Have My Cake & Eat It!

I happened to be in the Smyrna area, having lunch  at Muss & Turners and needed to get some keys made. I saw the recognized ACE signage. I thought, "Sure, I just need some keys," so I started to look for the turn in.  The turn in is a hidden dirt road along side a shack/barn looking structure. I decided to just wait till I reached west midtown to go to the one on Howell Mill and proceeded into the dirt lot to make a U-turn and this is what I saw. (pic above)

Now, I am just plain ol' intrigued. So I moseyed on up to the front porch and inside to get my keys made.

What a breath of fresh air, well really, old school air!  When I walked in there I was transported to a place and time where family businesses reigned supreme and with that family business came  sincere hospitality and customer care. It was the "Cheers" of hardware stores - "Where everybody knows your name."  I truly forgot I was in the city. I couldn't help myself and asked the lively gentleman at the counter to please tell me the history of this store. They had customers inside, but he kindly and enthusiastically obliged as a teenage associate, whom I later learned was family, cut my keys.

Mr. Randy informed me that they were celebrating fifty years in business.  They were a small family run hardware store that took on the franchise ACE in 1964.  He worked there since eight years old when his parents worked there.  They used to be in the lot across the driveway, but had a fire. The insurance company wouldn't dish out the money to rebuild so they moved into their current space which was a battery repair shop. They added the front porch so they can sit and catch up with their long time customers/friends.  They are the only business to still go by the name Oakdale, which was the original name of the town. He also painted a picture for me of the landscape and shops that used to be there once upon a time.  The business is still family run and they do very well, despite what people may think with the Home Depots and Lowes.

Apparently, the CEO of Home Depot, Bernard Marcus spoke at an Ace Hardware Corp. convention, that Mr. Randy attended. His message was that they shouldn't be afraid of Home Depot taking away business. In fact, he suggested that they work together because, "Home Depot cannot provide that one on one guest service amongst some other things we don't do or do well; such as key cutting, glass and fiber glass cutting and Ace Hardware doesn't sell a lot of their inventory or do kitchen installation." Mr. Randy stated, "Bernard Marcus couldn't be more right! Home Depot has help sustain business and they send people to each other all the time."

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit with Mr. Randy and at Ace. It was inspiring to see that there can be a balance between corporate structure/franchising with out losing the family owned small business feel and customer service. Kudos to Ace for allowing the Oakdale location to keep it's charm etc as most franchises have rules regarding how the brand is represented.  I will definitely return even though it is a 20 minute drive. Great old school, "welcome to my home" service is a hard to come by and they sure hit the nail on the head!

Yep, I said it! :)

Ace Hardware
4359 W Atlanta Rd SE
Smyna, GA 30080