STIHL Hardware All Stars: Ark., Calif., Colo.
The 2021 class of STIHL Hardware Store All Stars represent community-oriented, customer-focused, high-performance hardware-and-building-supply retailing at its finest. From each of the fifty United States, HBSDealer recognized an All Star performer.
You can read about all 50 honorees here in the digital issue of HBSDealer. Additionally, HBSDealer.com will highlight a handful of honorees each week, working our way from Alabama to Wyoming. Here are three more from Arkansas, California and Colorado.
Arkansas
Gazaway Ace
This highly successful family-owned business has been in operation since 1963 when B.C. Gazaway founded it. More than 50 years later, grandson Todd has kept the merchandise fresh with store resets and re-arranging prominent fixtures within the store for maximum effect. Todd likes to tout his company’s status, proclaiming it to be “hands down” the most “helpful” crew to embrace the Ace promise of legendary customer service.
California
Chet's Hardware
After nearly seven years of careful coordination with the Catalina Island Conservancy, Chet’s moved into a new building in May 2020, continuing its role as the island’s lone hardware store and one of its oldest businesses. The new Avalon location includes a garden nursery, and owners Mike and Cinde Cassidy are consulting with the Conservancy to offer an extensive selection of native plants.
Colorado
Kroegers Ace
Kroegers Ace is all about community. The century-old Durango business recently supplied the paint, brushes and other materials for a 300-foot Town Plaza Mural project—one of the many ways manager Joel Krueger and his team give back. Kroegers earmarks about $50,000 annually for local charities, especially children, the needy and women fighting breast cancer. “We do it because it’s the right thing to do and the community rewards us for that,” Joel Krueger said.
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Special thanks to STIHL for its support of the ALL STAR project. (Note: not all honorees are STIHL dealers.)
HBSDealer welcomes all nominations for the 2022 class of Hardware All Stars. Submit candidates at any time to [email protected].