OAK BROOK, IL— Fueled by its recent acquisition of The Grommet, Ace Hardware, a cooperative consisting overwhelmingly of independent retailers, is looking to makers, a loosely associated group of product designers, entrepreneurs and inventors, to help it stand out from the retail crowd.
The hardware store cooperative has retooled its Open Buying event this year and dubbed it Maker to Market in an attempt to draw potential new vendors who have developed fresh product ideas that help consumers meet domestic challenges.
Maker to Market extends a program the company has been conducting in partnership with The Grommet, which itself is a retailer that showcases and helps develop products conceived by independent makers. The deal with Ace allowed The Grommet to advance its own initiative to help the makers it works with advance their capabilities so that they can establish themselves as true mass market suppliers.
In 2016, Ace and The Grommet teamed on a product collection that would feature local makers, giving them a showcase in the chain’s hardware and, to a lesser but substantial degree, home goods stores. The 20 items in the initial collaboration first rolled out to 160 Ace stores and then became available to more of the chain.
The deal has now been extended and the relationship formalized with Ace acquiring a majority stake in The Grommet, underscoring the retailer’s commitment to bringing new and unique products to its largely independent store network. Both of The Grommet’s original founders, Joanne Domeniconi and Jules Pieri, and their employees, will continue to have some equity ownership of the company. Ace pointed out that it intends to give The Grommet management a degree of autonomy and has no plans to change the operation’s strategic direction.
This year, the Maker to Market event, held in two phases during September, gave makers the opportunity to pitch their products to a panel of Ace buyers who purchase products available to the more than 5,000 total independent and company-owned Ace stores. Meetings consisted of a 15-minute product pitch period and a five-minute question and answer session.
The purpose of the effort is to connect with fledgling small businesses developing prototype products that could translate into merchandise appropriate for the hardware store’s shelves. Ace noted that it was prepared to offer manufacturing, packaging and operational assistance to help the creators bring their products up to mass market speed.
For Ace, Maker to Market can provide differentiated product but it also, potentially, could help the company emphasize the local character of the cooperative’s independently owned store base.
“We want to open up our eyes to opportunities for Ace,” said Maya Schultz, Ace Hardware’s product innovation lead. “Our offering is unique and with the entrepreneur base out there, it’s a great match.”
Indiegogo, The Grommet and related organizations have helped independent product developers bring their creations to market but getting over the next step can be intimidating and, given the challenges of financing, impossible for some. Ace intends to boost makers to greater success and, at the same time, promote local and made in the U.S.A. traditions on the manufacturing and retail front.
Ace can vet items that could help it meet goals that include offering convenient, innovative and high quality products to shoppers. In an era when even groundbreaking products quickly become commoditized, Ace intends the Maker to Market initiative to turn up products that are unique while being difficult to immediately knock off.
The Grommet partnership, as it has produced items for Ace stores already, gave the company an opportunity to stage innovative products to see what might resonate with customers. The effort gives Ace a chance to double down on its drive to make stores the repositories of singular solutions to everyday domestic challenges.
Ace has approached it maker initiatives systematically, Schultz said. It has set up pilot programs to generate empirical data that the company can give its retailers, demonstrating what has prompted sales under what circumstances and so what might be successful in their stores.
“We want to give makers a chance to shine on a more attainable platform, and we want to help them achieve success,” Schultz said. “But, when they go larger, we want to have a litmus test and empirical data.”
The Grommet and Maker to Market initiatives aren’t the only means Ace has employed to connect with independent product developers, Schultz noted. For example, she has scouted the Consumer Electronics Show and other trade events specifically looking for local and independent entrepreneurs who might be able to deliver innovation.
“We want to expand to more markets, do micro meet ups, get more products on more bases,” Schultz said. “As we grow the programs we have going, we want makers to see us as the first place to go to. I will give them a strategy, and I can support with resources available.”
As such, Schultz is out to identify products that can set Ace retailers apart.
“We want to get into early relationships with these makers,” she said. “We want to see what is right for our retailers, to give retailers the ability to buy-in early and collaborate. And our retailers realize the importance of continuous innovation. They ask how to participate in the program, how they can do more. The Grommet was the first foray with an in-store fixture.”
Makers, with their local associations, and other product developers who work with traditions rooted in communities, have become more conspicuous to a public that has grown fond of historical connections and authenticity. Consumers inspired by those traditions tend to appreciate products that take standards, ingenuity and craftsmanship seriously, which affects how they weigh the value equation when making purchases.
In some ways, Schultz said, makers and their wares correspond and update the notion of a farmer bringing crops directly to the consumer. A large number of consumers have expressed a preference for that direct connection, which has lead to the growth of farmer’s markets and the farm to table movement.
“We want to give the Ace retailer the opportunity to have the farmer’s market of the 21st century, to have that farmers market experience in the store. We’re localizing. We’re letting them know what works in markets like theirs and bringing those products through,” Schultz said.
At the same time, Ace is encouraging retailers to work with makers. Local Ace retailers, as they run their businesses, become experts in community preferences. In that case, they inform Ace as a company about what attracts consumers in their markets and further improve their company’s ability to understand and address evolving consumer lifestyles.
All things considered, Ace and its retailers are in a good position to capitalize on the consumer appeal for things local through partnership, company initiative and in-market experience. The Grommet collaboration and Maker to Market event can provide a stream of new products for Ace retailers to consider, applying their own local market knowledge.
Of course, everyone wants to find that million dollar idea, Schultz said, but working with makers has deeper benefits for Ace as it reinforces the status of its retailers as important neighborhood fixtures.
