When wildfires swept through Northern California in September, customers knew to turn to Pedrotti Ace Hardware if they wanted to help victims. Owner Gene Pedrotti had set up a charitable trust several years ago to match shoppers’ donations to Red …

Walmart has announced plans to close 269 stores, including 154 locations in the U.S., which marks a change for the company. “It’s the first mass closing,” Walmart expert and journalist Charles Fishman told Hardware Retailing. “I think this isn’t significant financially. It’s significant symbolically.” …

The National Retail Federation recently called out a Lowe’s tech leader as an innovator among “true originals who rock the boat with ideas so crazy, they just might work.” Kyle Nel is executive director of Lowe’s Innovation Labs, which is the giant retailer’s …

Regional distributor Handy Hardware is retiring its name this year in favor of World and Main, the name of its parent company. Handy Hardware will formally adopt the World and Main name at its spring buying market, which is scheduled for Jan. …

To view a PDF of this story, click here. By Liz Lichtenberger, llichtenberger@nrha.org and Kate Klein, kklein@nrha.org Your employees are the first contact customers have with your business when they walk in the store. Employees mix paint, repair screens and answer questions, among other tasks. …

Part of retaining high-quality employees is maintaining an ongoing conversation with them about their work performance and their goals for their careers with your business. To learn more about finding and keeping top-notch employees, click here. This employee evaluation form is …

Smart home technology, such as remotely controlled security systems and appliances, has downsides, such as the many apps needed to control products and incompatibility between different devices that prevent them from working together. “Home automation systems like Nest and Hue are all …

A smart home built for research at a university has already conserved thousands of gallons of water. The Honda Smart Home, which is located on the University of California’s Davis campus, features energy efficient appliances, lighting and heating and cooling systems. However, …