Outdoor living is a growing category for retailers, as more consumers are putting emphasis on their outdoor living areas. Homeowners are renovating and adding to their patios to create entertaining, eating and living spaces that add more functional square footage. To better …
Read More »Sara Logel
Five Trends in Outdoor Living
To download a PDF of this story, click here. To download the Outdoor Living Selling Guide, visit hardwareretailing.com/outdoor-resources. Light Up the Yard and Fire Up the Grill Five Trends Taking Over Outdoor Spaces The backyard has always been recognized as a spot for people to …
Read More »Customer Service: The Moneymaker
Providing excellent in-store service is crucial to your business because competitors can often offer comparable pricing and possibly wider product selections. Good customer service is so important that 85 percent of consumers say they will go elsewhere if they visit …
Read More »Lawn and Garden Trends Spotted at IGC East
Hardware Retailing representatives, Graeme Haase and Sara Logel, attended the Independent Garden Center Show (IGC East) in Baltimore at the beginning of August. While at the show, they listened to Martha Stewart’s keynote speech, sat in on educational seminars and walked the …
Read More »Share Your Local Identity
The shop-local movement is sweeping neighborhoods and Main Streets across America. Many consumers are starting to understand the benefits small businesses provide their hometowns, and they are shopping at local stores for that reason. Therefore, it is important to share …
Read More »Ways to Promote Job Openings
Keeping employees motivated and excited about their work is difficult. Some retailers say they have difficulty finding hard-working employees in the first place and then retaining them are even more challenging. So how do retailers find employees and promote job …
Read More »Baltimore Store Offers the Core Categories — and Charm
Ayd Hardware, located in the Stoneleigh neighborhood of northern Baltimore, is a family-run store that opened in 1974. The store was a stop for North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA) staffers Sara Logel and Graeme Haase, who got to do what the …
Read More »Gardening Trends Spotted at the IGC Show in Baltimore
The Independent Garden Center (IGC) Show in Baltimore has been the spot this week to find new and innovative products for expanding and diversifying garden center inventories. The IGC Show also provided attendees with an outlook on incoming industry trends, and Hardware Retailing was out on the floor looking …
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