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Combine social distancing with fewer working hours and people are spending more time at home — with more time on their hands. To fill the time indoors, people are taking on those home projects …
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Combine social distancing with fewer working hours and people are spending more time at home — with more time on their hands. To fill the time indoors, people are taking on those home projects that get left undone while work and family filled up the hours.
As a result, hardware stores across the country are reporting a significant uptick in sales during the COVID-19 pandemic. Foursquare, an app that provides local recommendations for users on where to shop, reported jumps in traffic to hardware stores across the nation.
Powell hardware stores are seeing the same trend. Jerry Jackson, manager of Ace Hardware, estimated a 25% jump in paint sales. He said it’s not contractors, but rather individuals doing their own house painting.
Tim Lloyd, assistant manager of Bloedorn Lumber, said the same thing is happening there. Besides paint, he said people are doing a lot of kitchen renovation and plumbing projects. Not only are the sales up, people are asking a lot more questions of staff about projects they’re trying to complete.
“We have not slowed down here,” Lloyd said.
Ken VanGrinsven, co-owner of Aldrich Lumber, said he’s seen sales increase across the store.
“It’s a little bit of everything,” he said.
He’s hoping after the pandemic passes and people get back to work, there isn’t a subsequent decline in sales. At least for now, hardware is hot.
