First suburban-format store opens, offering some 40,000 product varieties
Strengthened expertise in building materials, with capacity for bulk product storage
‘Ace Hardware,’ a specialty store for interior and building materials, has opened its fifth location, the Toegyewon store.
The Toegyewon store, its first suburban-format outlet, is a single-story store located in Toegyewon, Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, with a site area of 3,876.4㎡ and a sales floor area of 1,383.6㎡. A parking lot with around 50 spaces has been provided at the front of the first floor.
Located near the Toegyewon IC, the store offers convenient access and service to customers in Seoul and the greater metropolitan area. In particular, it is expected to attract many visitors purchasing interior materials for weekend farms and country homes in metropolitan-area regions such as nearby Yangpyeong and Gapyeong, as well as customers with strong DIY demand.
The Ace Hardware Toegyewon store stocks some 40,000 product varieties across more than 10 categories, including interior and building materials, tools, paint, and hardware.
A distinctive feature is that categories are arranged to match each field, such as construction, equipment, and processes. The overall layout and customer flow were also designed with customer convenience in mind, divided into a space centered on construction and equipment—interior and building materials, tools, paint, and piping—and a space centered on interior processes and auxiliary materials—bathroom and kitchen materials, cleaning products, and repair supplies.
Combining a building-materials logistics function with the role of a conventional store, the Ace Hardware Toegyewon store has strengthened its expertise in building materials to satisfy corporate and professional individual-business customers, and is equipped with a system for storing products in bulk to suit the characteristic of consuming large volumes over a short period.
As interest in indoor hygiene has grown recently due to the impact of COVID-19 and other factors, the store operates a separate cleaning zone gathering hygiene and cleaning products, and has also strengthened its lineup of gardening and agricultural materials in consideration of the regional characteristic of having many nearby orchards. For general customers, it has added single-item installation-related products in consideration of situations requiring professional installation and construction, such as partial bathroom work, entrance interior doors, insect-screen installation, flooring, and interior painting.
For customer convenience, the store has raised satisfaction by providing a range of services and amenities, including early-morning business hours (from 6:30 a.m. on weekdays and Saturdays), timber cutting services, tool after-sales service (AS), and free delivery of building materials.
An EHC official said, “The Ace Hardware Toegyewon store is our first attempt at converting from an existing urban-format store to a suburban-format store,” adding, “We plan to continue offering a variety of tailored services to enhance purchasing convenience for everyone from general customers to business customers.”
Meanwhile, Ace Hardware, with a 100-year history, is the world’s largest home improvement brand, found in some 6,000 stores across more than 70 countries worldwide. In Korea, it opened its first location, the Seoul Geumcheon store, in 2018, followed by the Yongsan and Mokdong stores, and added the Ilsan store in Gyeonggi Province this past December.