Dateline: March 17, 2005

Lowe's new Ace store adds jobs to economy

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Local consumers are still taking in all the new offerings after last Wednesday’s grand opening of an Ace Hardware franchise inside Clarendon’s Lowe’s supermarket.

The store becomes the fifth full-line home center owned by the Littlefield-based Lowe’s Pay & Save, Inc., and it now carries everything from birdbaths to lawnmowers to plumbing supplies in addition to a fully stocked grocery store.

“It has been outstanding,” said Lowe’s Ace manager Blain Burton. “We have had lots of positive comments about the convenience and availability of the store and about how Clarendon has been needing this for a long time.”

Work on the business has been on-going for several weeks as contractors remodeled what one year ago was B&R Thriftway, took down the wall that separated the supermarket from the space formerly occupied by Duckwall’s variety store, built a new garden center, and gave the entire facility on West US 287 a facelift.

The addition of Ace has created ten new jobs for the local economy, six of which of are full time positions. Two of those positions belong to Burton and his wife, the former Tanya Holland of Hedley. Former Thriftway manager Buddy James will still manage the supermarket portion of the store.

The home center will not be a lumber yard; and although the store will have accounts for contractors, Burton says he doesn’t anticipate getting a lot of business from local contractors.

“We’re more for the do-it-yourselfer. We don’t really carry lumber – just some basic 2x4s, and ½- and ¾-inch plywood.”

The store does carry some fencing and farm supplies, offers three types of concrete, and has a rental center with every thing from posthole diggers and ditchers to cotton candy machines.

Burton said he understands that some customers were upset when Duckwall’s pulled out of the local market, but he said Lowe’s will try to fill that void.

“We’ve got fishing, boating, and camping supplies; appliances; and clothing,” he said. “That’s something we wouldn’t ordinarily carry in our Ace store.”

And Lowe’s isn’t through adding to its lineup. Burton said in response to comments from the community, the home center will soon be adding yarn and thread to meet the needs of local homemakers.

“We’re still listening,” Burton said. “If there’s something people can’t get, we’ll look at carrying it.”