J.C. Penney will close 130 to 140 stores and two distribution centers and will offer early retirement packages to about 6,000 employees, USA Today reports. The store closures would account for 13 to 14 percent of the department store’s total …
Read More »Industry News
Amid Employee Layoffs, Lowe’s Reports Profitable Q4
Fourth-quarter earnings increased for Lowe’s, following the company’s announcement of additional layoffs at its corporate headquarters and two support facilities. On March 1, the big-box retailer reported net earnings of $663 million, up by $11 million during the fourth quarter of 2015. Sales for the fourth quarter increased to …
Read More »To Fight Terrorism, ‘Be Observant’ in Your Store
See Something, Say Something In mid-September, three men entered Lyell Crest True Value and bought pipe caps, pipe nipples, cable ties, roofing nails, electrical tape, timers, wooden matches and wire. At the checkout counter, the trio asked the cashier if …
Read More »All Eyes on Independents at Conference
To view a PDF of this story, click here. Conference Reveals Insights Into Industry Challenges, Opportunities As a group, independent home improvement retailers are optimistic about the near future, with 78 percent saying they expect to see sales increase over …
Read More »Expert Perspective: Retail Is… Personnel
To view a PDF of this story, click here. When you look throughout your store, one asset is clearly more important than all the others: your employees. Without them, it doesn’t matter how great the building looks, how well the …
Read More »Finding Happiness Managing a Hardware Store and Yoga Studio
To view a PDF of this story, click here. By Renee Changnon, rchangnon@nrha.org Balancing Businesses The town of Troy, Montana, is home to about 1,000 people. If you passed through, you wouldn’t find a traffic light, but any local could point …
Read More »Through the Eyes of a Shoplifter
To view a PDF of this story, click here. In the June 1968 issue of the magazine, then-managing editor John J. Sullivan tried his hand at shoplifting from a few independent stores, just to see how easy it was to …
Read More »NRHA Partners with ZipRecruiter, Provides Recruitment Services
Think about the top three business challenges you’re currently facing. Is finding good employees one of them? To help you find a solution to that challenge, the North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA) and ZipRecruiter have partnered to offer independent …
Read More »
Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information


