Helping drive retail success: new niche program helps stores become destination.(SPECIAL DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE: ACE HARDWARE)

Do-It-Yourself Retailing, May, 2005

Ace Hardware and its retailers have been competing with big-box stores for decades, trying to set themselves apart and win the battle for customers. Now, Ace is making it easier for retailers to do just that with the "Beyond Basics" program.

"We all know that consumers think of their local Ace for hardware, lawn and garden and paint," says Lori Bossman, Ace's vice president of merchandising. "But many (Ace retailers) offer products that go well beyond these basics, offering unique niches that are suited to their region of the country and their community. That's what the new 'Beyond Basics' program is all about."

At its spring convention, Ace unveiled nine new niche programs, designed to set its dealers apart from the competition with a dominant...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.