Retailers Set Their Eyes on Growth at the Ace Hardware 2026 Fall Convention

Boasting record-breaking attendance, the Ace Hardware 2026 Fall Convention brought together over 14,500 attendees in Orlando, an increase of 5.5% from Fall 2023, the last time the Fall Convention was held in Orlando.  

More than 6,100 Ace retailers—which marked the highest attendance for any convention except Ace’s centennial event—explored the show floor engaging in product discovery, taking advantage of show-exclusive deals, attending category training and operational workshops and connecting with friends old and new. 

The General Session opened up the event on Tuesday morning, drawing a crowd of over 5,000 attendees to listen to remarks from Ace Hardware president and CEO John Venhuizen, SVP Chief Retail Strategy Officer Andy Enright and SVP Merchandising Brian Wiborg. Read the full recap of the General Session here. 

“In my opinion, that was the best opening general session I’ve ever been to,” says Buck Hurst, owner of three Buck’s Ace Hardware locations in Utah. “It had a little bit of humor to entertain, but was straight to the point about what it takes for growth. It was like Business 101 and applied to every Ace retailer there.”

Out on the show floor, highlights included the Flavor Fest Tour and outdoor grilling demo area, encompassing more than 50,000 square feet and Discovery Edge, featuring the Elevate Ace brand shops on display and the new Wild Bird Level 3 set with Chirp, Ace’s exclusive wild bird brand. Both areas were stocked with vendors and products to give retailers an edge and grow in various categories. 

Over 80 new vendors shared product knowledge and showed off their products, including Apple, who will be offering a 2-foot impulse assortment that will be stocked in all the Retail Support Centers. 

“We’ve seen lots of new at the show—plenty of new vendors and some new faces among Ace retailers,” says Thomas Stanchulski, owner of Ben Franklin Ace in Raymond, New Hampshire. 

In the Retail Learning Center, live, in-person training geared toward store owners and managers covered topics to enhance growth, including B2B customer strategy, driving operational efficiency, customer service, store remodels and multistore ownership. 

Building Off a Firm Foundation

During the convention, Venhuizen sat down with Hardware Retailing to discuss the current state of the economy and its impact on independent retailers and where Ace is focusing on technology and growth in the months ahead. 

Looking at the economy, Venhuizen says inflation continues to be a challenge, not just for Ace customers but for all consumers. When inflation outpaces wage growth, it puts pressure on every consumer—especially those who don’t have a lot of discretionary income—which can lead to higher ticket items seeing more pressure. 

“What’s amazing in this is that most of our growth still is coming from the bigger ticket items like power tools, outdoor power equipment and barbecue grills,” Vehnuizen says. “I give a lot of credit to the merch team for getting a good differentiated product, and a lot of kudos to the marketing team for pounding the drum of trying to become famous for those things.”

Since the beginning of the year, Ace Hardware has opened 170 new stores, and Venhuizen says steady growth will continue to be the goal along with a focus on urban areas by looking at current Ace retailers who have working models in urban areas. 

“Our market share in urban environments is the lowest amongst the demographic classes for us, and the team’s been working on research to make sure we put forth a working model to produce accelerated growth beyond the 170 new stores a year,” Venhuizen says. “It’s been very fun to have a few urban Ace stores let us get under the hood. We’re trying to just learn from the best and share with the rest.” 

Early in 2026, Ace launched Hey ARMA!, an AI-powered platform that helps associates answer customer questions, find information about products in the store and current promotions and more. During the General Session, Enright shared examples of how Hey ARMA! is positively impacting retailers so far, and Venhuizen also shed light on the progress with the new platform. 

Venhuizen says he is proud of the team internally for getting Hey ARMA! launched in a short amount of time. Like other technologies, adoption has been mixed with many early adopters and others who are more hesitant.

“The biggest takeaway I think is the confidence associates are gaining,” Venhuizen says. “When they’re more confident and competent with their tasks, they approach customers more, which can lead to more sales, but definitely more engagement.”

Looking at the months ahead, Venhuizen says the company needs and wants to work increasingly hard to remove friction during the customer journey. What won’t change is the foundation of the company. 

“Our bedrock is our culture,” Venhuizen says. “The values we’ve had for quite some time—excellence, integrity, gratitude, ability, teamwork, love—I think and I hope we have long after we’re all gone.”