$3 million ACE Hardware store opens on north side of Columbus

Certainly, Gary Johnson is proud of his new ACE Hardware store that just opened its doors on Blackmon Road in north Columbus. But the longtime retailer is also a pragmatist.

“I guess the customers are going to be the judge of that,” he remarked. “We’ve had some good comments so far. It seems like everybody’s pretty well pleased with it.”

But there’s no doubt that Johnson has plenty riding on the shiny new store at 7390 Blackmon Road, situated between a Walmart Neighborhood Market and Georgia Military College. Between the purchase of land, construction and stocking the 15,000-square-foot outlet with merchandise, he’s put about $3 million into the project.

Johnson is quietly confident that the investment will pay off in the long run, however, considering the lack of hardware stores in the area. He and son Seth operate the new ACE store and an older 14,000-square-foot Home ACE Hardware on St. Marys Road.

(Read more: Job spotlight on Gary and Seth Johnson, ACE Hardware owners in Columbus)

“We’ve had people for years telling us they want us to come to the north side of town,” he said. “We’ve just got to be real cognizant of what (customers are) calling for. I’ve got a box set up over there and everybody’s got a little spiral notebook to write down things customers are calling for that we don’t have (but will get). If we miss one sale, we won’t miss the second one.”

Johnson, who is approaching 70 years of age, also calls the Blackmon Road location “a little bit different.” For instance, it will be stocking birding supplies and the popular Big Green Egg smokers. A professional merchandising crew spent three weeks getting the store ready. The new outlet also is “green” in that it is energy efficient, with LED lighting, lots of windows and an idea toward repurposing things instead of tossing them into the city’s landfill.

“Not only are we a man-cave type thing, (but) because of the light and the way everything’s arranged here, it will also appeal to the women, which we aim to do,” he said. “And we’ve got a very large garden section out there, and we’re going to be doing grilling (demonstrations) out there on the weekends.”

Johnson knows what he’s doing. After all, he’s been battling big-box retailers such as Home Depot, Lowe’s and Walmart since 1986, the year he opened Home ACE Hardware on St. Marys Road before constructing a new home across the street from the old one in 1991.

He brought Seth into the management side of the house more than a decade ago, with plans to turn the retail business over to him at some point in the future. Through the years, the Home ACE location has expanded in physical size to add inventory and storage, while also launching a large mower repair shop.

“The thing that's amazing is we've gone from a $200 investment in the business and a $40,000 inventory at that time (in 1986) to a $1 million inventory now,” Johnson said in a 2015 interview.

A component of that success, Johnson said, has been a focus on knowledgeable staffers and customer service for both residential and contractor customers. He said the Blackmon Road employees spent several weeks at the St. Marys Road location preparing for their home on the north side.

“If you think about it, Home Depot and Lowe’s provide practically no service at all, and it’s hard to find anybody in there that knows anything,” he said. “I’ve taken a great deal of time searching for the right people, and I’ve got a lot of experienced people.”

The grand opening for ACE Hardware store on Blackmon Road is scheduled for Oct. 12-14.

This story was originally published September 7, 2017 at 6:34 PM with the headline "$3 million ACE Hardware store opens on north side of Columbus."