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Ace Hardware is a cooperative, not a chain, or even a franchise system. As such they vary a lot, and it seems on average they are getting worse. We used to ha
by lostapathy 9y ago
Ace Hardware is a cooperative, not a chain, or even a franchise system. As such they vary a lot, and it seems on average they are getting worse.
We used to have a really good Ace chain around here, with a proper hardware section and quality tools. They now only stock super common hardware, not the stuff I'd go to a specialty store for, and a lot of really garbage tools.
And they certainly don't have any experts anymore. you're lucky if somebody's working who knows how to run the key machine (which also no longer requires any skill)
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoI don't understand why it being a cooperative makes for wide variance in staff quality. Do US Americans not like working in co-ops? What is it about profit sharing that causes the variation, in UK cooperatives seem to be more liberal and offer better working conditions but their recruitment seems pretty much inline with other forms of corporation. Can you offer any further insight? Perhaps the demise of this particular store (chain) is orthogonal to their cooperative status but you're assuming a causality?
- lostapathy 9y agoIt's not a cooperative like REI or other much-loved stores are cooperatives. In the case of REI, the end customers are the members. In Ace's case, the store owners are the members. So in the example of REI, it's a cooperative but there is still a central control and consistency between stores. Between Ace chains, the only thing common is the word "Ace" and some fraction of Ace-branded products in the store. Some chains have tons of them, some have very little. The "Ace cooperative" exerts very little control over the stores. The cooperative is mostly about branding, not about products or quality.