Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
When tourists in Siren, Wis., need to get their cabins ready for the winter or opened up in the spring, they know Jenneman’s Hardware Hank will lend a hand.
“We’re in a tourist area with a lot of lakes,” manager Mike Swanson says. “We’ve been offering these services for the 40 years we’ve had our store here.”
In the fall, one of the store’s employees, handyman Joe Kouba, visits seasonal cabins to blow out water lines and check that all drain traps are protected. “We’ll shut off the gas and main connections for the electric,” Swanson says. “We just shut everything down for winter.
“Come spring, it’s the reverse: We get everything up and running by flushing out water lines and making sure the water heater is in good working order,” he says.
In addition to tourists and cabin owners, clients include real estate companies with vacation listings that need winterizing.
Right now, the store serves about 200 clients each winter and spring. While Kouba stays busy year-round—he also cleans furnaces and repairs appliances—most of his time in the fall and spring is devoted to preparing the cabins.
“He has a lot of knowledge on how to do these things,” Swanson says. “You see a lot of fly-by-night companies offering these services, so we like having someone reliable and trustworthy.”
He advises retailers to be patient as they build their client lists. “We have a pretty big clientele right now, but we’ve built that up over the past 40 years,” Swanson says. “There was a time that list was a lot smaller. It takes time as we’ve built up our reputation.”
