When the snow flies, the profits of winter bring smiles
Here comes winter.
“Holiday items are always kept up front, so leading up to Christmas it can be a challenge finding space for lights, extension cords, and other holiday accessories as well as showing our snow removal products,” said Xan Flink, who has worked in the hardware business for 15 years.
His current role is president and CEO of Clark Devon Hardware, a Do it Best dealer in Chicago. The hardware business is 100 percent employee owned, and calls itself a, “100-year-old hardware and janitorial supply store.”
He shared their thinking on positioning winter items in the store – what goes on what shelf, at what height, and why.
“Once we are past christmas we quickly pack up the lights and use that space, about 16 feet, for space heaters. If we have a really cold winter, we can’t keep enough heaters in stock,” said the CEO.
“We have had seasons where the temperature drops way below freezing for a few days in a row and once that happens every space heater in the store can be sold within a few hours,” he said.
His business has great relationships with their buying groups, he said, and when the winter gets really tough they are great at communicating about trucks and availability of product.
They’ve experience storms or weather events where the team knew they would need more product to serve their customers.
When these situations come up, he said, “we reach out to our vendors to see what can be done. Sometimes that means getting another delivery on an off day or even sending one of our trucks to pick up product at their warehouse.”
Clark Devon Hardware sells hardware, the CEO explained, but really their focus has always been on multi-unit property and facility management and maintenance. If there is a product or service that one would need to maintain a 100-year-old Chicago building, they are going to have it in stock.
Each weather region of the country is unique, but there are certain products owners can count on to always move well as their own winter season approaches.
For this one northside Chicago hardware store, that includes the bread-and-butter items like shovels, ice scrapers, snow blowers and ice melters.
“A big part of our business is also our plumbing and heating supply departments,” said Flink.
He indicated that many Chicago homes and properties are still heated by hot water or steam radiator systems.
“Anyone who has maintained an old steam boiler knows that there is an art to keeping these systems running well,” he said. “We pride ourselves on having the parts and knowledge to help customers keep their properties warm even on the coldest Chicago days.”
Winterizing
The winter season means deciding which items to put where in the store.
The front of the store has always been their ‘showroom’ for snow blowers and salt spreaders.
“We also typically dedicate two or three prime end caps to impulse winter items, windshield deicer, car snow brushes, hats and gloves, hand and foot warmers,” the CEO said. “We have 20 feet of shovels in our seasonal department and another 20 feet of weather seal products like window insulation kits, self adhesive foam tape, and door sweeps."
His hardware store keeps 50-pound bags of about five different types of ice melters outside, and on a snowy day, they have two or three associates loading cars with product, he said. They also have stack-outs of 10-pound shaker jugs and 25-pound bags of ice melt.
“If we have a lot of snow on the way or are in the middle of a storm, pretty much every foot of available space will be used for shovels, ice melt, snow blower oils and fuels. The way we look at it, on a snowy day people are only leaving the house for one thing, so we might as well give the customer what they want,” said Flink.
This CEO shares some funny situations they’ve experienced with winter products.
“It’s always about the massive snow falls where you have completely sold out of shovels and snow blowers and you have folks trying to figure out ways to ‘make’ a shovel,” he said.
“I’m sure every hardware store owner has experienced this at one time but you will have customers buying brooms, rakes, dust pans, anything that might work. It’s pretty funny.”
Another fun one for their hardware store, he said, was a few years back when the city received about eight inches of heavy wet snow a couple days before baseball’s opening day at Wrigley Field.
“We are about four miles north of the ballpark. We got a call from the head of facility maintenance and they needed shovels to clear the bleachers and stands. That was definitely a nice sale,” said Flink.
Shook up like a snow globe
There are certain big sellers in the winter season for hardware stores.
Depending on the type of season we will see different items on our top five, he said. If they have some heavy snow falls they will move tons of ice melter.
Because their customers are managing properties they have to make sure the walkways are shoveled and ice free.
“The real challenge,” he said, “is when the snow melts a bit during the day under the midday sun and then refreezes overnight as the temperatures drop. The freeze and thaw cycle can really be tricky to control.”
If we have more cold weather and less snow, he said, “then the focus shifts to plumbing and heating and our pro customers. In those seasons the big movers are space heaters, pipe fittings and pipe clamps – repairing frozen and busted pipes – steam and hot water radiator valves, radiator air vents, propane, gas cylinders and torch heads.”
Occasionally they will get lucky and have a winter with lots of snow and then a few stretches of really cold weather, he said, “those seasons are the ones you remember and are real nice profit drivers.”
The days leading up to a big snow storm are some of the most exciting times in the business. Once the weather forecasters start talking about an accumulation of more than six inches of snow, “we know that the store is going to get pretty wild for a few days,” he said.
“There is an energy in the air, not quite panic, but definitely a sense of urgency amongst our customers as well as our staff,” said Flink. They look at these weather events as an opportunity to provide a really valuable and crucial service to their customers.
“Like I said before, our customers are in the property management business so for them keeping their building clean and accessible to their tenants is a crucial element of their job,” he said.
“We take a lot of pride in being able to help our customers accomplish their goals and keep their facilities safe and operational,” said the CEO, “no matter what type of weather may hit.”
