Fall 2019 Hardlines Strategies

CUSTOMER PROFILE

Thinking of Home Early Success Leads to Expanded Selection

These aren’t just clichés for small business owners, and especially not for independent hardware retailers. They’re the basis of good customer service and likely what will make or break a home improvement business. Luckily for Hometown Lumber and Hardware, living by those sayings and being there for its community made it the thriving business it is today. In 1998, after a 22-year career as a contractor, Rich Markus bought a lumberyard in Valentine, Nebraska. According to Sean Markus, Rich’s son and the current vice president of Hometown Lumber and Hardware, buying the lumberyard was just as much about serving the Valentine community as it was using skills from a previous career to start a business. That attitude, that the members of the community needed a viable option for home improvement products close to home, began with a mantra that has stayed important in the business even today. “We agreed in the earliest days that we would build the business with very little markup on our products. We knew we wanted to compete with big-boxes in larger towns, and to do that, the local option has to have the right pricing,” Markus says. The company would also not allow larger businesses to beat them on selection. While a big-box store might have more brands of a hardware or lumber item, second chance to make a first impression, they say. G et off on the right foot, they say. You never get a

Hometown Lumber and Hardware, located in Valentine, Nebraska, expanded is salesfloor in 2018, adding 2,000 square feet. Now the store has wider aisles and more products available.

Early Changes The move to a larger salesfloor and lumberyard wasn’t the only big change coming in 2001. That year, Hometown Lumber and Hardware’s hardware wholesaler shut its doors, meaning the young business would need to find a new source for its hardware, tools, fasteners and other essentials. The business’s leadership put their trust in their sales representative, Scott Leech, who was previously working with the now-defunct wholesaler and had taken a new position with Blish-Mize. Leech remains Hometown Lumber and Hardware’s sales rep and is an integral part of the business’s success, Markus says.

Hometown Lumber and Hardware would have enough supply on hand to satisfy a homeowner’s immediate needs. “With my dad having been a contractor, he knew how important having supplies available was,” Markus says. “Ordering something can be convenient at times, but not if you’re trying to build a garage this weekend,” he says. “You can’t sell it if you don’t have it.” This early mindset proved fruitful enough for the business that it had outgrown its footprint three years after the Markus family took over. In 2001, the company moved to the location of another former lumberyard, one that still serves the people of Valentine and surrounding communities today.

38 Fall 2019 • Hardlines Strategies