Upward and Onward!

We have been busy at work around the hardware stores in the last year. Improving our product selection is a task we spend a great deal of time on. From asking customers about items they would like to see, to tracking trends, to engaging in social media, we expend a lot of effort on getting our selection just right. Many of you have helped us in this regard by suggesting items or product lines for us to take a look at. We also stock a lot of specialty items specifically for individual customers. Sometimes there is an odd furnace filter size you need fairly regularly or maybe a specific glass cleaner you love, whatever it is, we are happy to stock it in our stores and we do this for many of our customers.

As you can imagine, after not much time at all, a store can get packed with additional items on the shelves. Well, after 10 successful years in Timberville, our store was beyond full and it was time to expand. As mentioned before, we took over the adjacent portion of our building and have since completed an extensive remodel. Besides being able to expand our square footage by another 50%, we were able to widen the aisles and increase our actual inventory by almost double! That's a lot of improvements. Many of you helped us celebrate our "new" store with bands, giveaways, prizes and a TON of sales.

Besides just adding a LOT more to our existing product categories (plumbing and lawn & garden especially) we have also been able to add some new services that have been incredibly popular. Most notably has been our new chipkey system in Bridgewater. We received MANY requests for this service and were able to take advantage of a special at the most recent hardware show. The service allows us to duplicate most of the vehicle chipkeys and do it at a fraction of the cost that dealerships have been charging. This service has been more popular then we even expected (and we expected it to be popular!). So, in the next few weeks we will be looking to expand it even further by being able to duplicate sidewinder keys (pictured at right). Many newer GM, Honda and Toyota vehicles require this type of key.

These are just a few of the things that have been going on around our little hardware stores, but if you would like to know even more (and much more up-to-date information) like us on Facebook at facebook.com/randyshardware or on Twitter at twitter.com/randysdib!

Spring Has Sprung!

It looks like spring has finally sprung and even though it was an incredibly mild winter, we couldn't be more excited about spring! Our Spring Merchandise Catalog was recently mailed to thousands of our neighbors with a sampling of the more than 67,000 products we have available. The catalog has been a huge hit with many people placing orders in-store or online at www.randys.doitbest.com. Here is a sampling of some of the more popular pages from the catalog:

These are only a couple of the hundreds of full-color pages included in our catalog. We know it's weird to get excited about advertising, but this thing is cool! If you didn't get one in the mail, come down to any of our stores and pick one up. 

Another sure sign of spring around the stores is the addition of our garden plants and we've got 'em! Right now, because it is still often frosting at night, we have onion sets, cabbage, lettuce, kale, strawberries and other cold weather crops. As soon as it gets a bit warmer we'll add all of the fun plants like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc. We are also fully stocked with garden seeds and seed potatoes!

New Year Update!

A new year is upon us and I suppose that gives me a good enough excuse to FINALLY get this blog updated!

First of all, the Bridgewater store is completely remodeled and open for business! We had our soft opening on August 26th with an invitation only event that turned out to be very popular with local business owners and members of the community. After the success of our soft opening we began preparations for our Grand Opening. This event was held October 21-23 and was overwhelmingly supported by the local community. Bands, charitable organizations, radio stations, vendors and hundreds of members of the public were here to help us celebrate the Grand Opening.

Since then, business in Bridgewater has been incredible! The community has been very helpful and supportive as we have worked out many of the kinks in the system. We are still open Monday - Friday 7:30a-7:30p, Saturday 8:00a-7:00p, and Sunday 1:00p-5:00p.

In other news, we are continuing to improve our ability to serve our customers constantly. As part of our efforts, we have come to realize that our flagship store is in desperate need of more space. Lucky for us, a spot in our current shopping center has been vacant for some time and the good folks over at Strickler Furniture & Carpet have agreed to move into that vacant spot so that we can expand into their current location! In other words, the Timberville store is about to get a whole lot bigger! We are incredibly excited about this expansion and the ability it will give us to expand our product offering to better suit our customer's needs.

Despite the economy, we continue to grow and strengthen. 2012 promises to be another year of exciting growth for us and we want to thank you for being a part of that!

No More GREEN!

We have been working like crazy to get the Bridgewater store ready for all of the fixtures to arrive this week. Painting, scraping, building, wiring, there was a lot to be done. Luckily, we had some great help and were prepared in time to receive the fixtures on Monday of this week. After spending half the day unloading the pallets and pallets (and pallets!) of shelving and pegboard, we began the arduous task of assembling them.

 It took a while to get the hang of the process and there was some trial and error involved, but by the end of the day we accomplished a lot and were rewarded with having several walls of that awful blue and green covered up (finally!).

We started with organizing and laying out the amazing amount of different components (center spanners, lower spanners, spacer spanners, splicer spanners.....AGH!) and doing our best to review the incredibly and surprisingly terribly written instructions. After trying to decipher them, we decided trial and error would be our best bet. It should be mentioned here that although there was some "error" involved, for the most part, there was more "trial" happening.

And these are some of the results of day one!




Day two involved completing the wall fixtures and beginning work on the gondolas. Now, I have to admit that the ratio of "error" to "trial" went way up as we fumbled our way through the Ikea-ish instructions on these. But, after another full day, we were pleased with our progress!

Day three, we completed all of the rest of the gondolas and the endcaps! We finished a day ahead of schedule and are now just about ready for our first shipment of merchandise to come!

Renovations and more renovations

Work has steadily progressed on the Bridgewater store as we get nearer and nearer the "go" date. Several days have been spent covering up the awful 60's-era colors that were in the building. If I never have to see another puke-green wall in my life.....

As you can see, the break/conference/napping room (on the far left) has been completed! There's plenty of room there for the bunk beds, but finding space for the jungle gym might be a bit of an issue.

Thanks to our good friend John Skelly of Skelly Construction and his crew, the entire buildings electrical (including lighting!) system was revamped and is now much more efficient (and WAY easier to figure out). The new lights have made a huge difference in the brightness of the building.

We still have some more (more? yes, more!) painting to do, but we are oh, so close to being completed on that phase of the project. Next up is the floor, but luckily we have a local guy who is a miracle worker.

For anyone interested in joining our team, we are accepting and reviewing applications right now. For the next couple of weeks the applications can be picked up and returned to our Timberville store. Beginning around August 1st, our Manager for the Bridgewater store will be there full time with applications available. Please remember, when returning the applications, attach them to a $20 bill and/or a plate of fresh snickerdoodles. This is very important.

Wall Carnage!

Demolition began yesterday on the interior of the building. It was a sweaty, dirty, heavy day, but a lot was accomplished and we are now that much closer to opening in August! Here are a few pics of the carnage:

Above is a picture looking back to where the employee break room will be. It's taken from where the Customer Service counter will be.


As you can see, there is still a lot of work to be done on the former pharmacy. The raised floor will come out and the pharmacy counter will be recycled. This will be our future electrical department.

We have to give a HUGE thanks to the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints serving in the Harrisonburg, VA wards and branches. They were responsible for most of the bashing and breaking that took place yesterday and we couldn't have done it without them!

The beginning

Here is a panoramic tour of the Bridgewater building. If you were to walk in the front door right now, face south, and then gradually turn yourself to the north, these are the views you would see.

As you can see, we have a lot of work to do!




First step is to rid the floor of boobytraps (i.e. 18" deep holes and an army of outlets!) then we can't wait to tear down that pharmacy!