Great Lakes Ace — Attraction in Utica

After moving into my Shelby Twp House 20 years ago, when My Neighbor told me, 'If Stone's Ace Hardware doesn't have it, You don't need it.', I've proven it so many times it makes me laugh. On top of that, as someone who has been a Retail Store Manager for 38 years, I've NEVER come across ANYone with the level of Product and Stock Knowledge as 'John' (a Manager at Stones). It's frightening that He could learn and retain the level of detailed Knowledge He has throughout the entire Hardware Store, and be able to ask the right questions, and share the truly useful real world wisdom in a way that makes sense . Owning a 53 year old Home supplies ample opportunity to walk into Stones thinking, "OK, THIS will finally be the 'part needed' and the 'rookie questions' that Stone's will fail me for the first time ever on.", but every time I walk out feeling ' Dang !?, this place (and John) is unbelievable. " I've not gotten that feeling even once from the big box Home Improvement stores that I get every time I go into Stone's with a desparate part and or information need. I can't thank John enough. I know You've saved me thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of stress through Your amazing...

ACE is Usually our only go to first store. After 8/3/19, not so much. I called inquiring about an appropriate sprayer specifically capable of applying Aggragate cement sealer. Confirmed they had two. My wife drove to the store to make the purchase. Uncertain if the "manager's" produced one was the same one I was told minutes earlier would be capable of spraying Sealer on the aggragate cement driveway, I responded to her message and asked her to have the manager confirm it was. He did. When she brought it home, I immediately put it to work, using the blue sprayer nozzle. It did not work. When I called the store and spoke with the manager, he confirmed it was the sprayer appropriate for the job. I asked how he could sell someone a product that does no where on the box, indicate that it is Aggragate cement sealer appropriate. He hung up on me. I will meet with the owner or his representative on Monday, 8/5/19 to request a full refund. My issue is simple: If a person works his/her way up to a manager position shouldn't product knowledge be a guarantee? Very disappointed in my local (Utica) ACE...

I’ve been shopping in the store for probably 40 years that I’ve lived in the area I think people like the small hardware stores because the service is usually pretty good and you can get in and out when you’re just looking for a Small part a paintbrush or something simple or even if you need more things you don’t have to go to the big box store and you don’t need a golf cart plus I think many of us like to shop local and help small businesses. What I can’t stand are these coupon in marketing programs that never seem to really reward people who have repeatedly shopped at your store numerous times however the discount didn’t apply that day or that week or you didn’t spend this or that much money I don’t know when businesses will learn people wanna save money at point of purchase each and every time. My business is also 40 years old we have 200,000 customers in our database every customer no matter what will save $20 each and every time they do business with us whether it’s their first time or they’ve been with us...