How’s Business? U-Haul Rentals Help Missouri Hardware Store Weather Sales Slump
Alan Koenig
Branson Ace Hardware
Branson, Missouri
Koenig discusses declining customer spending and how truck rentals have grown to 20% of the business.
How are sales and customer counts? We’re down about 10% this year. It’s a weak economy. We’re in a tourist destination, and the biggest draw in the area has been dramatically down. The crowds just don’t seem to be normal. They have dramatically lowered admission prices and season admission for next year. Right now, customers in our store will buy only what they must have. Average ticket used to be around $30, and now the average ticket is in the $15 to $18 range. Plus, people return the smallest things, and that means they’re watching every dollar they spend.
What’s unique about your business? We’re a middle-of-the-road hardware store. We try to offer good customer service and are open seven days a week, 12 hours a day. Thousands of cars that drive by, and if I could get 1% to stop, we’d do well.
Best niches? We’re a hardware store and rather than branching out into fancy sunglasses or whatever, we try to do mainstream hardware really well. Ace pushes the barbecue category, and we do fairly well with barbecue. We also do well with U-Haul. We’ve been renting U-Haul trucks and trailers for about 10 years. Now, it’s 20% of our whole business. We have hit U-Haul’s top 100 North American dealers a couple times, and we’re frequently in the top 10 in the state.
What do you have planned for 2027? Right now, it’s going to be a matter of getting through the election cycle and economy. These cycles happen for as long as we’ve been in business, and that’s a long time. These cycles are a historical fact—all seasonal ups and downs.
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