Customers dip but sales soar at Blackhawk Hardware
Customers dip but sales soar at Blackhawk Hardware
Home improvement stores are one of the few retail sectors that have seen gains during the pandemic; weed killer and cleaning supplies are hot sellers
This article was published in The Charlotte Ledger e-newsletter on September 11, 2020. To receive the latest local business-y news and trends straight to your inbox, sign up for free here.
Beloved Business: Customer visits dip, sales soar and shelves are tough to replenish at Blackhawk Hardware. ‘Nothing stays constant.’
Blackhawk Hardware in the Park Road Shopping Center has a vintage feel inside and out, down to the classic Chevrolet truck parked out front.
by David Griffith
Beloved Business is an occasional Ledger series checking in with some of the Charlotte area’s best-known local companies.
Hardware stores are one of the winners in the Covid retail scene, so the challenge at Blackhawk Hardware in the Park Road Shopping Center hasn’t been how to stay afloat, but how to keep the shelves from going bare.
Blackhawk Hardware, which opened in 1977 by Jim and Barb Wilkerson and is now co-owned by their son Andy Wilkerson, supplies customers with a wide range of home improvement and gardening supplies, paint and home goods and gifts. For decades, many area residents made it part of their weekly routine to pop by for a bag of free popcorn and a look around. (The popcorn machine is off these days, but in normal times employees have been known to hand out 2,500 bags a week to customers.)
When North Carolina implemented its stay at home order in March, in-store customers dropped off practically overnight. Much of Blackhawk Hardware’s sales moved to curbside pickup.
The store remained open for in-person shopping because it was deemed an essential business by the state. No staff were laid off, although some 25-30% of employees either voluntarily took time off or had to stay home due to being in a high-risk category, Andy Wilkerson said. Those who took time off continued to be paid as if they were working and those who reported to work received hazard pay.
Customer visits drop, sales rise: While Wilkerson observed a decrease in the number of customers, he saw an increase in sales, as people visited less often but purchased more items when they did shop.
Overall, sales now are about 10% higher than they were before Covid, Wilkerson said, and customer traffic is back up to about 90% of what it was before the pandemic.
With people stuck in their homes for several months, many focused on home improvement and yard care. Wilkerson said the lawn and garden center saw a massive increase in sales volume, with sales spiking 500-1,000% for some items.
Inventory struggles: It’s been such a jump that Blackhawk Hardware has struggled to keep some goods in stock, especially weed killer, cleaning supplies and pottery. Suppliers are sending 50% less inventory than in pre-pandemic times, Wilkerson said.
As The Ledger reported last month, supply chain shortages of lumber and other construction supplies have hit builders hard.
That’s had a trickle-down effect for Blackhawk Hardware, as companies that produce both mass-market construction supplies for builders as well as more niche products for stores like Blackhawk Hardware have had to focus on what their biggest customers want.
As a result, many specialty items that Blackhawk Hardware sells have been hard to replenish once they’ve run out.
Now, adaptability is the name of the game, Wilkerson said.
“Nothing stays constant,” he said, “and so you’re literally just having to adapt and just almost weekly at this point go, ‘Alright, well what do we need to do different?’”
David Griffith is a Queens University student and is a reporting intern at The Ledger.
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire; Reporting intern: David Griffith