Go Deep to Build a Destination

Independent retailers are using assortment depth, specialty brands, merchandising and product knowledge to give customers reasons to seek out their hand tool departments.

The internet can offer a seemingly endless hand tool assortment, and a national tool specialist can fill thousands of square feet with its own brands. Independent hardware retailers have neither reason nor room to compete SKU for SKU.

DeRonne True Value Hardware in Eastpointe, Michigan, takes hand tools beyond the pegboard, using a tool belt as a creative display that connects products with how customers use them.

But you can decide where to go deep. To capture more of their local hand tool market, independent hardware stores are tailoring assortments to the customers they know best, whether that means dedicating substantial space to the category, specializing in professional mechanic tools or adding brands in response to customer demand.

The result can be an assortment built around a local market and local customer demand rather than a national planogram.

Depth Becomes a Service

At DeRonne True Value Hardware in Eastpointe, Michigan, David DeRonne devotes two 40-foot aisles to hand tools and related power tool accessories.

DeRonne says he created that breadth because customers have become accustomed to finding virtually any tool online at any hour. DeRonne says his store has lost some sales to online competitors, increasing the challenge of keeping enough selection on hand to satisfy customers who come through the door.

White Horse Hardware & Supply in Gap, Pennsylvania, demonstrates how a sought-after tool line can make a store a destination for a specific customer base.

Despite its large Amish customer base, the store has developed a reputation for high-quality auto mechanic tools, carrying a large selection of Wright wrenches, drivers and sockets. That assortment draws some customers from an hour or more away to shop for mechanic tools.

For those customers, carrying a sought-after brand of hand tool becomes part of the service. Having a particular wrench, socket or driver available when it is needed can matter as much as carrying the category in the first place.

Hunter’s Hardware in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, takes a similar approach with a nationally recognized brand, promoting a deep DeWalt assortment spanning tools, bits, sockets and accessories. The selection gives customers another reason to shop locally rather than making a big-box run.

Berlin Myers Lumber in Summerville, South Carolina, also makes brands part of its proposition, highlighting the hand tool manufacturers it carries on its website.

Let the Local Market Decide

Going deep does not require going equally deep everywhere.

At Randy’s Hardware in Virginia, owner Christian Herrick brought KNIPEX into the hand tool assortment in response to customer feedback and gave the brand prominent space on a dedicated endcap.

The decision demonstrates an advantage independent retailers can bring to hand tools: Customers can help shape the assortment.

A store serving electricians may find additional opportunity in long-nose, lineman’s, diagonal-cutting and specialty pliers. A customer base heavy with plumbers can support greater depth in tongue-and-groove pliers and plumbing tools. Automotive, agricultural and woodworking customers create different opportunities.

Instead of attempting to reproduce an extensive online assortment, retailers can identify the categories, brands and price levels where their customers expect them to have answers.

Product knowledge strengthens that strategy. Associates who understand differences in jaw design, leverage, cutting capacity, ergonomics and intended applications can help customers move beyond comparing packages and prices.

Ryan DeArment, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Channellock, says that trust and expertise remain important advantages for independents and encourages retailers to focus on knowledgeable employees, contractor engagement and assortments adapted to local demand.

Take the Tools to the Project

Depth, however, accomplishes little when customers do not see the product.

Research from the North American Hardware and Paint Association (NHPA) and its predecessor, NRHA, offers a particularly relevant example for hand tools.

In NRHA’s 2002 Merchandising for Profit Study, rolling racks stocked with hand tools—including tape rules, hammers, snips, diagonal cutters, files and sanding tools—were placed in prominent locations with signage. Unit sales for the assortment increased 134% during the test.

The lesson remains relevant nearly 25 years later: A hand tool does not necessarily have to stay in the hand tool aisle.

Aviation snips can be merchandised where customers shop for sheet metal, ductwork, roofing or gutter projects. Tongue-and-groove pliers can appear near plumbing repair products, while long-nose and cutting pliers can be positioned with electrical supplies.

The secondary placement connects the tool with the reason the customer came into the store.

NHPA’s 2025 Merchandising for Profit Study provides more recent evidence for that approach. Work gloves placed on clip strips recorded a 200% sales lift, while products supported by in-aisle feature-and-benefit signage saw a 50% increase in the categories tested.

Randy’s Hardware, which operates multiple locations in Virginia, added KNIPEX to its hand tool assortment in response to customer requests and gives the specialty brand prominent merchandising space.

The specific products differed, but the principle translates readily to hand tools: Put relevant products in the customer’s path and make their purpose easy to understand.

That can be particularly useful with pliers and snips, where a customer may confront multiple tools that look similar but perform very different jobs.

Signage identifying cutting direction on aviation snips, material capacity on cutters or the intended application for different plier designs can make a dense pegboard easier to shop.

Give Customers a Reason to Make the Trip

A hand tool department does not have to be the largest in the market to become a destination.

White Horse Hardware & Supply demonstrates what can happen when a retailer earns a reputation for depth in a particular segment. Randy’s Hardware shows how listening to customers can uncover demand for a specialty brand. Hunter’s Hardware uses a deep assortment from a recognized manufacturer to strengthen its local offering.

Those approaches share a common idea: Hand tool assortments become more valuable when retailers make deliberate choices about what to stock, how deeply to stock it and how to help customers find the right product.

Online competitors may have more SKUs. National specialists may have more selling space. Independent retailers have the opportunity to build the department around the people who actually walk through their doors—and make sure the right tool is waiting when they do.