All Star Review: Pa.; R.I.; and S.C.
It takes a little more to be an All Star.
To provide the best customer service; fit perfectly with your community; find the niche categories for your locals; and have the people and personalities to create that certain something extra.
This year’s class of STIHL Hardware All Stars marks the 14th year of the program, in which editors recognize one business from each of the 50 states.
We visited with, and talked to, stores and dealer markets, distributors and suppliers, even studied customer reviews on social media to help determine the honorees. And that’s how we found our latest elite-level hardware and building supply dealers.
• PENNSYLVANIA
Quincy Hardware
Aside from Quincy Hardware’s excellent product selection as an independent STIHL dealer in Waynesboro, a town of 17,000, not too far from the state line with Maryland, in the Cumberland Valley, their customer service is, “over the top, reminiscent of a bygone era,” said a regular customer familiar with them. “I saw the owner, Simon Hess, hand a customer a roll of fencing, telling him to, ‘take it along, cut what you need, and bring the roll back. We’ll settle up then.’ Where else does this happen in this day and age?”
• RHODE ISLAND
Arnold Lumber Company
In 1911 the first Indianapolis 500 race was held. Meanwhile in Rhode Island, Carold “Kit” D. Arnold was busy purchasing a small wood lot N. Kingstown. Logs were cut by hand then taken to a local sawmill to be planed. Not quite equipped as a retail location, often customers would come by on Sunday, even though no one was there, pick out the wood they needed, and leave a note saying they would return to make payment on Monday. Today it offers building materials, a full line of masonry supplies, cabinetry, and a kitchen and bath design center and showroom.
• SOUTH CAROLINA
Royall Ace Hardware
Four palm trees sway on the parkway where Coleman Blvd. splits. And the Royall sign out there is correctly spelled with two letter ‘l’s. This 40 year old family owned hardware store lives by its motto: “If we don't have it… you don’t need it.” The business sits in the center of Mt. Pleasant, a town on the Atlantic Ocean across the bay from Charleston. One Yelper’s review seems to say it all: “Their garden center is well known by all the locals for their great section of plants in perfect condition. It does not get any better than this.”
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