How True Value Hardware Is Managing In The Coronavirus And Planning For A Brighter Future Afterward

We’ve all heard the trope, “Hope is not a strategy,” but for True Value Hardware, hope is the strategy – hope that each of its over 4,500 independently-owned and operated dealers and the communities they serve will get through the current crisis strong and emerge stronger than before.

Even before the coronavirus crisis, True Value adopted the motto “Locally Strong” to communicate the core value of its brand. That “Locally Strong” message has new meaning now.

“Everyone is trying to find balance in this difficult time and face the challenges with strength,” True Value Company CEO John Hartmann shared with me.

Just being there in this time of crisis is how True Value is fulfilling its locally-strong promise.

“There is the real fear in terms of the impact on our families, neighbors, and communities combined with the need to continue to supply our communities with essential personal protective equipment, home maintenance, cleaning and disinfecting supplies, even toilet paper. In some communities, the local hardware store, like True Value, is the only place to get those essential supplies,” he continues.

Fight to serve

But first, True Value had to fight for the right to stay open when states throughout the country issued orders to close all non-essential stores in the name of social distancing.

“We found ourselves in a really scary position during the earliest lockdowns where it looked like states would deem hardware stores as non-essential retail businesses,” Hartmann says.

In response, Hartmann came together with other independent hardware companies through the National Retail Hardware Association to draft a letter to each of the 50 governors to make the case that their stores, including Ace Hardware, Orgil, Do It Best, Pro Group, Home Hardware Stores, and Distribution America, were absolutely essential in their communities.

“It is also important to note that locally owned home improvement stores have a proven track record of providing essential supplies and support to communities in past emergency situations, such as hurricanes, floods, fires and civil unrest,” the letter read, as they urged “all local, state, provincial and federal government offices to classify independent local home improvement retailers among those operations determined to be ‘essential’ retail outlets that can exercise the option to remain open to support their communities during these trying times.”

Case made, True Value stores could stay open.

Power in community retail

Undoubtedly, True Value’s greatest strength is its corporate structure. In 2018 Acon Investments acquired 70% of the company and removed the co-op membership requirement from its independent dealers.

This investment allowed the True Value Company to focus on strengthening its wholesale supply chain and to keep necessary products flowing out to the stores. And it gave each of its dealers free reign to operate their businesses as best meets their’s and their local communities’ needs.

Unshackled by top-down corporate management, the dealers have tapped their entrepreneurial spirit to bond closer to their local communities.

True Value Company supports its dealer community through an intranet members online messaging and information center with retail best practices, product availability information, and now with best health practices for the stores, CDC guidelines, and information on the stimulus package.

Becoming a beacon of light

One such initiative, the “Shine a Light” campaign, started at the grassroots level at Zionville, OH’s Akard True Value Hardware store. “We wanted to show unity and solidarity within our community to encourage people to come together,” explains Leigh Ann Akard, the store’s third-generation owner.

“So we strung some Christmas lights out front and hung a disco ball in the store that we found in our rental department, and put the music on so that people would see us in a different light and not feel panicked to come into the store,” she shares.

This simple idea turned out to be a gem and “Shine a Light” is now spreading throughout the dealer community.

“People are looking for optimism right now, and ‘Shine a Light’ gives people a bit of joy in a tough time,” Hartmann explains. “It is a bright spot for our dealers’ communities and demonstrates our locally-strong message.”

Care for the community

Through the intranet platform, dealers are encouraged to share ideas that make a meaningful difference to operating under the new constraints.

One of those was shared by Rob Kuenning, who owns four Western Ohio True Value stores. “Very early on we installed plexiglass at all of our registers and in our paint department counters. It was a very visible way to protect our employees and our customers,” he explains.

Another helpful idea came from Scott Campbell, who owns Stuebenville, OH’s M&M True Value Hardware. He provides lunches for his employees since local restaurants are closed.

Not only does it help employees save their money, he also spreads the money around to other local businesses. “Yesterday I stopped by a local store to get some stuff for lunch, then to another store to get drinks,” he shares.

“For convenience I could have done it all at one place, but I recognize that other local businesses are in the same boat as I am. I wanted to give others a little bit of my business,” Campbell continues.

Zionville, OH’s Akard is also reaching out to her community to inspire other businesses and non-profits with the locally-strong message.

Like Campbell, she has catered lunches with a pizza shop in her strip mall. The pizza shop owner was so grateful for her support that he posted a thank you message on his Facebook page, which led a new customer to Akard’s store.

“He spent nearly $200 buying stuff at our store when he lives right by Lowe’s,” she says. “That speaks volumes about what people are looking for. We all need to support each other because we are all in this together.”

Another example: through a networking group, Akard is friends with the founder of Chicken Nugget and Gang, a nonprofit group that recues animals that humane societies don’t accept, like chickens, bunnies, and birds.

Right before coronavirus hit, the group created t-shirts as a fundraiser, but with the closures, it couldn’t sell them. So Akard brought them into her store and has been able to keep needed funds cycling back to feed and care for the animals.

Akards’ store is also a collection spot for Lions Club’s eyeglass program, books for a literacy group, food for a local charity food bank, and a drop off/pick-up location for Sew to Serve kits, not to mention that her husband is a captain of the local fire department and her store provides products to support firefighters and local EMTs.

“It’s easy to say yes,” she says, and adds, “As an independent local retailer, we have to adjust our sails to catch the wind.”

Among the adjustments some True Value stores are making are reducing business hours, since dealers are allowing their staffs to adjust their normal work schedules or even forego coming to work for those at special risk from COVID-19.

Some dealers are closing the shop floor to customers entirely, offering curbside pickup for orders or restricting the number of shoppers allowed in the store at one time. And others are operating normally.  

For Akrad, offering curbside pickup was an immediate challenge, since it was not something she needed to offer in normal times. So she reached out into the dealer community to learn how.

“We had to figure out fast how to do curbside pickup with 40,000 items in inventory,” she shares.

Coming out stronger

Looking to the future, CEO Hartmann and these True Value dealers believe their efforts above and beyond “business as usual” are what’s right to do now and will set them up for greater success afterward.

Already, March 2020 sales are up more than 15% year-over-year chain wide and dealers are looking forward to an equally strong spring-summer season.

“For our dealers, spring is their ‘Christmas,’” Hartmann quips, as he expects not just garden supplies but outdoor living items, like grills, patio furniture and materials for yard-improvement projects, will be in even greater demand this year.

And shortly the company will be delivering to stores a new supply of special hand sanitizers, hand soaps, and sanitizing cleaning products that have proven effective against the virus.

The company converted parts of its Cary, IL paint manufacturing plant to produce these needed products after registering with the FDA as an over-the-counter drug manufacturer. Hartmann expects demand for these products to continue long after the immediate threat subsides.

Being seen in a new light

For Akard, the rest of the year holds special promise for her True Value store. After her father moved the store from Zionville Main Street to a suburban strip mall in the 70s, she is moving at least part of it back into town.

Some space from her grandfather’s original store front became vacant so she signed a one-year lease with the building’s current owner to open what she is calling a “pop-up” shop downtown.

“We see it as a way to reintroduce ourselves to our local community in a way they don’t expect to see us,” she explains, adding that being on Main Street will bring needed visibility to her store with ever-present big-box competition.

“Our town has grown tremendously, but our business hasn’t grown at the same rate,” she adds.

The store will be stocked with a selection of both traditional hardware items, as well as pet and gift items, which have become a booming category within her flagship store.

And the timing is right. “This year we celebrate our 65th year in business. If we only had our regular store, we’d celebrate it for a day or maybe a month. But now I am going to shamelessly plug our anniversary for an entire year,” she concludes.



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