Positive signs from House-Hasson market

Sales at House-Hasson Hardware’s October market in Sevierville, Tenn. saw a 20% increase over the previous year’s fall market, the company announced.

“Market attendance was up 25%, sales volume was up 20%,” said Don Hasson, president of the Knoxville, Ten.-based company. “This isn’t to suggest by any means that the economic situation nationally is turning around, but it is an indicator that hardware and home improvement are showing certain levels of stability and growth.”

House-Hasson, America’s largest regional wholesale hardware distributor, used the market to premier its “paint store within a hardware store,” concept, part of the company’s strategy to enable dealers to become single-source customer destination. 

“We added more than 2,500 paint sundries to our inventory and displayed how the ‘paint store in a hardware store’ can work,’ “Hasson said. “We were very pleased with how it was received.”

Mike Woolf, House-Hasson vice president of sales, said that electronic ordering saw a major jump from its first appearance at last June’s House-Hasson Atlanta market. 

“Electronic ordering was up more than 50% over the traditional method of orders being placed using stickers,” Woolf said. “In our upcoming markets we’re going to expand on what we’ve already done in electronic ordering.” 

House-Hasson will return to Sevierville-Pigeon Forge, Tenn. for its 2012 summer market.