Click on the image above to download a PDF of the story. As the world’s leading lawn and garden show, spoga+gafa is a destination for retailers looking for new products, trends and inspiration for how to separate themselves from their …

For three days, visitors from around the world gathered at the Koelnmesse Exhibition Center in Cologne, Germany, for spoga+gafa, the annual international lawn and garden trade fair. The event, held Sept. 2-4, drew more than 40,000 visitors from 114 countries …

As summer draws to a close, DIY gardeners are busy enjoying the bounty of their crops. More than likely, you were well prepared in the spring as they shopped for everything they needed to get their gardens started. Now, it’s …

A hardware store is full of sharp objects and dangerous chemicals. That’s just the nature of what you have to sell to be in the business. But you also need to keep your store safe for your customers and employees. …

At the United Hardware Fall and Winter Buying Market, held July 27-29 at the Minneapolis Convention Center, attendees found ways to improve their average transaction size, increase their margins and invest in their communities. “We had a strong opening attendance, …

Click the picture to download a PDF of this story. By Jesse Carleton, jcarleton@nrha.org Hard to Resist One of the key performance indicators for a retail business is average transaction size or sales per customer. Do you know what that number is for …

In the weeks leading up to Memorial Day, Mark Shook got his customers thinking about how they could give back to veterans. Shook, manager at Waters True Value in Emporia, Kansas, joined forces with two other businesses in town to …