Format Watch: W.E. Aubuchon

Home Channel News, March 8, 1999

ZCOMPANY: W.E. Aubuchon

LOCATION: Winchester, Mass.

Size: 2,900 square feet (manager's estimate

With hardware stores in 147 small towns throughout upstate New York and New England, W.E. Aubuchon maintains a remarkable consistency in look and presentation. Local homeowners and contractors quickly recognize the Aubuchon Hardware footprint -- a 5,000-square-foot store, usually standalone, with a green and orange color scheme, a siding exterior and seasonal merchandise upfront.

The nature of Aubuchon's markets sometimes require the 101-year-old retailer to stray from a time-tested format, as in the case of the Winchester, Mass., unit, about a half-hour drive north of downtown Boston.

Opening in Winchester's quaint, tree-lined blocks three years ago, Aubuchon had to move into a rental property of about 2,900 square feet --little more than half of its average store size. Strict town ordinances also restricted parking lot pylon signage. The store, set off from the street a bit, had to settle for a six-foot-high sign.

Part of an existing building, the storefront would look radically different from the majority of Aubuchonowned stores. Instead of the siding-covered shed look, the Winchester store presented a brick and stone exterior with bushes and shrubbery in place of seasonal merchandise.

Undeterred, Aubuchon opened the store, giving its employees the latitude to make design and product presentation changes. Manager Greg Gilardi recently took all of the snow blowers and tractors displayed outside and brought them inside and upfront. He also cross-merchandised some shovels and firewood from the store upfront on the wall above the blowers.

"It was a way to convert wall space to selling space," said Gilardi. The residential location led him to also drop some pro-grade paint lines for more DIY-oriented Glidden lines. A half-covered storage shed is now a small, walk-in building materials "room" where customers serve themselves.