Hardware Wars With Home Depot Planning A New Store, The Hardware World Is Getting More Crowded And More Competitive

How many decks can Valley do-it-yourselfers build?

Home improvement and hardware retailers are banking on quite a few.

Recently, hardware and building material stores have been multiplying like third-graders memorizing their times tables.

The 1988 opening of a HomeClub (now “HomeBase”) location here turned out to be an early first shot in what has become an all-out war. Newman Lake Hardware, a Trustworthy dealer, opened in June of 1994. Two months later, Eagle Hardware & Garden opened a store at 5204 E. Sprague. This August, an Ace Hardware store stocking 17,000 items opened in Otis Orchards.

Now, Atlanta-based Home Depot wants to build a superstore at the corner of Sprague and Fancher. On Thursday, the County Hearing Examiner Committee approved a zoning change there from heavy industrial to retail business, allowing the chain to go ahead with the plan.

Those newer retailers are all in addition to established Valley stores like Zeigler Building Center, Ernst Home & Nursery, Valley Best-Way and the granddaddy of them all, Peters Hardware.

Can the market support so many new faces?

“All those places are a cut out of the pie, and you can only cut it so many times,” said Gary Peters, owner of Peters Hardware. The family-owned business has operated at 12118 E. Sprague for 62 years. “The area is already saturated.”

Expanding suburbs like Newman Lake and Otis Orchards are an exception. Until recently, customers in those areas had no hardware stores nearby. Before Ace Hardware allows a franchisee to open a new store, they do an in-depth demographic study. Monte Risvold of Tomlinson Commercial Real Estate Services said Ace concluded its Otis Orchards store would attract 400 transactions per weekday, and 600 per day on weekends. Tomlinson handles the leasing of strip mall spaces where the Ace store is located.

Richard Jordan’s Trustworthy dealership in Newman Lake has now been through its one-year run, and he said it’s doing fine. Like the Ace in Otis Orchards, there isn’t a competitor nearby.

Still, the giants loom in the distance.

“Those guys are going to impact anybody’s business,” Jordan said. “You have to be cost competitive, or customers will go there. A lot of my customers work in Spokane or (other parts of) the Valley, and have the opportunity to go (to the big stores).”

Jordan thinks the big chains are opening here not because of demographic, but because of precedent. He said since customers get in the habit of driving to an area for home improvement items and tools, other companies find the spot attractive.

Reid Zeigler, president of Zeigler Builder Center, said he doesn’t see the trend as Valley-specific.

“There are just fewer independents than there used to be,” he said. “Now, the size of the store is the main thing…it used to be mom and pop, now it’s bigger stores.”

Zeigler has been in business since 1964, and has had a Valley location since 1977. The local company, now with four locations, is competing toe-to-toe with the big chains by diversifying the products it sells. Instead of just lumber, the store now has departments for plumbing, electrical work, lawn and garden, cabinets and general hardware items. Its aggressive advertising has featured billboards with the company’s cartoon mascot, “Ziggy,” flushing an Eagle down the toilet.

“We don’t worry about them, we let them worry about us,” Zeigler said.

The heavy-hitters plague each other, too. Although no one from either company returned calls, Eagle does have a reputation for opening stores where Home Depot is not. Lately, Home Depot has in turn been staking out sites near Eagle stores. When Eagle stock fell in value last summer, some analysts cited Home Depot as a contributing factor. The chain had already built three stores in Western Washington, an area where Eagle had established a strong, eight-store presence. A big chunk of Eagle’s revenue came from those stores.

Eagle’s stock has since risen again. The Renton-based company reported record sales and earnings earlier this year.

Whatever Eagle’s fate may be, the outlook for smaller operations might not be bright. The “big box” locations like Eagle, Home Depot and HomeBase carry everything from tools to carpet to drapery. Eagle even sells Jacuzzis.

That means Eagle even competes with smaller stores, regardless of niche.

Valley Best-Way has been located just west of Peters since 1968, but that’s OK, according to company president Cecil Cleveland. Ernst has also been open across the street from Peters nearly as long. The arrangement works, Cleveland said, because the stores are different. For example, his store stocks some tools, but sales of building materials and manufacture of roof and floor trusses are Valley Best-Way staples.

“Peters has home-type hardware, and we have building-type hardware, so we got along,” Cleveland said. The big boxes, though, compete with everyone.

“I know they’ll have an effect,” he said.

Customers shop superstores because of price. Tim and Shannon Orchard went to the Valley Eagle store Wednesday to find a plastic part and some closet doors. They said the part was one-third the price they found it elsewhere.

They said selection is a big plus, too. “The bigger ones have what you want,” Tim said.

The chains fail to woo everyone, though.

“The main thing our customers tell us is that they come here when they want knowledgable people or a friendly face,” Peters said.

Hal Temple has shopped at Peters Hardware for 40 years, and doesn’t plan on switching.

“I’ve dealt with three generations (of Peters), and I’d rather come here any day,” Temple said. “This is really a good example of a familyowned operation that’s supporting the community, and I like to support that… . There’s something special, I think, about walking in and having someone call you by name.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Photos (1 Color)