GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — West Michigan is predicted to receive heavy amounts of snowfall this week, starting Monday, and local hardware shops are reportedly benefiting from it.
Hardware shops like Alger Hardware and Rental and Kingsland Ace Hardware and Rental have been stocked up on winter essentials like shovels, salt and scrapers among other items. However, the stores say they haven’t been able to sell them in mass quantities until recently.
Randy Kingsland, owner of Kingsland Ace Hardware and Rental said, “Business this winter’s been slow. I would say that the hardware business is affected more by weather than it is competition itself. I mean, if you want to drum up good business, you have a blizzard. I mean whether it’s a grocery store, tire store or a hardware store, weather sells product.”
Alger Hardware and Rental’s store manager Spencer Rice echoed the same thought, saying, “We are entirely weather-related. We need snow for people to be buying shovels, buying ice melter, using their snow blowers. If it’s cold outside, but we don’t have snow on the ground, people aren’t really doing a whole lot, no big ticket items.”
Both shop leaders said they ran low on salt when the snowy weather started in 2019, despite having fully-stocked shelves.
“Yesterday we ran through salt as fast as we can get it. I have a load of salt coming in this week. It’s going to be a day late, but we’ll still have it when we need it when the high ice come and high winds come and things like that,” Kingsland said.
While Kingsland said that his shop makes due during cases of low snowfall, he shared that the upcoming weather change will help profits keep up with inventory.
“The hardware business is very versatile. I mean when we don’t have snow, we’re selling leaf blowers, rakes, shovels, things like that. But, the snow generates the sales we need this time of year to get rid of the inventory that we’ve bought for the season,” Kingsland said.
Rice shared that a “normal winter” brings in nearly 80 percent of his shop’s revenue, and Kingsland said that winters generally mark his store’s second-highest season in terms of revenue. Both shop owners said spring is their most reliable and profitable season.
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