Spring 2018 Hardlines Strategies

CUSTOMER PROFILE

‘Here For The Community’ New Hardware Store Receives Warm Welcome

The Palace Hardware team has been welcomed by the Osawatomie, Kansas, community. Pictured from left are Mike King, owner; Jeana Ledom, store manager; Liz Tohle, clerk; Pam Harkins, clerk; and Jeff Moreland, owner.

But that’s certainly not the case in Osawatomie, Kansas, and for one of its newest businesses, Palace Hardware. In fact, since its opening in early 2017, Palace Hardware has already built a strong customer base in the town of about 5,000 residents. doors due to online or big-box competition. S ome towns are finding it difficult to maintain local businesses. Some companies are consolidating, and others are having to close their

Coming Together For the trio who opened the business, much of it was a matter of timing. After a career of owning and operating fast-food franchises, Moreland had returned to Osawatomie to help his father with two of the family’s local businesses. King owns a contracting company that does work with those family businesses. With that kind of background in the nuts-and-bolts aspects of the hardware industry, he brought in-depth knowledge to the burgeoning ownership group. Ledom, who had made a career as a salon owner and stylist, came on as a temporary hire, and Moreland and King quickly decided she was indispensable. “Never did I think I’d be running a hardware store or helping customers determine if they were looking for

Owners Jeff Moreland and Mike King, along with store manager Jeana Ledom, have built a store designed to cater to the needs of Osawatomie. Palace Hardware is the first hardware store in town since a previous one closed five years before, so it’s received a warm welcome as it’s worked to provide what residents need, and without them having to drive to the next town over to find it. “We felt it was time to bring business back to Osawatomie,” King says. “We were watching all of our citizens go out of town and take their spending money and tax money with them. That was money that could be kept here.” “We wanted to be able to offer anything the town needed, because that’s the only way to earn business and not force people to travel elsewhere for their needs,” Moreland says. “We want to stay local. That’s the whole goal.”

10 Spring 2018 • Hardlines Strategies