ace’s 8,000-square-foot store model
and pares it down to fit into 4,500 square feet or less.
Ace is focusing its Express format on three of the
most likely business scenarios, including creating
a store-within-a-store for nontraditional hardware
retailers; providing an option for existing Ace retailers
who want to open a smaller satellite store for a larger,
primary location; and branching out into new markets
where a full-size Ace location might not be supported.
Retail Store Growth and the Future
To further the company’s growth position, Ace’s
five-year plan is to open 750 new stores, putting the
company at a pace of 150 new stores every year—
something the Ace founders likely could have never
imagined when they joined forces 90 years ago.
Demonstrating its long-range vision, Ace is also
taking proactive steps to help retailers pass on ownership to future generations. Among other things, it
powers hardwarestoresforsale.com, a marketplace
for the listing of hardware stores for sale, and offers
incentives for Ace retailers to sell their businesses to
fellow industry retailers.
“All of these programs help us move the needle
forward and prepare the next generation to get into
hardware,” Calamari says.
HARDWARE RETAILING
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DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
The Helpful Place Tackles
Training with Helpful 101
“We’ve found that the program is not only good for
onboarding new associates, but also to help all veteran employees refresh and focus on one core objective: to be helpful,” says Tom Knox, vice president,
retail development, training and business to business.
The Certification Process
F
or Ace Hardware Corp., an organization that
supports more than 4,700 retail stores and
more than 70,000 store associates around the
globe, training is at the core of establishing a consistent and positive consumer experience. Having placed
a strong emphasis on training since its inception, Ace
recently rallied all its customer experience training
efforts together under one umbrella: Helpful 101.
As the foundation for its retail training initiatives,
the goal of Helpful 101 is to create a program that
combines years of training into an innovative experience that makes training engaging and easy for
retailers to implement. Last year marked year one of
a three-year overhaul of the Certified Ace Helpful™
initiative.
The Program
Helpful 101 is a web-based learning management
module, which uses video examples, gamification,
situational learning and interactive quizzes to help
students to stay engaged through the process.
The goal is for every person in the store to complete
and apply the Helpful 101 learning objectives; owners, managers, sales associates, cashiers and even back
office representatives. Every Ace corporate employee
was also asked to complete the training regardless of
level or role. The program features a learning plan consisting of two courses. The first course focuses on the
Ace culture and having a helpful attitude. The second
course teaches Ace’s unique sales process and how to
“operationalize” an amazing customer experience.
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HARDWARE RETAILING
Set up similarly to collegiate courses, Helpful 101
culminates with certification. This certification is
rooted in the idea that customers should be able to
decide whether a particular store is certified and living up to its goal of being a helpful place.
Putting an entire store’s team through the training
modules can span weeks to months, but once completed, the store schedules a certification week with
the corporate training department.
Ace teamed up with its mystery shop vendor to
develop a new survey system that asks store visitors to answer a set of simple questions. Many of
the stores set up kiosks or iPads asking customers to
answer a set of three questions: Would you return
to this store? Would you recommend this store? Did
you have an amazing experience?
To be certified, the store must collect and receive
positive results on a certain number of surveys for
seven consecutive days, based on their average
weekly transaction counts.
According to Ace executives, the goal was to have
1,200 retailers certified in Helpful 101 by the end of
2013 and are on track to exceed that goal.
Knox emphasizes that, as with any training program, the continued success of Helpful 101 will rely
on ongoing support and commitment to sustain upto-date training.
Ace already has established plans for second and
third phases, one of which includes category-specific
training, such as plumbing.
“We own ‘helpful’ as a brand and as a distinguishing characteristic of the customer experience,” Knox
says. We need to continue to excel in customer
intimacy in order to stay relevant. The Helpful 101
program helps all retailers achieve that relationshipbuilding success.”
Helpful 101 has caught the eye of many training
authorities and has won the company the Brandon
Hall Bronze award—prestigious recognition given in
the training, learning and business industry.
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
Price Wars: Ace Implements
Zone Pricing Strategy
W
e’ve all experienced it. You buy your
favorite widget at ABC Store only to find
the same product down the road at another ABC Store selling at a drastically different price.
It could be a promotional item or traffic driver, but
more and more, it’s likely a result of zone pricing.
Zone pricing, or the practice of setting prices that
reflect local competitive conditions, is gaining traction in the retail sector as consumers continue to gain
access to more and more information regarding their
products—everything from its origins and manufacturing costs to which store is selling it the cheapest.
Ace Hardware recognized the pricing landscape
was changing and in 2013 rolled out its own take on
zone pricing.
“We noticed Lowe’s had started using price optimization software to adjust pricing in real-time and
cater that pricing to each store’s unique geographic
location,” says Tom Knox, vice president, retail
development, training and business to business. “We
knew it was time to try something different.”
Prior to the zone pricing strategy, Ace had suggested one national price for its retailers based on
competitive pricing information from Lowe’s and
Home Depot.
Fighting Price Perceptions
Today, Ace features 75 pricing zones across
the country. For perspective, Ace once banked
data on 16 markets and used algorithms to determine the best suggested prices for its retailers—
and it worked.
Today, retailers are placed into a suggested zone
based on their stores’ geography and market competition. Knox says a retailer is not required to stay in
that particular zone classification, however, he says
the extensive algorithm that created the zones has
been accurate so far.
Once retailers are in their zones, the pricing software will generate suggested retail prices per each
retailer’s unique market per product. As they did
before, retailers can manually adjust these prices if
they prefer.
“This project took years to research and implement, but it’s imperative to equip retailers with
prices that will improve price perception without
hurting margins,” says Knox.
The Implementation Process
As Ace set its sights on zone pricing, it needed
more data and more sophisticated price delivery
systems. Knox says the software component proved
to be one of the more challenging pieces of the
implementation process. Retailers on a pricing
team manually entered specific runs and relationships into the rules-based pricing software. In laymen’s terms, the computer had to recognize which
products are grouped together in order to reflect
consumers’ assumptions. For example, white spray
paint should theoretically cost the same as pink
spray paint. Before the software could recognize
these relationships, Ace had to input those rules.
While still very new, Ace zone pricing has been
met by raving retailer reviews. According to J.D.
Power and Associates, Ace has improved its price
perception among consumers, which helped the
company earn its seventh customer service award
last year.
The Future of Pricing for Ace
While Ace leadership believes 75 pricing zones
is the sweet spot for the independent sector, it has
created a team completely dedicated to pricing
strategies. The pricing team will work closely with
the Ace merchandising department and continue to
analyze pricing data.
HARDWARE RETAILING
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DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
The Next Generation of
B2B Sales: The Supply Place™
M
any times when retailers think B2B sales,
they immediately think of the traditional
industrial/commercial sales model—selling to large organizations such as military bases
or huge corporations. Ace set out to redefine its
approach to the B2B industry with its newly
launched program, The Supply Place™.
Ace began to develop the business model several
years ago after identifying a significant opportunity
to sell more to business customers already walking
into stores. Ace leadership believes The Supply Place
B2B sales initiative can help every retailer take better
advantage of this overlooked business segment and
potentially gain a source of additional revenue.
“The Supply Place is actually less about big industrial sales and more about small businesses selling
to other small businesses,” says Tom Knox, vice
president, retail development, training and business
to business. “It’s about selling to the local sandwich
shop or church just down the street.”
TheSupplyPlace.com
After its launch of The Supply Place
program, Ace announced the pilot testing of
www.TheSupplyPlace.com—the cornerstone of The
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HARDWARE RETAILING
Supply Place initiative. TheSupplyPlace.com allows
retailers to sell to their customers through the web
by tapping into in-store inventory as well as thousands of SKUs stocked in Ace distribution centers.
Furthermore, it provides the customer with a convenient way to shop their local store and manage
their account 24/7. The retailer controls product pricing and promotions to ensure they are competitive
and relevant in their local markets.
To establish quality controls, Ace is requiring
interested retailers to gain The Supply Place certification in order to use the site. The certification process
is important to ensure stores focus on B2B relevant
operational enhancements, but approximately 600
stores are already The Supply Place-certified.
Ace recently tracked stores that achieved The Supply Place certification over the past 12 months. Certified retailers posted an increase on average of 7.1
percent in their B2B sales.
Knox says one of the most difficult parts of
this program is changing the mindset of retailers who view B2B business as limited to selling
to larger corporations and municipalities. “We
aim to help them see there is a whole world of
untapped B2B business.”
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
Ace Shares the Goals
of the Your Place™ Program
I
f you’re interested in opening a hardware store
business or updating your current store, perhaps
it’s difficult to imagine. Knowing how to set up,
arrange, source and drive sales is another level of
expertise altogether. It’s just one of the reasons Ace
created the Your Place™ program to create the most
relevant and optimized store possible.
Tom Knox, vice president, retail development,
training and business to business oversees the Ace
Your Place program and team. “The key is that this
is, quite literally, your place, your livelihood, your
employees’ careers, your customers’ source for help
and hard-to-find items. Getting maximum output
from your store matters. This happens when you
have the right balance of performance and appealing
design for, aptly named Your Place,” he says.
Knox explains the three key pillars and examples
from the Your Place program below.
1. Product.
“Performance-driven retail design begins with taking a holistic look at what customers expect when
they walk through your front door. It starts with products—the items in your store are the driving force as
to why a customer comes in. Without the right products, your customer could walk out empty-handed.
“We’ve been working on creating the right product assortments since our inception as a company.
We believe the Your Place-suggested product assortments are the most profitable mix of inventory available in the industry.
“As with all of our programs, we don’t just go off
a hunch. Several years ago, we took part in a huge
cross-category study, where outside experts helped
us determine the best product assortments for today’s
home improvement retailers. We took out redundant
SKUs and utilized space optimization so retailers can
get more profitability in smaller footprints.”
2. Optimized Store Layout.
“A successful operation continues with the right
layout. A strategic and profitable store arrangement
keeps product categories that attract a customer’s
attention, make you the most profit and drive the
most impulse sales in prime locations. We’ve put
a lot of time and money into studying the best way
to lay stores out; we know what categories are best
in which areas of the store and which will yield the
most sales in areas such as the power aisle.
“A lot of what we’ve learned in Your Place, and
any of our programs, actually, comes from our retailers. I joke and say that we have more than 4,000
pilot programs going on at any one time, because
our retailers are unique entrepreneurs. They are
constantly trying new and innovative things.”
3. Store Environment, Décor.
“Finally, Your Place focuses on store decor. We
conduct regular research on how customers respond
to different shopping environments. One of the most
interesting things we’ve learned is demonstrated
in our new signage package. We learned customers aren’t looking up as much as they used to. This
means overhead department signs aren’t as effective
as they used to be. Instead, we focus on aisle violators, endcap signage, etc. Even if a customer is looking down, he’s still likely to see these.
“We also suggest retailers tap into macro trends
through this pillar. Things like shop local can help
our retailers achieve higher sales. The most helpful
retail environment will assist a customer in quickly
navigating the store and help the customer make a
confident and informed purchase decision.
“If there is a perception that we want cookie-cutter
stores, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Just
look at our retailers. We celebrate that each of our
stores is unique. Your Place is a balance between the
retailer’s uniqueness and the Ace DNA.”
HARDWARE RETAILING
91
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
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DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
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SPECIAL ACE HARDWARE SECTION
100
HARDWARE RETAILING
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
RETAIL PROFILE
Lutz Ace
Hardware
Lutz, Fla.
I
n a state that’s almost always hot, Lutz Ace
Hardware in Lutz, Fla., received the designation of being cool.
This cool, however, has nothing to do
with temperature. It has to do with the mix
of products and services the 2-year-old retail
operation offers.
Ace Hardware annually chooses a handful
of Ace retailers from its organization and dubs
them “Coolest Hardware Stores.” Stores are
chosen for variety of product offerings, unique
merchandising, add-on services or retail opportunities and overall atmosphere. Lutz Ace Hardware was chosen for its variety of merchandise
including power tools, pool supplies and boutique gift offerings.
Tina and Scott Andrews own Lutz Hardware with
Scott’s brother Todd and his wife Andrea Andrews.
HARDWARE RETAILING
101
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
The Mother of Invention
Just two years ago, brothers Scott and Todd
Andrews were in the market for a new location for
their pool supply store. While investigating real
estate in the Lutz area outside Tampa, the brothers
came upon a retail location that was perfect for what
they needed.
The two had often considered hardware as a
business that would fit well with pool supplies.
They also knew from experience that a hardware
store would be welcome in Lutz, often having
found themselves driving the seven miles to the
closest big-box store.
Ace was the Andrews brothers’ first choice for
a distributor, and they say they are thankful for
making that choice ever since.
Name recognition alone was an important reason for them choosing to partner with Ace, but
the brothers also were impressed with the quality
of products. Throughout the process of establishing the store, the brothers say Ace was there to
help them with everything from store layout to
product assortment.
“We went through extensive training with a
business coach,” Scott says. “My district manager
is great when it comes to responding to my needs
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HARDWARE RETAILING
and answering questions. We use Ace’s intranet,
ACENET, all the time to access company and
product information.”
Diversity for a Growing Community
The brothers also looked for a co-op that would
give them the flexibility to diversify their selection of retail offerings.
Most important was their existing pool supplies
store. The Andrews brothers wanted to continue
to offer pool products and services in their new
store and were able to do so by creating a storewithin-a-store, Sunshine Pool Supplies.
Scott and Todd’s wives, Tina and Andrea, also
helped diversify Lutz Ace Hardware when the wives
opened E.L.L.A. Boutique, a gift shop within the
store. E.L.L.A. features products including artisan
jewelry, home decor, luxury bath items and other
one-of-a-kind gifts.
“E.L.L.A. is offset from the rest of the store and
has its own atmosphere and music,” Scott says. “It
has expanded our appeal to new customers.
“We have people who just come in for hardware
or pool supplies, but now they have something
else to look at,” he says. “It has made Lutz Ace
Hardware a destination.”
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
“Our employees spend at least a half hour every week
doing training modules on the Ace Learning Place.”
–Scott Andrews, co-owner of Lutz Ace Hardware
Among the most popular core categories are
paint and lawn and garden. The store plans to
reset its paint department to The Paint Studio™,
where customers can make color selections in a
unique, design-friendly department. (For more
information on The Paint Studio, turn to Page 84.
Lutz also places extensive concentration on
training. The Learning Place is a specialized Acerun website that offers training modules on everything from products to business development.
For the Andrews brothers, training employees
has become not just easy, but seamless.
“Our employees spend at least a half hour every
week doing training modules on the Ace Learning
Place,” Scott says. “That, along with other classes,
give us the tools we need for knowing our products and increasing our sales.”
Just two years in the making, Lutz Ace Hardware is an active community member and valued
business partner. The store sponsors the Lutz Little League Field Clean Up Day, supports local Girl
Scout Troops and raises money for Toys for Tots.
To the Lutz team, being cool is more than just
product offerings—it’s service and a commitment
to its customers.
“We are part of this community and know our
customers,” Scott says. “We give them service
they can’t get anywhere else.”
HARDWARE RETAILING
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DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
RETAIL PROFILE
Kingsland
Ace Hardware
Grand Rapids, Mich.
S
uccess is sweet for Kingsland
Ace Hardware.
The store, founded in 1950, has
a corner on soft-serve ice cream
machine rentals in Grand Rapids, Mich. Not
interested in ice cream? Other rental items
available include Bobcats, floor sanders,
party tents, chairs and other large tools and
party supplies.
The best part: While you’re picking up
your floor sander, you can purchase urethane,
mops, brooms and brushes at the same time.
For owner Sandy Kingsland, his rental business is all about add-ons.
“A customer rents something for between
$30 and $50, but still needs additional products to get the job done,” he says.
Despite a tough Michigan economy, Sandy Kingsland
is seeing sales growth in nearly every category.
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HARDWARE RETAILING
SPECIAL ACE HARDWARE SECTION
HARDWARE RETAILING
105
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
A Focus on Core Hardlines
While rentals are a big part of Kingsland’s
business, the retailer is seeing sales grow in just
about every category he carries. He attributes
this to his relationship with Ace, which was
forged just a year ago. According to this secondgeneration owner, he’s been smiling a lot more
ever since.
“I talked to other people affiliated with Ace,
and they told me how good the relationship was,”
Kingsland says. “They told me how supportive
and responsive Ace is. There’s only one drawback
to my switch to Ace: I should have done it a long
time ago.”
Competitive Edge
Although Kingsland Ace has several direct
competitors, Kingsland grew sales dramatically
over the past year. He attributes this to several
Ace programs he participates in and sales tools
the co-op provides.
One example of those programs is the Ace
Rewards card, which gives customers the chance
to receive on-the-spot rebates for special purchase items. There’s an added advantage to Ace
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HARDWARE RETAILING
technology: The rewards card gives him a growing list of customer names and email addresses
for marketing.
“I had customers lined up outside my door
before I opened the day after Thanksgiving,”
Kingsland says. “I attribute that to Ace, the brand
awareness it built and the national and local advertising it does.”
The store is also signed on to launch the co-op’s
new Paint Studio™ store-within-a-store concept,
which is complemented by core categories, lawn and
garden, Weber grills and mower sales and service.
But when it comes to product offerings, Kingsland has the insight he needs to select what his
customers want.
“We listen to them,” he says. “Our employees
tell us what people are asking for. We have Ace
market research, but what really matters is listening to those you serve.”
When Kingsland’s father opened the store in
the Cascade neighborhood of Grand Rapids, there
were no other businesses in the area. In time, the
store grew, and a grocery store and other shopping destinations joined what would become a
popular retail corridor.
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
Kingsland himself has fond memories of growing
up in an apartment attached to the store and starting
his hardware career stocking shelves when he was 13.
But he admits, being a retailer isn’t always easy.
“Owning a business, especially in a state like
Michigan where the recession really hit hard, has
been more than a learning experience,” he says.
A True Focus: Customers
Today, Kingsland runs the business with his wife,
Diana, and son, Scott. With their support, and the
resources available to him through Ace, Kingsland is
happy to see his business progressing.
“The recession is still very much alive here,” he
says, “but we’re growing nonetheless, which shows
great products and marketing and excellent customer
service are the most important tools for a retailer.”
At Kingsland Ace Hardware, new signage and advertising materials are having a positive impact on the
store’s customer count.
“I have people come in and tell me they’re
stopping because we carry Craftsman and
Clark+Kensington paint,” he said. “We’re marketing
more now, and people are noticing.”
For Kingsland, nothing could be sweeter.
HARDWARE RETAILING
107
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DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
Is proud to support
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110
HARDWARE RETAILING
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
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114
HARDWARE RETAILING
HI-VIZ ®
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
RETAIL PROFILE
McAuliffe’s
Ace Hardware
Marysville, Ohio
B
ecause McAuliffe’s Ace Hardware in
Marysville, Ohio, is surrounded by
big-box stores— Lowe’s, Home Depot,
Menards, Walmart and more—the
store’s employees knew they’d need to find a
way to stand out from the competition.
The store, which opened in 1920 by
brothers John and Jerry McAuliffe, is now
operated by its third-generation owners,
brothers Dan and Jim Fitzgerald. (Dan’s son,
Sean, recently joined the business, becoming the fourth generation of McAuliffe’s
Ace Hardware.)
Over the years, the store has remained
competitive by evolving and growing to
reflect the hardware needs of the Marysville community.
Dan Fitzgerald stands with his son Sean who
recently joined the McAuliffe’s Ace Hardware team.
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HARDWARE RETAILING
SPECIAL ACE HARDWARE SECTION
HARDWARE RETAILING
117
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
More Than Retail
118
One of the biggest steps forward for the McAulife’s team was expanding into industrial general-line distribution.
“We have a strong manufacturing base in
Marysville, so we try our best to provide solutions and products that these companies need,”
Dan Fitzgerald says.
The two buildings—McAuliffe’s Ace Hardware
and McAuliffe Industrial—are located side-byside and share a common receiving area. Dan runs
the retail side of the business, and Jim the industrial side.
“We’re also an authorized UPS shipping center,”
Dan says. “Our rental department allows us to support service technicians, and we’re pretty strong in
outdoor power equipment, so we do a lot of equipment repairs. We’re a Dyson and Makita service
center, too.”
Dan and his staff continually work to bring in
unique products. They buy Amish baked goods
from a local bakery and sell them in their store.
“We’re always looking for new niches, or
anything the box stores may not be as good at
doing,” Dan says. “And of course, we focus on
helpfulness every single day.”
Offering Specialty Services
A Fresh Start
The retail side serves as the largest percentage of
the store’s customers—do-it-yourselfers—but it also
does some work with municipalities, such as the city
and the county. The store’s strongest category is lawn
and garden, closely followed by paint and rental.
To compete with the nearby big boxes, the owners focus on a variety of services including window
and screen repair, lock rekeying and more.
The store has been in its current location since
1995. About a year ago, the Fitzgeralds thought it
could use a new look, so they began the process
of resetting the store.
“We sat down with Ace and made a plan,”
Dan says. “We went through every 4-foot
section and made changes. We gave fasteners a
new look, switched lights and moved aisles.
HARDWARE RETAILING
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
We have diagonal shelves in the middle of the
store now.”
They also made the switch to a single-queue
checkout instead of traditional lines. “It works
really well when we’re busy,” Dan says. “The
biggest thing we did was change the traffic pattern in our store. We think we’re taking our
customers on a much better journey around the
building than we did before.”
The store reset was done in two parts: Last
winter, the staff worked with Ace to switch out
many of the larger departments, such as fasteners, plumbing and electrical and the new checkout layout. Last summer, they changed out the
rest of the store including adding the new diagonal aisles and making the switch to add The
Paint Studio™.
‘Exactly What It Needs to Be’
The change to The Paint Studio™ was one of
the biggest parts of the store reset, Dan says. “It’s
been great,” he says. “I was on the retailer input
team for this project, so I was eager to try it. Ace
has a lot of energy and focus at the top, and the
20/20 Vision includes a solid plan for what they’re
doing. The Paint Studio™ is just one example.”
Dan says having a strong partner in Valspar
was a good first step. “It’s so much fun to be
working in The Paint Studio area. It’s so much
more than just having the right can of paint. The
layout, training, re-educating staff—The Paint
Studio gives us a chance to discover and serve a
whole new set of customers.”
Trying Other Programs
McAuliffe’s Ace Hardware is also strong in the
Ace Rewards program. “About 75 percent of our
transactions are with our Rewards customers—
that’s a pretty high number,” Dan says. “We also
collect email addresses and use those for targeted email marketing, which is working really
well. For example, in November, we sent out an
email notice with a special for a fall tune up for
lawn mowers.
“We got three weeks of work just from sending
that one email,” he says. “And distribution was free.”
A Future with Ace
Dan regularly attends Ace conventions. “It’s
good to get away from your store for a couple of
days and look at the bigger picture,” he says. “I
bring my managers, and we talk about trends,
products and ideas we learn about at the convention. I think we all kind of get tunnel vision, so
it’s good to go to shows and return rejuvenated,
ready to apply something new to our business.”
He’s excited about the future of Ace, too. “I’m
very happy to be partnered with Ace. I think
they have great leadership, and they’re working
incredibly hard to make their retailers more successful. As they improve, they challenge the rest
of us to improve. It helps us work every day to
become a better store.”
HARDWARE RETAILING
119
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
RETAIL PROFILE
Ace Hardware
Stokes Market
Salem, Utah
A
t Ace Hardware Stokes Market, the staff
took one-stop-shopping to the next level
when it combined a grocery store and an
Ace Hardware in Salem, Utah.
The idea came about two years ago when John
Stokes, owner of Idaho grocery chain Stokes Market, decided to expand into Utah.
Stokes found a space for his grocery store, but it
was a little larger than his normal store footprint.
Realizing the location would be perfect for an add-on,
he studied the market and concluded that the semirural area would benefit from a hardware store.
The combination grocery/hardware store opened
just two years ago, but it’s already experienced
great success.
The Right Partnerships
Stokes brought on retail veteran Gene Bond to
operate the hardware portion of the store. Together,
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HARDWARE RETAILING
they chose to partner with Ace.
“We chose Ace for several reasons, not the least
of which was reputation,” says Bond, who is part
owner of the store. “It’s an established brand with
a positive presence in many communities. Ace was
an excellent choice to anchor the new endeavor.”
One of the biggest reasons for the store’s success
is location. With retailers fairly far apart, customers want to combine trips to save time and money.
Having both a grocery store and a hardware store
under one roof is appealing on many levels.
“It’s a plus to have a variety of merchandise in
one location,” Bond says. “Customers can take care
of their home needs as well as their grocery needs.
It’s a winning combination.”
The stores have experienced sales growth consistently since opening. The owners are committed
to Ace because Ace is committed to helping their
business succeed, Bond says.
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
Ace executives say they are not just focused on
today’s bottom line, the Ace 20/20 Vision long-term
retail growth strategy is a testament to the company’s forward-thinking approach to business. The
Stokes store is already participating in the program.
Yet, working with Ace day-to-day is what makes a
difference in Bond’s management of the store.
Bond says Ace’s 90 years of hardware experience is invaluable to retailers today who can
learn from its long history. Ace staff, sales representatives and training staff are approachable and
there when retailers need them, Bond says.
“They understand the hardware business,” he
says. “They have great people to work with on a
corporate and regional level. If I need something,
all I have to do is pick up the phone.”
The Future
With its Ace partnership, both sides of the
combination food market and hardware store have
enjoyed great success.
The hardware side of the business draws customers for its plumbing, electrical and seasonal
items. Other popular products are pet food and
hand and power tools.
“Our sales have been growing,” Bond says. “We
are seeing sales increases and find we share many
customers with the grocery business.”
Ace Hardware Stokes Market prides itself on
superior product knowledge, customer service
and a quality shopping experience all around.
Employees from both the grocery and hardware
stores can pinch hit in a rush, servicing customers quickly and efficiently.
“Ace not only provides us with product information and support for employees but also management and sales training to manager,” Bond says.
Using these resources, knowledge of the local
population and a passion for service excellence,
Ace Hardware Stokes Market has become a destination in Salem.
“Our staff has knowledge of the diverse hardware categories we carry,” Bond says. “That knowledge and a commitment to helping customers in a
friendly way has been the key to our success.”
HARDWARE RETAILING
121
DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE SERIES
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HARDWARE RETAILING | January 2014
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*Ace Hardware received the highest numerical score among retail stores in the proprietary J.D. Power & Associates 2007-2013 Home Improvement
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**Ace 2011 Retail Financial Report, Profit Planning Group
***Based on Home Channel News Ranking of “The Top 100 Largest U.S. Two-Step Distributors,” 2012
27_120985_0613