2026 Beacon Awards

Standing onstage to accept the 2026 Best New Store Beacon Award in Orlando, Florida, this July, Julie Walker-Martin thanked her team, True Value and the people who helped turn a difficult project into a successful store.

Then she talked about her father.

Howard Walker spent decades serving Henrietta, Texas, as a teacher and pastor. From him, Julie says, she learned about hard work and the responsibility that comes with helping others.

“He taught me about serving the community,” Julie told the Beacon Awards audience. “We try to complete that every day with our customers and serving our community.”

Howard was supposed to have had a role in the hardware store himself. His retirement plan included spending time there, greeting customers and staying connected with the people he had known through a lifetime in Texas’s Clay County. He died in 2022 before seeing that to fruition.

Julie and her husband, Cory Martin, carried the idea forward, naming the business Howard Walker’s True Value Hardware. The store opened Jan. 27, 2025, in downtown Henrietta. The name pays tribute to Howard.

What the Martins have accomplished since they opened explains why the business has earned a Best New Store Beacon Award.

Old Character, New Purpose

Creating the store meant transforming a former boot factory that had seen better days. The Martins wanted to retain as much of the historic property as was practical while creating an inviting, accessible retail environment.

“We wanted to bring the old into the new,” Julie says.

Original architectural elements remain, including an interior arch and old fire door. The Martins preserved vintage ceiling tile where possible, while the renovation added LED lighting, insulation, new windows, HVAC systems and an updated storefront.

Accessibility was particularly important to Julie, who wanted safe aisles, ramps and railings throughout the property.

Her goal was an open store that felt substantial without losing the personality of a hometown business.

“It had to be more than a mom-and-pop shop,” Julie says. “It had to have a grandiose feel but still warm and cozy.”

The result is about 8,000 square feet of selling space within an 8,900-square-foot operation, with additional space beingprepared for convenience lumber and future expansion of the lawn and garden department, including live plants.

Julie also mixed conventional hardware fixtures with pieces that give the store more personality. When a nearby furniture business closed, she acquired rustic bookshelves and tables that are now placed around the salesfloor.

A landing pad near the entrance changes with the seasons, displaying everything from grills and fire pits to outdoor furniture. Large front windows have become another merchandising tool. One EasyCare display used satin material to create the appearance of paint pouring from five-gallon buckets. Seasonal windows have become something local residents watch for throughout the year.

Learning What Henrietta Needs

Working with True Value, the store is increasingly tailored to its market.

Hardware, paint, lawn and garden, electrical and plumbing rank among the store’s top departments. Plumbing continues to expand, with products such as Fluidmaster repair items selling quickly. Milwaukee and DeWalt have a strong presence, while farm, ranch and equine products reflect the surrounding market.

Lawn and garden is another growth opportunity. The Martins own a property across the street that could support an expanded department, and repeated customer requests have convinced Julie that adding lumber also makes sense.

The store is learning in other ways.

Julie regularly uses True Value’s marketing resources, combining national campaigns and branding with posts about Henrietta businesses, schools and community events.

That local emphasis carries onto the salesfloor, where the eight-person team is encouraged to spend time with customers and understand the projects they’re working on.

“People want to stay local and not drive to Wichita [Falls],” Julie says. “Our goal is to make this store convenient to the community, but have what the community thrives on and needs.”

Customers are responding. The store reported about $576,000 in sales in 2025, while year-to-date transaction counts increased from about 3,000 to nearly 7,000.

The business also demonstrated its value when Henrietta needed it most.

During a winter storm in early 2026, the store remained open with adjustedhours and limited staffing while much of the town shut down. After critical products sold out, True Value arranged for an emergency truck carrying antifreeze, faucet covers and heaters.

That response reflects the service philosophy Julie emphasized from the Beacon Awards stage.

The store also supports local schools and National FFA Organization programs, the animal shelter, hospital events and other community organizations. Julie envisions more events inside the store as well, including workshops on basic home repairs and a seating area near the entrance where customers can have coffee and visit.

It all circles back to the role Howard Walker once imagined for himself.

“I’m about service because that’s what I believe we’re supposed to do,” Julie says. “We have to give back to the community.”

For her, the Beacon Award recognizes new-store excellence and an idea handed from one generation to another: that a business can succeed by becoming useful to the place it calls home.

Retail Beacon Awards recipient Bill Gilbert marks six decades growing Gilbert’s Hardware & Appliance in Owosso, Michigan, and beyond.

Gilbert started working in his parents’ 20-foot-wide Western Auto store when he was 11 years old. Six decades later, the business bears little resemblance to the place where he cut up boxes, stocked merchandise and handled freight after school and on weekends. Gilbert’s has expanded into new categories, added another location and repeatedly remodeled and reinvested as customers and retailing changed around it.

At 72, Gilbert is still asking what comes next.

Even as he makes plans to attend the Do it Best Fall Market in Indianapolis, Gilbert intends to arrive early to catch a vendor refresher class. He figures he can still learn something.

Constant curiosity and a steady instinct to do better help explain how he has authored a standout retail career spanning nearly 60 years.

“I think I’ve missed only one market in my 55 years in the hardware business, and I’ve always been amazed at the number of truly great hardware stores out there,” Gilbert says. “It’s humbling and amazing to receive the Beacon Award.”

Same Service, Every Customer

Gilbert grew up inside the business his parents, Chuck and Mary Ann Gilbert, opened in Owosso, Michigan, in 1965. He learned early what his father expected when a customer walked through the door.

“My dad didn’t care about the class of a customer or what they were buying,” he says. “[Whether] someone came in for just a nut or bolt, a deep freezer or a bicycle, it was the same service. We give everybody that personal attention.”

Bill became an owner in 1976. Three years later, the family began shifting its general-store assortment toward hardware and joined True Value. Bill and brother K.C. Gilbert would work together as partners for four decades, a relationship Bill credits for much of the company’s growth.

Gilbert’s kept evolving. A second location opened in 2006 in the town of DeWitt. Shortly after came the global financial crisis and a difficult Michigan economy that lasted through 2010. In 2012, Gilbert’s made another significant move when it joined Do it Best.

Today, the company employs some 45 people, about 80% of whom are full-time. Gilbert acknowledges that his staffing model may seem old-fashioned, but it promotes the knowledgeable personal service he wants customers to receive.

It also puts a responsibility on the owner to demonstrate what such service looks like.

“As an owner, all eyes are on you,” he says. “Your mentorship is constant.”

That can mean picking something up off the floor when it needs to be picked up, stepping into a job when an employee needs help or bringing managers and ownership staff to industry markets so they can continue to develop their skills.

One measure of whether his tactics work comes directly from customers. Gilbert takes particular pride when shoppers tell him his store is among the nicest, best-maintained hardware operations they’ve been to. Having grown up learning and adhering to his father’s expectations, he now sees his own employees carrying them forward.

Giving Customers a Reason to Return

Six decades in the business have only strengthened Gilbert’s appetite for change.

A major renovation of the Owosso store was completed in 2022, adding 2,000 square feet of retail space, new endcaps and an attached 3,800-square-foot glass garden center. Lawn and garden sales increased 60%, while the additional space enabled Gilbert’s to strengthen plumbing, cleaning, tools, electrical and other departments.

The DeWitt store followed with an interior and exterior remodel in 2023. Expanded lawn and garden and outdoor-living assortments helped those become destination categories, while the store built its outdoor power equipment offering across cordless and gas products. Sales increased 20% following the renovation and have kept growing.

“Customers want to be given a reason to frequent your store,” Gilbert says. “Whether it’s a remodel as drastic as adding a garden center or adding a dominant department of something you hadn’t previously been selling, every hardware store [owner] needs to examine what they can do.”

Gilbert uses sales data to help make those decisions. Departments can be developed at basic, expanded or dominant levels, depending on the opportunity. And when an expansion doesn’t perform as expected, he’s willing to reverse course.

His willingness to experiment also led to the development of Gilbert’s Scratch & Dent Center.

Appliance retail inevitably generates damaged merchandise through shipping, warehousing and installation. Gilbert purchased a former wheel-alignment and repair facility initially for warehouse space, then had an idea. He transformed the building into a dedicated outlet for scratched and dented appliances, supported by full-time technicians who test merchandise before Gilbert’s sells it.

The concept builds on a category Gilbert’s has developed since adding major appliances in 1980. Today the operation can sell, service, install and, in many cases, quickly deliver appliances. The capability has become strong enough that customers seeking immediate solutions have been referred to Gilbert’s by a nearby big-box retailer. Specialization and service, he says, are reliable ways for an independent hardware retailer to give customers another reason to patronize a local business.

Community on Both Sides of the Counter

Gilbert’s relationship with Owosso extends throughout its central Michigan community.

The Gilbert family has been involved with downtown development efforts since the 1980s; Bill himself has served on the YMCA board since late that decade. His involvement has included work on a capital campaign supporting a childcare center and expansion.

Community service, he says, is a natural extension of the support his family has received for generations.

“The community has given us so much,” he says. “It’s our job to give back.”

That relationship works every day on a smaller, more personal scale, too. Gilbert was leaving the store after closing one night not long ago when he encountered longtime customer Alice Williams, who needed fertilizer. Gilbert reopened the garden center and began talking with her about what she was trying to accomplish.

He learned that she had been spreading fertilizer across her yard by hand. He found a small hand spreader, showed her how to use it and spent some time talking her through the particulars of the job. It was hardly the biggest transaction of his week—and that was precisely the point.

“If your heart doesn’t get twice the size…” he says of those kinds of encounters. “That really fires me up.”

Moments like that happen two or three times a week. He also gets satisfaction from watching employees develop and seeing another generation prepare to carry the company into the future. His daughter, Cate Gilbert, is now an owner as well; she’s positioned to keep the business going when Gilbert eventually retires.

Eventually being the operative word.

Accepting the Retail Beacon Award, Gilbert spoke about the numerous retailers he has encountered during his 55 years of attending industry markets and credited his family, employees and business partners—and his wife, Debbie—for making his career possible. The recognition, he says, was truly humbling.

“There are so many dealers and people out there who deserve this award,” he says. “I’m very grateful.”

The honor didn’t represent a finish line—far from it. Gilbert still has those education sessions at the Do it Best Market to attend.

After six decades, he can point to plenty of reasons to keep learning, investing and improving. But the best reason might also be the simplest, he says: “I still have fun coming to work.”

Before Riverside Building Materials opened its doors to the public, David Reyna gave the business a test run.

For several months in early 2023, the new Rio Grande City, Texas, operation supplied Reyna’s own construction company. Having spent nearly three decades in construction building 50 to 70 homes a year, Reyna knew the frustrations contractors encounter when materials are unavailable, deliveries arrive late or a supplier forces them to make multiple stops.

So he used those first months to work out the glitches.

“We knew the materials they needed,” Reyna says. “We knew what to tackle, the deliveries and the systems to implement to eliminate the issues lumber companies typically have.”

Riverside officially opened in April 2023. Less than three years later, it has grown into a $15 million–plus operation serving four South Texas counties, with more than $1.5 million in inventory and eight flatbed delivery trucks.

That combination of rapid growth and contractor-focused execution earned Riverside Building Materials the 2026 Beacon Award for Best New Store.

A Third Try Becomes the Right Time

The idea had been years in the making.

Reyna entered construction in his 20s while working for a nonprofit that coordinated home renovations for low-income families. He soon started his own renovation company with his wife from their kitchen table, eventually growing Reyna Homes into a major custom and spec homebuilder in the area.

About 15 years ago, he purchased a 5.5-acre property—along the U.S. 83 corridor just north of the Mexican border—with warehouses and an idea that someday it could become a building materials business.

He tried twice to make it happen. Funding and other obstacles got in the way.

His third attempt came together in 2022, when he worked with banks and Orgill to secure financing and prepare the business for launch.

The competitive landscape was already crowded. Riverside entered a market with several established lumber dealers, some with more than 30 years of history. Reyna knew matching their longevity wasn’t an option.

Service was.

“We were the underdogs,” he says. “How do we beat them? The main thing is servicing the contractors better.”

That meant treating mistakes as opportunities to improve the operation. When Riverside falls short for a customer, the team examines what happened and changes the process to keep it from happening again.

“Whenever we make a mistake or fail a customer, I don’t care if it’s small or medium, we gather the team and make sure we learn from it,” Reyna says.

This approach helped Riverside gain contractors through referrals and repeat business. Reyna also met with local builders individually, drawing on relationships and credibility established through his construction career.

Logistics That Match Growth

Riverside’s one-stop-shop strategy begins with understanding what builders actually use.

The assortment stretches across lumber, rebar, sheetrock, insulation, roofing, plumbing, electrical, paint, windows and stucco products. Reyna pays particular attention to items contractors might otherwise have to hunt down elsewhere, including specialized stucco panels, fasteners, mesh and finishing tools.

“I know exactly what a builder needs,” he says. “We need to have everything from the doorknob to certain types of screws.”

Contractor requests also influence what gets added. Employees bring customer feedback into regular meetings, enabling Riverside to identify repeatedly requested products and expand inventory accordingly.

As sales accelerated, however, Reyna discovered that having the right materials was only half the equation. Riverside had to move it just as quickly.

The company went from one delivery truck its first year to eight by its third year. Its yard now handles about 25 to 30 deliveries each day, more than 500 a month.

“When you have great salespeople, they require great yard support,” Reyna says. “The yard needed to keep up with the growth.”

Riverside now has a dedicated yard manager coordinating deliveries, trucks and forklifts. The 5.5-acre site includes a 5,000-square-foot retail store and three 4,000-square-foot warehouses, with a fourth warehouse planned. The retail store itself is also targeted for expansion.

Orgill helped Reyna create the original retail operation, developing the floor plan and product placement, connecting Riverside with its gondola supplier and sending a crew to assemble shelving. Orgill also helped establish assortments and recommended Epicor for point-of-sale and inventory management. Today, twice-weekly Orgill deliveries help Riverside replenish plumbing, electrical, paint and other categories quickly.

Reyna says that support has been especially meaningful because Orgill remained engaged through his earlier unsuccessful attempts to launch the business.

“I couldn’t see this happening without Orgill,” he says.

Riverside is already looking beyond its original market. The company serves Starr, Zapata, Hidalgo and Cameron counties, and Reyna says about half its sales now come from Hidalgo County, where he hopes to open a second location within the next two years.

Accepting the Beacon Award, he reflected on how close his store came to remaining an unrealized idea.

“Three years ago, Riverside was just a mission,” he told the audience. “And I must say that mission almost never became a reality.”

For him, the recognition belongs as much to the community and his team as it does to the company itself. He sees Riverside’s success as evidence that a locally owned business from rural South Texas can compete well beyond its home market.

His next goal is straightforward.

“We’re very excited, very happy and motivated to go back home and continue serving our community better than anyone else.”

Tommy Simpson was having a bad day when he learned he had won the 2026 Retail Beacon Award.

He was standing on a ladder, cutting a hole in the side of a brand-new house for an exhaust vent, when his CFO called with the news.

“That took me from one mood to another,” Simpson recalls.

There was Simpson, more than 25 years into running a hardware store, standing on a ladder, saw in hand—fitting for a retailer who came to hardware through construction and still approaches the business with a builder’s instinct. From the ladder or on the store floor, he understands what people need, figures out how to provide it and keeps adjusting until it all works.

Since opening Beaufort Hardware & Paint Co. in 1998, Simpson has expanded the store from about 7,000 square feet to more than 18,000, supplemented by a 10,000-square-foot lumber warehouse and a large garden center. The business has grown by paying close attention to Beaufort, a small coastal North Carolina town whose population swells during the summer and life near the water shapes what customers need.

In 2025, Simpson made another significant move, leaving a national branded co-op and taking Beaufort Hardware & Paint fully independent. Simpson says the change gave the business greater latitude over pricing, product selection and merchandising, an approach that better fits the market he has spent decades learning. That autonomy extends to the people who know the store best: his employees.

For Simpson, the Beacon Award belongs to the people who work those aisles every day.

“My employees are the ones who should get it,” he says. “They’re the ones customers see and the ones taking care of them.”

Built for Beaufort

Simpson graduated from high school in 1975 and spent the next several years working in construction. The property where Beaufort Hardware & Paint stands today was then Huntley Building Supply, a place that became important to Simpson well before he imagined himself running a hardware store.

When Simpson was getting his construction business started, the lumberyard’s owner extended him credit for building materials. Years later, Simpson would purchase the property and open his own operation. He credits that early act of faith from Huntley as instrumental in getting his first construction company up off the ground.

As he embarked on his new career path as a hardware store owner, Simpson knew construction well, but retail hardware was something he would need to learn. He did have one considerable advantage: He knew Beaufort.

The town has about 4,500 year-round residents, with tourism swelling that population during the summer. Fishing and boating are part of everyday life, and Simpson’s own family connection to the area stretches back centuries. As such, Beaufort Hardware & Paint has increasingly become a reflection of the place outside its walls.

Stainless-steel hardware receives particular attention because of the marine environment. The fishing department carries rods, reels and supplies for customers heading out onto the water. Water pumps sell well enough that Simpson says another 15 to 25 might be waiting in the back room beyond those on the salesfloor.

“We try to be really good at single categories rather than trying to cover all bases,” he says.

Grilling helped prove the efficacy of that strategy.

When Beaufort Hardware expanded from 7,000 to 12,000 square feet, Simpson wanted to test what would happen if he gave important departments considerably more depth. He created enough space to display about 30 grills.

Before the change, Simpson says, the store might have sold one grill a month. After, they started selling daily, and the store became a destination for grills and accessories.

Later expansions carried that thinking into other departments. Simpson wants to give customers confidence that when they visit Beaufort Hardware & Paint for a project, the items they need will be there.

Today, the store combines hardware and building materials with paint, tools, plumbing, lawn and garden, outdoor living, home goods and other categories. Its current assortment includes a full-line Benjamin Moore paint department, expanded Milwaukee and DeWalt tool offerings and a lumber barn stocked with treated lumber, plywood, concrete and other building materials.

The store keeps changing, too. Simpson says he regularly reworks center aisles and endcaps, and department heads have latitude to identify products they believe belong in their areas.

Technology has changed the mechanics behind those decisions. About 45,000 electronic shelf tags now enable pricing to update without employees having to manually replace tags throughout the store. Simpson says the need became particularly apparent during the pandemic, when rapid price changes made keeping thousands of items current increasingly difficult. Market-based pricing information also helps Beaufort Hardware & Paint evaluate prices for its own trading area.

Give Them Something to Own

The same independence Simpson values as a retailer extends to the way he manages roughly 50 employees. Beaufort Hardware & Paint operates without a traditional general manager. Instead, department heads receive considerable responsibility for their areas, including the opportunity to bring in merchandise they believe customers will buy.

Simpsonsays employees regularly come to him with ideas about what they want to do with their departments and how they want them to look. His role is often simply to give them room to follow through.

“It’s very personal,” Simpson says. “They take ownership.”

His marketing team works much the same way.

Employees take ownership of social media and appear in the store’s advertising, often developing ideas and campaigns largely on their own. Simpson may offer a suggestion, but he doesn’t dictate what happens next.

“We might have suggestions, but they take it and go with it,” he says. “It’s a fun group to work with.”

The results have attracted attention beyond the store’s social feeds. Simpson says Beaufort Hardware & Paint has received calls from other businesses asking who handles its marketing.

The store’s “Tommy’s Top Picks” promotion adds Simpson himself to that outreach, highlighting a changing selection of products he recommends. Other fun, recurring employee-driven posts, such as “Whatchamacallit Wednesdays,” also bring lots of engagement and thousands of social media views.

For Simpson, the freedom employees get comes with an expectation that customers enjoy coming in.

“It’s hardware; it’s fun,” he says. “Working in a hardware store has got to be one of the most rewarding things in the whole world. You talk to people and solve their problems. They love the attention, and they love that we know their name.”

Such enthusiasm regularly spills past ordinary business hours.

A Ladies’ Night event that began five or six years ago quickly outgrew Simpson’s expectations. He planned the first event for about 30 people; 70 showed up. Attendance kept climbing, eventually approaching 400, with a line stretching outside the store.

“So loud that you can’t hear for days,” Simpson says. “Such a good time.”

The response gave Simpson another idea: Turn the gathering into a fundraiser. More recent events have used ticket sales to support local causes.

The annual April customer appreciation day operates on an even larger scale. Vendors join local fire and police departments for an event that takes on the feel of a community block party. Simpson says 11 grills might be cooking at once, with preparation beginning the night before. By noon, the store may have served a couple thousand people.

For Simpson, the event reflects something that extends beyond a single day. He wants customers to feel a sense of connection to Beaufort Hardware & Paint—that this is their hardware store. And he wants employees to feel much the same way.

“It’s not my hardware store,” Simpson says. “It’s their hardware store. My employees feel like it’s their hardware store.”

Independence With Plenty of Company

Going independent has given Simpson more control over what happens inside Beaufort Hardware & Paint. He still actively seeks outside ideas.

Orgill entered the picture years ago as a secondary supplier after one of Simpson’s employees suggested adding another source.

“Orgill is one of the best decisions I have ever made,” Simpson says.

The relationship grew gradually. Orgill representatives visited the store, helped adjust assortments and offered suggestions. During the pandemic, when product availability became especially difficult, Simpson recalls an Orgill representative being in the store every week, working on assortments and shelves almost as though he were another employee.

That regular presence has continued throughout Beaufort Hardware & Paint’s transition to independence. Simpson says Orgill representative James Michael spends so much time at the store that he eventually decided just to make room for him.

“I have an office for him,” Simpson says. “He’s here so much, I had to find him a place to work.”

Such close collaboration shapes how Simpson approaches his relationships throughout the independent hardware industry. Speaking from the Beacon Awards stage, he looked around the room and talked about what he gains from conversations with others who have built careers in the industry.

“We enjoy what we’re doing. We’re always thinking better,” he says. “It’s wonderful to have partners and people in the industry to share your concerns, share what you do.”

Then he heads home, those conversations front of mind.

“And then I take it back and I share that with my employees,” he says.

Three times in one week, customers walked into Big Rapids Cash & Carry looking for a trailer hitch. Each time, the answer was essentially the same: We’re a lumberyard. We’re not a hardware store.

To owner David VanderWeele, the encounters pointed to a larger problem. He had purchased the Big Rapids, Michigan, business in 2020 and saw an established lumberyard with strong contractor relationships, but also a model that left a sizable portion of the local market walking past its doors.

“I looked at the pure mathematics,” VanderWeele says. “There are 2,000 DIY customers compared to one pro. I saw pretty quickly that we needed to diversify the company.”

The trailer hitches became symbolic of the opportunity. VanderWeele invested nearly $1 million in a renovation and rebranding that culminated in 2023 with a new identity: Big Rapids Lumber & Hardware.

That transformation—and the measurable results it has produced—have earned Big Rapids Lumber & Hardware the 2026 Beacon Award for Best New Store.

Making Room for a New Customer

VanderWeele came to hardware retail after a career that included insurance and a Valvoline auto store, where he gained experience running companies and studying category management. Across those businesses, he says he learned a lesson that shaped his approach in Big Rapids.

“The craft is not about the product or service. It’s a people business,” he says. “Continue to help people solve their problems, and the product kind of works itself out.”

When VanderWeele purchased the business, the store was heavily dependent on contractors, who represented about 90% of its business. He wanted to preserve those relationships while making homeowners feel equally welcome.

His timing proved prescient. VanderWeele says the business was in the process of shedding about half of its longtime pro customers to retirement and some additional attrition. Today, contractors account for about two-thirds of business, with homeowners representing the remaining third.

The physical store changed to support that broader customer base: 4-foot shelving gave way to 8-foot fixtures that effectively doubled merchandising capacity. Lighting was doubled, aisles widened and carts and baskets added. One checkout became four, while barcode scanning, individual employee email addresses and a modernized phone system eliminated some of the friction VanderWeele found when he arrived.

New or greatly expanded plumbing, electrical, lawn-and-garden, paint, hardware and tool assortments gave customers more reasons to visit.

VanderWeele drew on his category-management background to determine space allocations, product placement and adjacencies. He also chose to emphasize better and best products and recognizable national brands rather than competing primarily on opening price points.

The Milwaukee department illustrates one of the biggest payoffs. Big Rapids expanded what had been about a 6-foot presentation into a destination area of about 30 feet. After Milwaukee (including the Packout product line the store wanted to promote) was moved to a more prominent location, sales from the area increased nearly 40%.

Turning Projects Into Possibilities

Perhaps no department better captures the new Big Rapids Lumber & Hardware than its kitchen and bath design center.

The service existed before VanderWeele purchased the company, but the department received virtually no marketing. Relying on expertise from his co-op, Do it Best, he made “Kitchen & Bath Design Center” part of the company’s branding and began promoting an operation he believed competitors couldn’t easily match.

Today, he says kitchen and bath accounts for about a third of total sales and is among the company’s most profitable departments.

It also fits his favorite description of the business: “Disney World for homeowners,” he calls it.

“We make people’s dreams come true,” he says. “A person’s home is their largest purchase. They work extremely hard their entire life and save money to do the kitchen they’ve dreamed about or the bathroom they’ve always wanted.”

That project-oriented approach has expanded further through construction services; VanderWeele told the Awards Gala audience in Orlando, Florida, that he has already booked work into next June.

The transformation has produced results behind the scenes as well. Gross margin, once about 17%, has averaged about 28% over the past 24 months. A shift toward more disciplined purchasing and just-in-time inventory reduced annual inventory carrying costs by nearly $400,000, while sales per employee increased 18%.

The store’s reach has expanded, too. Customers who once came from a service radius of about 40 miles now request deliveries as far as 150 miles away.

Those numbers help explain why VanderWeele believes diversification was essential. When the building materials market fell sharply, Big Rapids kept sales roughly flat despite building materials representing nearly 70% of its business.

The transformation continues. VanderWeele credits Do it Best with providing resources, training, marketing support and access to fellow independent retailers while allowing him to determine the direction of his own company.

When accepting the Best New Store Award, he offered a challenge to fellow independent hardware retailers competing against national chains with vastly larger marketing budgets.

“It’s easy for us to get intimidated by big boxes,” he told the audience. “I personally think it’s time they start getting intimidated by us.”

For Big Rapids Lumber & Hardware, VanderWeele’s confidence now has a nearly $1 million transformation—and a growing list of stellar performance metrics—behind it.

Mark and Joe Jaconski have grown Stanley’s True Value Hardware in Philadelphia and Oreland, Pennsylvania, strengthening their partnership while preparing a fourth generation to take the next step.

When Mark Jaconski was a kid, he had big plans for Stanley’s Hardware.

“I used to joke that we were going to buy up the entire block and call it Stanleyville,” he says.

The name never ended up gracing a sign, but the ambition behind it proved considerably more durable.

Mark and his brother, Joe, grew up in the Philadelphia hardware business that their grandfather Stanley Jaconski started in 1948. Their father, also named Stanley, carried it forward, and the brothers eventually became the third generation to take responsibility for the family business.

Over the ensuing decades, they have expanded the original Philadelphia operation, replaced its cramped quarters with a modern 10,000-square-foot retail space, opened a second location in Oreland, Pennsylvania, and created room for categories their grandfather might never have imagined selling.

Now, the Jaconski brothers are making room for something else: the fourth generation. Mark’s son, Alex, and Joe’s son, Joe Jr., are already working in the business. Joe’s younger son, Jesse, is preparing to join them as well. For Mark and Joe, recipients of a 2026 Retail Beacon Award, seeing another generation come aboard gives their previous decades of work a visible destination.

“We’re setting up for the next generation to see it go forward,” Mark told fellow retailers while accepting the award. “Being third-generation, we’re very proud of that.”

Room to Grow

Mark remembers loving the hardware business from the beginning. His grandfather and father were industrial electricians and natural problem solvers who handled jobs themselves because, particularly in the early years, necessity demanded it.

That aptitude became part of the Stanley’s approach to customers.

“In our industry, it comes down to service,” Mark says. “We service the heck out of customers.”

That means having people who can help and products that solve problems, including the small fittings, plumbing pieces and unusual hardware that can save a customer another trip.

As the business grew, its original building increasingly worked against that goal. Merchandise occupied the second floor and basement, limiting visibility and making browsing difficult. Customers often needed to know what they wanted before entering the store.

Mark had imagined changing that since childhood.

After their father died in 2009, Mark and Joe eventually undertook a complicated redevelopment of the Philadelphia property, replacing the old operation with a new store in 2013. That project also changed the brothers’ relationship.

“Building the new building galvanized us together,” Mark says.

The result gave Stanley’s about 10,000 square feet of retail space and room for a considerably different shopping experience. Wider aisles improved flow. Tool rental and a garden center added services and seasonal opportunities. Workwear and pet supplies gained space. The paint department expanded beyond EasyCare to include Benjamin Moore.

The impact was substantial.

“As a company, it allowed us to triple our sales and make for a much better experience—a very shoppable store compared to the old store,” Mark says.

The brothers also incorporated an extensive stormwater-management system into the redevelopment, including underground storage, corrugated piping and a rain garden. The Philadelphia Water Department recognized Stanley’s as its first “Stormwater Pioneer.”

For Mark, the investment fit the neighborhood. The Philadelphia store’s hilly terrain can send substantial runoff toward properties below the store during heavy rain.

“Anything we can do to help on a large property helps people at the bottom of the hill,” he says.

Finding the Right People

More space and merchandise still require someone who knows how to help the person standing in the aisle.

Stanley’s employs about 30 people in Philadelphia and ten in Oreland. Mark approaches hiring with a straightforward priority.

“Hire first for personality and willingness to learn,” he says. “It’s awesome to find a guy with hardware store experience, but if he’s a miserable person, I don’t want him on my staff.”

Technical knowledge can develop through winter training, working alongside experienced employees and solving problems on the salesfloor.

Mark believes the disposition to treat customers well needs to be present from the beginning. That philosophy has become increasingly important as Stanley’s customer base has evolved.

Mark remembers seeing relatively few women shopping for their own projects when he was young. Today, he regularly sees women leading home improvement projects, arriving with research already completed and specific questions ready.

His expectation for employees is simple: Treat everyone with undifferentiated respect.

“Women will come in and say, ‘Guys, don’t talk down to me. I get that at other places,’” Mark says.

Stanley’s also continues to serve customers who arrive carrying knowledge gathered online—sometimes useful, sometimes requiring a little troubleshooting at the counter. Either way, employees’ roles remain familiar: Listen, identify what the project requires and help the customer leave with the right solution.

Two Brothers, Two Stores

In 2015, Mark and Joe expanded again with the Oreland location, about six miles northeast of the family’s original Philadelphia store.

Stanley’s remained open during its 2010-13 Philadelphia redevelopment, with a seven-phase construction plan allowing work to proceed around the existing store. The project’s underground filtration basins and rain garden helped earn it recognition as Philadelphia’s first Stormwater Pioneer in 2014.

The move gave Joe an operation in which he could take the lead, while Mark remained closely involved with the Philadelphia store. Mark says that division strengthened both the business and their relationship.

Joe could call on Mark for purchasing help or additional support, particularly during the early stages, while developing his own approach to running the location.

“It really opened the door for him to flourish,” Mark says.

The brothers bring different personalities to the business, something Mark describes with the familiar phrase “brotherly love.” Their differences have also given Stanley’s two experienced operators capable of leading separate locations while drawing on the same family history.

Community support, naturally, remains central to both.

“The only reason we’re here is because of the community and the support they’ve given us all these decades,” Mark says.

Stanley’s supports local organizations and events, including the YMCA, Boys & Girls Club, youth sports and churches. Mark sees those relationships as reciprocal: Generations of customers have supported Stanley’s, giving the business an obligation to participate when the community needs help.

Making Room for What Comes Next

The next expansion of Stanley’s may come through another location. Mark has considered adding a third store or ultimately replacing the Oreland operation with a higher-volume one. He sees potential in categories such as lumber if the family finds a property with the right facilities.

Increasingly, however, those decisions will involve another generation of Jaconskis.

Mark’s son, Alex, graduated from Temple University and has developed experience throughout the Philadelphia operation. A musician outside the store, Alex works in the back room, in the paint department and on the salesfloor, where Mark says his personality and ability to work with people stand out.

Joe Jr. joined the company after graduating from Penn State in 2025. He began at the Philadelphia store to build experience before moving ahead in the family operation. Jesse, also a Penn State graduate, is expected to join his father, uncle, brother and cousin soon.

Mark hopes the three eventually assume responsibility for Stanley’s and find opportunities that he and Joe haven’t yet imagined.

Standing before fellow independent retailers to accept the Retail Beacon Award, Mark acknowledged how unusual that opportunity has become. He also thanked the family members who have shared the ride, including the “two beautiful women”—his and Joe’s wives—who, as he joked, knew long ago what they were getting into and signed up anyway.

He then turned his attention to the hardware retailers in the room.

“Store owners are unbelievable,” he told them. “Everybody is facing the same challenges and facing them head-on.”

For a kid who once envisioned a hardware store encompassing an entire block, the measure of growth has changed.

Nearly eight decades after their grandfather opened Stanley’s, Mark and Joe have two stores, three sons preparing for larger roles and another generation with the opportunity to decide where the family business goes from here.

The 2026 Independent Home Improvement Conference (IHI Conference) will bring together retailers from across North America for two days of education, networking and industry celebration. One of the event’s signature moments will take place the evening of July 29, when Hardware Connection presents its annual Beacon Awards.

Held during the Independent Awards Gala at the J.W. Marriott Grande Lakes in Orlando, Florida, the ceremony recognizes retailers and industry leaders whose businesses have left a lasting mark on the independent home improvement channel.

Established in 2010, the Beacon Awards honor innovation, leadership and service across a range of categories, from lifetime achievement and new store development to digital engagement. This year’s winners reflect the breadth of independent retailing—from long-standing industry leaders to retailers embracing new ways to connect with customers both in-store and online.

Retail Beacon Awards Honor Industry Impact 

The Retail Beacon Awards recognize individuals and companies whose sustained contributions have helped shape the independent home improvement industry. Considered the program’s highest honor, the award celebrates long-term leadership, innovation and service to customers and communities.

The 2026 Retail Beacon Award recipients are: 

• Bill Gilbert, Gilbert’s Hardware, Michigan
• Mark and Joe Jaconski, Stanley’s Hardware, Philadelphia 
• Tommy Simpson, Beaufort Hardware, Beaufort, North Carolina 

Each honoree has demonstrated a lasting commitment to independent retail, building businesses that serve as examples for the broader industry. 

Best New Store Winners Showcase Innovation 

Retail environments continue to evolve as retailers seek new ways to serve customers and strengthen community ties. The Beacon Award for Best New Store recognizes retailers that have successfully launched or transformed locations through thoughtful design, merchandising and customer experience. 

The 2026 Best New Store honorees are: 

• Big Rapids Lumber & Hardware, Big Rapids, Michigan
• Howard Walker’s True Value Hardware, Henrietta, Texas 
• Riverside Building Materials, Rio Grande City, Texas

These retailers demonstrate how innovative store design and execution can create memorable shopping experiences while supporting long-term business growth. 

Digital Leaders Continue to Raise the Bar 

Now in their second year, the Digital Beacon Awards recognize retailers leveraging their websites, social media, e-commerce and digital storytelling to strengthen customer relationships and extend their reach beyond the four walls of the store. Comprising five specialty categories, the Digital Beacon Awards celebrate outstanding achievement in online retailing, with the Beacon Award for Digital Excellence reserved for the retailer whose digital efforts shine brightest across all areas.

The highest distinction, the Beacon Award for Digital Excellence, goes to: 

• Ambridge Do it Best Home Center, Ambridge, Pennsylvania

Although not part of the Awards Gala ceremony in Orlando, category winners of the Digital Beacon Awards include: 

• Outstanding Community Engagement: The Pick & Shovel, Newport, Vermont
• Top Digital Advertising Campaign: McCoy’s Building Supply, San Marcos, Texas
• Best Social Media Campaign: T&M Hardware, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
• Best Individual Social Media Post: Newton’s True Value Hardware, Cherryvale, Kansas
• Best Website or E-Commerce Experience: Bloedorns, Torrington, Wyoming

The Digital Beacon Awards were launched in 2025 and reflect the growing importance of online engagement in independent retail. 

In addition to being honored during the Awards Gala on July 29 as part of IHI, full profiles of the winners will appear in the September issues of Hardware Connection.