We sit down with Gary Dickes, owner of Prairie Side Ace Hardware and nail down all the upcoming info on the brand new location.
Q. How long have you been in business?
A. We opened as Prairie Side True Value in the summer of 2010. We just crossed our 10 year anniversary!
Q. You recently switched your hardware store to an Ace brand… What was the reason for that?
A. In the spring of 2019 we switched brands to become Prairie Side ACE Hardware. Marilyn and I own this store, and we contract with a hardware brand. The hardware brands provide buying power for competitive pricing, marking coordination, and several kinds of services for organizing and running the business. ACE has a solid strategy to provide “best brands,” and overall make sure we are offering better quality choices for customers. We like to run our store the same way, so the alignment with the ACE brand was a good fit for us.
Q. It is very exciting that you are building a whole new store, Can you tell us a bit about your new location, and the motivation behind building?
A. We broke ground this year on a new “ground-up” building, just a block down the street from our current location. We out-grew our current location. If you come in the store, you might notice some of our challenges to keep the store sufficiently stocked for our customers. At times we stack up lots of inventory, but before the next weekly truck arrives from ACE we have empty spots. It’s time to fix this. We hear lots of comments from customers about the convenience of our store on 80th street. That won’t be changing as our new store will be almost twice the size of our current store, and positioned midway between 30th avenue and 39th avenue on 80th street. When that lot became available, this opportunity, to put a larger store in this location became clear.
Q. When can we expect to see the new building open?
A. What we call the “soft opening” will occur sometime over the winter in early 2021. At that point the store will be stocked for winter goods and ready for business. We are planning a grand opening in the spring as we open the garden center and complete the full product selection. If you are familiar with our existing store, we do an excellent business in paint, fasteners, grilling, and outdoor power. The larger store will allow us to complete our full branded lines in these areas. A Benjamin Moore paint store. The largest Midwest Fastener selection in town. Deep product displays of Weber, Big Green Egg, and Traeger grills. Complete lines of new Toro and EGO cordless electric equipment. These brands and their accessories are already part of our success, and a more complete selection will be available for brand loyal customers.
Q. We understand there are many new products and promotions that you will be featuring… Can you tell us about a few?
A. We will be adding new products and expanding areas we see as opportunities. A full dealer line of Milwaukee power tools. A garden center adjoining the building. Larger in-stock inventories of programmable car keys. A propane filling station. A bit more lumber and building supplies to complete the repair job. And more service areas to help with ecommerce orders and special orders. Kenosha is going to enjoy the expanded offering in a convenient location.
Prairie Side Ace Hardware
3755 80th St
Kenosha, WI 53142
Phone: (262) 577-3340
Email: Prairiesidehardware@gmail.com
Website link to Prairie Side Ace Hardware
Hours –
Mon 8:00 am – 7:00 pm
Tues 8:00 am – 7:00 pm
Wed 8:00 am – 7:00 pm
Thurs 8:30 am – 7:00 pm
Fri 8:00 am – 7:00 pm
Sat 8:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sun 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Q&A & Photos by Kim Carmichael
