Owner disputes impact of big-box competition

It wasn’t a nearby Home Depot that led to the business woes of a Madison, Wis., hardware store, said its owner.

According to an article in the Cap Times, a local hardware store owner pointed to crime and deteriorating conditions in the Madison, Wis., store’s neighborhood as the leading cause for its pending going-out-of-business sale.

Mayor Paul Soglin told the newspaper that competition from Home Depot led to the demise of the neighborhood store.

Deny Lochner, owner of the Meadowood Ace hardware store, sent an email that said: "Mayor Soglin is wrong to state that retail competition put us out of business. Home Depot has been here for 12 to 15 years. Our sales dipped slightly the first year they opened and increased almost every year after that. Our biggest sales years were after they opened!"