Hardware dealers and tech interface
Tech came to Texas – for three blistering hot days in early August.
“We wanted to learn about AI and Chat GPT,” said Robert Gann, GM at Yeagers Ace Hardware, also an Orgill dealer, with four stores in the West Arkansas region, talking about why he came to the Orgill Fall Buying Event and the North American Hardware and Paint Association (NHPA) Independents Conference – both held in downtown Dallas hotels across the street from each other.
While temperatures soared to 108 outside, 300 or so attendees from the hardware and building supply industry stayed cool inside and shared thoughts and opinions on emerging retail technology.
[Related story: Orgill, NHPA do Texas two-step]
In the Orgill Pavilion, two Orgill dealers said they have come to the conferences to talk about technology – specifically electronic product tags and if they would be useful to make their operations more efficient.
The Orgill Pavilion was designed to be a more comfortable space for dealers to discuss topics in detail, topics that are hard to deep dive into at a big trade show where time is tight.
DeWalt is here in the Pavilion with a booth, and said they are busy connecting with dealers who want to see what products are being carried by the Orgill distributor. Milwaukee is here too with a booth and so are others. All with the same take on the Pavilion: They love it.
They make up a perimeter around carpeted tech stations, each with comfortable chairs and large computer monitors for helping dealers on topics ranging from e-commerce to new store signage, and everything in between. It’s classy, stylish and understated – and coming off like a winner.
“This is our first time doing this event,” said Boyden Moore, president and CEO of Orgill, chatting with this editor in the NHPA ballroom, with attendees walking past checking out a dozen and a half booths of mostly technology companies, such as Epicor, eci, Badger, Watcher, and others.
“We’re happy to support the NHPA and we’ll be back,” said Moore.
Describing the Orgill Pavilion, David Mobley, executive vice president of sales said, “This is a smaller version of what you’d usually see at a large Orgill dealer market.”
He said they wanted a more intimate space where dealers could sit down and, “tell us what they need. And we have a really good mix of new dealers and longtime dealers here.”
Another one of those dealers is Jared Bricker, manager of The Home Center in West Memphis.
Bricker is interested in all things “tech” but he is here, “looking for ideas too. Our big seller in our store is plumbing. I’ve been an Orgill dealer for more than six years.”
Customers and AI
In a cool and darkened adjoining ballroom, keynote speaker Chris Hood, a former innovator from Google, and a digital strategist with more than 35 years experience in business, asked the audience rhetorically: “What is digital transformation?”
A message flashed on a large screen behind him and read: “5.19 billion people are connected to the internet today.”
He said digital transformation is this: “process + technology = improve an entity.”
Also, he invited the audience to scan a product code for the website slido.com that flashed on the big screen behind him and enter their descriptive words for various questions he would prompt them with as he talked, making for an AI-assisted presentation to show what everyone was thinking.
He asked people to enter how they felt about AI. Words such as “Terminator” “scary” “Skynet” and “creepy” came up, along with many other adjectives. Hood did this many times during his talk about various topics, and the audience saw the irony of the fear and fascination mixture of AI.
“AI is everywhere,” said Hood. “There will be remarkable growth in the next seven to 10 years, but 75% of consumers want to interact with a real person.”
AI is smart but it doesn’t connect our emotions. The key, he said, was to “use the tech to meet consumer needs.”
Hood said, “use data to deliver what the customer expects; with an outside-in perspective: Customer first.”
On the NHPA show floor a Badger robot, designed to count stock on shelves in stores, was moving about showing off its autonomous skills to the delight of attendees.
Nearby, Watcher loss prevention was drawing a big crowd around its booth as executives pointed out their loss prevention tech, like light-motion tags that are sensitive to light and give off a screaming signal when covered up (like being put into a bag or in a coat by shoplifters).
I saw Robert Gann once more at the very end and we paused a moment and again touched on the reason for all the technology. He said simply, elegantly, “we came to see what it can do for our hardware business and our customers.”
That’s putting the customer first. And that’s the vibe from Orgill and NHPA in Texas.
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Keynote attendees get interactive about tech, helped by AI. -
Watcher offers a light-motion sensitive tag to stop shoplifters in-store. -
This graph predicts the growth of AI by 2030.
