Tag Archives: operations

Youth farming organizations, like Future Farmers of America and 4-H, are vital for the agriculture industry and for the hardware retail businesses that supply local communities. The latest crop of kids raising hogs, sheep and cattle are the next generation of customers …

At Turkstra Lumber, a business with 11 locations around Ontario, Canada, the familiar telethon got a makeover. Last October, Mitch MacLellan, social media and marketing director, and Jamie Crickmore, manager of the company’s trim and door division, sat down in …

Not every retailer gets an audience of a few million consumers at once. But that’s just a regular Saturday morning for Andy Amrhein, owner of Evey True Value Hardware in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. For more than 25 years, every Saturday …

When Whitmore Ace Hardware got a surplus buy on boxes of disposable rags, director of marketing Laurie Becker saw an opportunity to get creative with merchandising. Instead of just stacking the boxes on a regular pallet display, she challenged managers …

Click the picture to download a PDF of this story. By Chad Husted, chusted@nrha.org Driving Sales in a Small Space Big or small, retail businesses can be compared by one metric: sales per square foot. At Kendall’s Ace Hardware in St. Paul, …

Charred beef. A cold beer. Sunshine on your back. What could be better than that? Adding a little competition to heat everything up. The competitive fire is alive and well in Walker, Minnesota, where the Burger Battle is hosted by …

There’s a reason offering strong customer service is a common mantra for independent home improvement retailers: It’s an extremely important component of a retailer’s business when competing with big boxes and e-commerce competitors. But store services can play just as …

When a member of your team decides to leave, finding someone new to replace them can be one of the most difficult tasks you have all year. Your employees are the face of your business. They can make or break …