What’s New? Ace Nation Speaks

“It’s really neat having Toro snowblowers available out of the warehouse that I can order one and two at a time. That helps a small dealer like me. I’m bringing in a whole new line because that’s something that hasn’t been fully available to me buying big quantities. I’ve got a Toro dealer next door to me, so this opened up a whole new market.” — Kurt Staehlin, Kurt’s Ace Hardware, Dolton, Illinois



“We’re looking at doing the thermal scopes, or the night vision/thermal imaging scopes. We’re from Texas, so [we have] a lot of hunters, lot of hog problems. People want to get rid of them.” — Kurt Leer, D&D Ace Hardware, La Grange, Texas



“We just opened a store in January. We’ve been to a few Ace markets in preparation for getting set up, but I’m excited for garden season; Scotts and a lot of the lawn and garden products that are going on.” — Mike Child, Ogden (Utah) Ace Hardware



“Biggest for us this year has been bird seed, which we’ve kind of revamped (we’re a suburban Chicago store). Yetis and new Traeger Grills — those are new to our grill category.” — Keith Ebel, Ebel’s Ace Hardware, Elmhurst, Illinois



“We’re doing the LED bulbs right now. It’s going to be a good selling tool for our other businesses around us. We’re pretty current on everything. Ace has added a lot of primo brands the last few years. We’re just here to focus on Christmas.” — Christine Egelstad, Lake Stevens (Washington) Ace



“The big initiative for us is always the resets. Keeping everything fresh and new and current. There’s always something different. Sometimes there’s something left over from last year we didn’t do, but things that change rapidly like audio/video — we have to keep up with those changes.” — Dan Costello, Costello’s Ace Hardware, Deer Park, New York



“We need to revamp our electrical, our tools. We need to revamp all of our store, actually. We’re trying to reorganize and bring in a new paint machine.” — Sarah & Thomas Jung, Dutton Hardware, San Leandro, California



“We have endless projects in 2016. Right now our main focus is going to be barbecue. We’re really aggressive in the whole barbecue category; really refreshing our tools and power tools and hand tools. — Morgan Scarborough, Scarborough Lumber, Boulder Creek, California