In the early days of March, Cheryl Brown and the Knudson Lumber team in the Kittitas Valley of Washington were busy putting the final touches on a new addition to the 80-year-old family business: an e-commerce site. Since 1940, Knudson …
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New COVID-19 Retail Restrictions Set in California
New restrictions meant to slow the spread of COVID-19 went into effect this weekend in California, impacting roughly 33 million people in the state, CNN reports. Approximately 27 million residents in San Joaquin Valley and southern California, which includes Los …
Read More »Monitoring the Market: Q4 2020
Monitoring market trends in consumer sentiment, home improvement rates and construction figures can help you anticipate emerging opportunities for your business. Use the tables below to get a deeper understanding of a few of the forces affecting independent home improvement. …
Read More »COVID-19 Has Changed Consumer Buying Preferences
Anxiety about COVID-19 has shifted where and how people will shop for the holidays. Research from professional services firm Deloitte shows that more than half of shoppers feel anxious about in-store shopping due to the pandemic. Independent home improvement retailers …
Read More »Understanding the Twists and Turns of 2020 Retail Sales
Despite uncertainty early in the year, retail sales have remained strong across sectors, including historic sales for home improvement (NAICS 444) and nonstore companies (NAICS 454) like Amazon. Referencing retail sales for September, National Retail Federation president and CEO Matthew …
Read More »Retailer Helped Provide More Than 1,200 Masks
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Sam Ransdell of Burney True Value Hardware in Seven Lakes, North Carolina, realized that ordering face masks to sell wasn’t going to meet his community’s needs. Demand was too high nationally for Ransdell to get …
Read More »2021 International Hardware Fair Has Been Canceled
The 2021 International Hardware Fair has been canceled, event organizer EISENWARENMESSE has announced. The event was previously scheduled to take place in Cologne, Germany, Feb. 21-24. Many of the exhibitors scheduled to appear at the event faced international travel restrictions, …
Read More »2020 Holiday Sales Expected to Climb 5.2%
The traditionally busy shopping season from Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. to Cyber Monday has looked quite a bit different in 2020. The Associated Press reports the COVID-19 pandemic kept in-person Black Friday shopping crowds thin, but a surge in …
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