Hardware Store Case Study

Case Study

An ACE store that had been in the family for 90 years

It was an ACE store that had been in the family for 90 years.  The store manager’s grandfather purchased the store in 1929.  We don’t know how long the store had been in business prior to being sold to the grandfather.  The store could be well over a hundred years old.  The manager’s elderly mother and aunt owned controlling interest in the store.  There were two employees, one over 70 years old and the other over 80 years old.  The store had been losing money for years and the manager had not paid himself in almost a year.  So, the sisters sold the real estate and the store had to be liquidated.  The inventory had shrunk to about half its normal size and was in terrible condition with over $100,000 in loose nuts and bolts.  They agreed to purchase another $7,000 to $8,000 in good fast turning merchandise making the starting inventory $250,000.  Reported sales were $240,000.  Our Pre-Showing got the sale off to a good start.  We were able to hold media advertising expenses to $4,700 because our customer incentive program carried the load.  1585 customers participated which helped generate traffic down to the last day and gave them an additional incentive to buy at regular sale prices.  Considering the condition of the inventory and the situation our Consultant did a terrific job and completed the sale in 45 days.