Ace Hardware

I’m definitely biased as I worked at the Ace on the west side until recently, but it’s interesting how the two compare. This location on Beck Ln was seriously understaffed both times I visited, I wasn’t greeted or offered help either time, and when I did need help I had to search all over the store just to find an employee. That would never ever happen at the west side Ace. The garden center, on the other hand, was exponentially better than the garden center at the west side Ace (sorry Xena, I know you do your best). It was much larger, extremely well laid out, perfectly organized and maintained, just everything about was just in a totally different league. I’m sure these differences, positive and negative, are almost exclusively due to differences in management. Since all Ace stores are independently owned franchises and the one on the west side at least is very much run as a family business (not sure about the other), policies can and do differ dramatically from store to store. When I lived in Missoula, MT there were four Ace locations that had a distinct specialties – two were just hardware, one was just a garden center, and one was just small machinery like lawn mowers and such. A totally different business model. Anyway, a well-run Ace Hardware is the best place to go for any of your hardware or garden needs, in my opinion.