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For a $5 fee, nearly three dozen Ace Hardware stores in the U.S. are sending employees to deliver online orders to customers’ homes, businesses and job sites.
Ace launched its Express Delivery pilot program earlier this year at 33 stores in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Texas, according to a news release from the home improvement co-op.
Customers located within 5 miles of one of the participating stores can order products at AceHardware.com and, if they order the items by 1 p.m. local time, will get the items delivered to them that day.
The $5 Ace Express Delivery fee is a per-order flat rate, regardless of order price or product quantity, weight and size. Only merchandise available for same-day store pickup is eligible for delivery.
Express Delivery is convenient for customers who can’t fit large items in their vehicles, need a lot of products or don’t have time to stop at the store on a given day, the news release says.
More than 60 percent of Ace customers live within 5 miles of a neighborhood Ace store, and the delivery service fits with the co-op’s high customer service standards, John Surane, executive vice president of marketing, merchandising and sales, says in the news release.
“We also think there’s a huge value to consumers in having their products delivered by a helpful Ace associate, who they might even recognize from their local store,” Surane says.
Ace plans to expand Express Delivery service to other store locations after concluding the pilot program, spokeswoman Jenny Stephen says.
