Return of the neighborhood hardware store

In 2003, in Washington’s Logan Circle, Gina Schaefer opened what she believes was the first new neighborhood-scale hardware store in the nation’s capital in 20 years. Since then, she’s opened six more in other Washington neighborhoods, in suburban Takoma Park, Maryland, and in Baltimore—all affiliated with the Ace Hardware national co-op.

Another Washingtonian, Anne Stom, opened Annie’s Ace Hardware last February in Petworth, a District of Columbia neighborhood where in recent years there’s been housing construction near a Metro station, along with homebuyers fixing up older detached dwellings and rowhouses.

The neighborhood-scale hardware store isn’t dead after all; it was just waiting to be revived. “People flocked to big-boxes for a while,” says Stom, but “I think it’s occurring to them that what they gave up was a personal connection to the store and the people in the store, and the knowledge base.”

A neighborhood hardware store is easier to get to than a big box, Stom says, and it’s likely to be staffed by “someone who’s lived in one of these old houses for 20 years” and knows what’s needed. Stom’s store has about 6,000 sq. ft. of retail space, plus another 1,000 sq. ft. for its office and glass-cutting/window screen area. Schaefer’s stores range from 5,500 to 8,000 sq. ft.

Schaefer, formerly operations manager at a tech company, says only two of her seven stores have parking lots, and even those are small (9 to 15 vehicles) and never full. Limited parking “hasn’t caused us to be unprofitable.”

Both women say that by purchasing through a national co-op, they’re able to offer prices competitive with the big hardware emporiums. Ace, on whose board Schaefer now serves, has introduced an “Ace Express” model—a set of techniques applicable to a 4,000 sq. ft. store. There is no standard building, but the Express has recommendations about such things as which products to carry in a limited space and what the display shelves should look like.

Neighborhood hardware stores are going into all sorts of quarters. Stom’s is in a former auto body shop. One of Schaefer’s is in a basement parking garage. Another occupies a handsome modern storefront along a sidewalk. Looks don’t matter, Schaefer says.

The factors that she searches for in a site include:

• A very walkable location in a neighborhood.

• A neighborhood where renovation is strong, so customers need tools and supplies.

• A strong “shop-local” orientation. That can be found in neighborhoods with National Main Street programs or other programs aimed at building up the local business base. Places with many boutiques and independent shops are good locales.

To assess a location, Schaefer gets in touch with the local community association or business association and talks to residents and business operators about local conditions and what people are looking for. “We ask a bunch of questions,” she says, but the process “doesn’t take much time or money.”