The hardware-LBM balancing act
“I regularly ask our team what they are hearing out there that people are asking for. If we get asked a few times for the same product we bring it in.” – Todd Schryer
His story of growing up in the retail hardware store business is also the story of a business adapting to the times.
Rivertown Do It Center in Cheboygan, Michigan, has a general manager named Todd Schryer.
He was raised in Cheboygan, attended Michigan State University, received a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and focused on business management and forestry classes as alternatives.
Schryer came back from college in 2000 to a six-store operation that his father and grandfather had built over the years. He took over inventory management, buying responsibilities and eventually some management tasks from his father.
“Things were great and we were doing well, slowly building the business. Then, 2008 hit and we found ourselves with a bank that was in trouble, so we had to get creative under the pressure they put on us,” he said.
Ultimately they found themselves switching from a 60% pro, 40% DIY clientele, to a nearly complete DIY vision.
“We sold off five of the six stores and kept our main DIY store,” Schryer said. “We always had a manager for this so it was an interesting transition when we as owners repositioned down here. We went into it focusing on the DIY customer but had the lumber and building material knowledge and supplier relations.”
Ultimately, the general manager said, “we were able to take care of some very large projects that fit our new business model.
[Must Read: Hardware Meet Houseware.]
“So we quickly saw benefits from being small but having the knowledge and logistics to take care of the larger projects. If the job fits us we will engage from commercial to large million dollar homes,” he said.
He related a funny story about being at his location on a full time basis vs. having a manager run it for you.
“Now mind you,” he said, “this store has been here since the 1980s. The very first day we reopened, a customer walked in and asked if we repair screens. I said no and directed them to the glass shop in town that typically does them.”
Twenty minutes later another customer walked in and asked if we repair screens, said the GM, and he responded the same as earlier.
“Two hours go by,” said Schryer, “and a customer walks in and asks if we repair screens; and I boldly said, ‘yes, can I have your name and phone number?’ My staff looked at me like I was from Mars.
“Ever since, we have added up to $40 thousand dollars to our sales in the screen category – and still building,” he said.
The manager ponders how much business they let walk away over the years because someone didn’t pounce or even notice the opportunities.
“I preach to my employees: ‘I do not care what I sell, if the customer is asking for it, please relay that information to me,’” he said.
His business just added a line of high end caulk that their summer customers in downstate Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana are used to buying. “Now we have it,” he said.
His overall merchandise picture looks like this: 80% homeowner and 20% pros.
“We live off the front of the store. The lumber is a great attraction for the homeowner; and it becomes a one stop shop for small projects which is what a typical homeowner is doing,” he said.
A hybrid hardware store, he said, “is deeper in lumber and building material than most other hardware stores, and tends to attract the contractors for quick pickup in the morning as well.
“Our first shot in the arm in the morning is mostly contractors picking up. Then we go into ‘coffee hour,’ this is when the DIY retirees are preparing for their day; and then we get our next wave and the day stays steady from there,” said Schryer.
Adapt and expand
Hardware store customers today are asking for more items and services.
The general manager agreed: “Absolutely, we joke here all the time. Husband comes in saying, ‘my wife wants me to build this because she saw it on Pinterest.’ We laugh and tell them that we blocked our own wives’ Pinterist accounts. Then proceed and help them get their materials.
“People are more informed now. This gives them more confidence to attack more projects,” he said. “They are constantly being fed information over their phone so they are constantly seeing new items. Hard to keep pace with, as sometimes the information flows faster than the product itself.”
[What is so special about hardware? Find out here.]
The biggest selling categories today at Rivertown Do It Center, he said, are plumbing and paint.
But Schryer said overall its plumbing, because it takes a lot of parts and pieces in plumbing to make up for one $40 gallon of paint.
“We are strong in plumbing; our category offering is deep and wide. My staff understands plumbing very well. Paint comes in very close, and we are constantly trying to entice new business,” he said.
In one campaign they started with their postal service through DIB, he described, they send out “Welcome to the Neighborhood” cards – and on any change of address – that offer the customer an introduction to their store.
“We give them a coupon for a free key and a gallon of paint. Two things that every new homeowner needs: They always paint the walls in a new home they move into. We have met some great people and hopefully lifetime customers,” he said.
Schreyer has tips for other owners about adjusting their own hardware store inventory, as the market demands, to serve customers with a wider selection of building products.
“I think this goes back to communication with your team. They are the boots on the ground. I regularly ask them what they are hearing out there that people are asking for. If we get asked a few times for the same product we will bring it in,” said the general manager.
“My desk sits in the back third of the store but on the main aisle. I am readily available to people and I hear what is being asked of our employees. I think that gives me an advantage on the general pulse of the business,” he said.
It can be tough at times, he related, working on a $10,000 steel roof job and getting interrupted to go sell a 10 cent screw.
“It’s all relative,” he said. “I think in our town our customers like seeing the owners on the floor being able to interact with them on a daily basis.
“My sister is in the back office but is regularly on the floor. Customers have full access to her end of the business as well – receivables and payables. It gives you ‘street cred.’
“Like I stated before, I came from a multi-store operation, so the majority of my day was spent in an office buying inventory, inventory analysis and margin analysis,” he said.
The current single store was a chance for him and his sister to be “in the trenches,” he said.
“I had a lot to learn but really enjoyed it,” said Schryer. “We have a special town and I feel like the people here are good people – and it’s an honor to help them and become their friend.”
Dustin and Craftwood
“When I tell people I was raised in a hardware store, it’s most often to explain why I can do what I do.”
– Dustin Brunjes, owner of Craftwood Lumber and Hardware in Highland Park, Illinois, a Do it Best dealer in the northern suburbs of Chicago.
He has worked any number of hardware store jobs and found success primarily through those early lessons of DIY.
“As a kid, when I didn’t know, I asked those who did. And that’s why people come to us,” he said.
This was his motivation to become the most recent addition to the Craftwood team of managers alongside Doug Walker and his two siblings Caity Seibert and Charleton Brunjes.
“Our business has been serving the local and extended North Shore communities of Chicago since 1956,” he said. “We have been family owned and operated since 2004 when my parents purchased the store where they both worked and met after college.”
Their overall merchandise picture is a mixture of hardware and lumber. “Our business is pretty well split between hardware and lumber, contractors and homeowners,” he said.
“The distribution shifts year to year but when one aspect is down another tends to pick up and we try to stay nimble enough to catch that demand,” said Brunjes. “All in all, the model has served us well and allowed us to weather market volatility throughout the years.”
In a deeper dive, he talked about the demand today for supplying a wider range of products and services.
This year they’ve seen what he called a, “considerable surge in special orders, particularly in our lumber department. These would be anything from doors, moldings, specialty timber, building hardware, shutters, siding and decking.”
Many of their customers are surprised to learn that they have a full time carpenter and cabinetry shop.
“Customers come in all the time with bizarre requests, retro fits, or ‘impossible’ jobs,” said Brunjes. “I love it when things turn out better than they expected. It’s a special part of the job,” he said.
His business deals with more than 40 different suppliers who offer a wide range of products.
“It’s difficult to say if any area stands out in particular,” he said. “What I often hear from our customers is that we are willing to make the effort. The ROI is hard to calculate when you include all the research, phone calls and emails – however the repeat business, add on sales, and strengthened relationships are what make it worthwhile.”
Adjusting, evolving
Hardware store owners today are contemplating adjusting their own inventory, as the market demands, to serve customers with a wider selection of building products.
While the name and location of Craftwood has remained the same for more than 65 years, their merchandise and speciality have been in constant evolution.
“I hear stories about the 1980s when a third of the store was dedicated to veneer paneling of every description,” said Brunjes. “There are still chunks of metal partially exposed in our back lot where train cars full of lumber would be detached and unloaded.”
The owner said he believes, “responsiveness to the market, our customers, and their requests, is the determining factor in our longevity. For my part, I’m always asking my contractors what they need and what their customers want that we don’t carry?”
“I ask my associates: ‘What are you being asked for that we should have?’ This includes stock quantities,and how many times have we been short or missing an item thus ‘forcing’ a customer to make a trip to the big box, and ultimately deciding to just get everything there instead,” he said.
[No crystal ball needed: The Future of Hardware foretold.]
Brunjes has data on what’s moving and what’s not but without communication, he said, “I have no metric for missed sales. Minimizing those lost opportunities is a crucial aspect of our customer relations and bottom line.”
As hardware and building materials converge at these businesses into one business model, a basic principal is at work: Give the customer what they need.
“Up until the late 80s our store was primarily a lumberyard,” Brunjes said. ”My understanding is that we expanded into hardware out of necessity. The odd truth is that since then, in some years, we feel like a hardware store, and other years we’re a lumberyard.”
When people aren’t building, they are maintaining, and vise-versa. He said: If you have the space, market and tactful level of liquidity, convergence is a good play.
“With that said, we have some – very small by comparison – hardware stores that do very well. Bottom line, small or large, the market will always need a ‘go to’ place to get things done,” said Brunjes.
Whether that’s with contractors, DIY, or imparting that DIY spirit into a younger generation, he said, “be ‘The Place’ and you’ll always have a home.”
