The cowboy way: Douglas Ace rebrands

They own an Ace.

They also own a Hardware Hank.

So what?... Cowboys like action… You wanna make somethin’ out of it?

In Douglas, Wyoming, Larry and Diana Leake are the co-owners of Douglas Ace Hardware. They also have a smaller Hardware Hank store in Glenrock, Wyoming, store size about 3,000 square feet.

“We serve a pretty large area. We are about 25 miles from the mountains, have the North Platte river flowing through town, and we are 28 miles from Glendo Lake,” said Larry Leake describing the market their newly rebranded Ace store serves in Douglas.

There are lots of outdoor activities in the area.

They are also home to the Wyoming State Fair.

“We carry a line of sporting goods, fishing supplies, hunting supplies. We sell Kayaks as well. We sell Wyoming game and fish licenses,” said Leake.

They also stock a full line of Wrangler, Cinch, Ariat, Justin, Keen, Twisted X, Converse, Fila, Asics, Chaco, and more. “We can outfit for the day at school, work, ranch, or pretty much whatever you need,” said the owner.

“We have been here since 2008,” he said. Members of United Hardware, they decided to go with Ace at their Douglas location. That store has 26,000 square feet of retail space. The Glenrock store remains Hardware Hank.

The owners said they wanted to “get a better line of items” after having “problems getting enough inventory to take care of our customers” – and, he said, they “needed a change.”

The couple reset the whole Douglas store, he said. “We had already redone our appliance section and clothing department, to get ready for the hardware reset.”

[Read more: The Roar of Blackhawk Ace Hardware.]

They plan to have a big grand reopening sometime soon, to go along with their annual greenhouse opening. Leake said they will continue to, “tweak the store throughout spring.”

Things that excite

“Our customers are pretty excited that we switched to Ace,” said Leake.

But along the way there are always surprises to work through when switching brands. The owners said they have been working on it since 2021.

“You must get the computer system reworked for the new brand. We remodeled our front counters, and our customer service centers, so that took some time,” he said.

“We had some down time, but never closed the doors,” said Leake. “We did everything while our customers were shopping, and course they had to re-learn where everything is at.”

In their Facebook post they wrote: “Exciting things happening here at Douglas Hardware.”

The store offers products and services that customers have come to expect from a full-service Ace store, said the company.

“Lots of new items, lots of new ideas, new signage, new layout. Still locally owned and operated,” he said.