Business Services Industry
ACE EYES BLUEPRINT FOR RETOOLED STORES: HAMMERED BY BIG-BOX RIVALS, HARDWARE CHAIN ON OFFENSIVE.
Crain's Chicago Business, January, 1999 by MORRELL, LISA
After watching big-box behemoths like Home Depot and Menard's chisel away at traditional hardware stores' marketshare, Ace Hardware Corp. is taking them on directly with plans to open a prototype home- improvement-style store by midyear. ``Store 21'' represents Oak Brook-based Ace's first attempt to challenge the home center giants at their own game, with wider aisles, higher ceilings, home decor products and how-to tips, all within a 30,000-square-foot space -- more than triple the size of the average Ace store.
``It's almost a quantum leap in how we go to market,'' says Richard Lynch, corporate retail development manager for Ace, a cooperative that serves 5,100 dealers. ``You can't be just the same old hardware store you once were. The stores that are not...
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