Hardware All Stars: New Jersey & Oklahoma

"All Star" is no ordinary designation

"All Star" is no ordinary designation

That's why HBSDealer's annual list of Hardware All Stars gets to command such a large share of the spotlight. Retail excellence deserves close analysis, and we're taking a deeper dive with this ongoing web series to complement our print feature.



After a months-in-the-making review of nominations from vendors, distributors and manufacturers, HBSDealer published a list of 50 All Stars from 50 states. The 2015 All Star project is sponsored by Epicor.

The full article can be found online in our digital issue. In the meantime, we continue with New Jersey and Oklahoma.

Hoboken, New Jersey: City Paint & Ace Hardware

After steering his team through Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Ernie Reyes understands the value of being in stock and prepared for natural disasters, as well as incliment weather of a less severe scope.



That's why Reyes loaded up with 27 skids of ice melt in 2015.



"You can always have too much," he said. "But it's better to have too much than too little."



Having too much certainly helped Reyes and his team during Winter Storm Juno, but it wasn't just the promise of increased winter sales that brought them back to work the very next day.

"Tomorrow we’ll be here -- it might take a while to get here, but we’ll be there," he told HBSDealer in January.

Hooker, Oklahoma: Hooker Hardware & Auto

In the heart of the Oklahoma panhandle, Hooker Hardware drives business with a combination of home improvement and auto-parts aftermarket retailing.



For managing partner Craig Adams, this seems to serve the small community with the sort of targeted efficiency that makes small stores shine in the retail landscape.

"We're a one-stop shop in a town of 1,900," he said. 

He also credits the three-year-old store's Destination True Value format for turbo-charging traffic.

"True Value is a super company," he said. "The Destination True Value [format] is outstanding."