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FEATURE
GOW’S HOME HARDWARE
Best Hardware Store
2017 Outstanding Retailer Awards
W I N N E R
Gow’s owner Amanda Fancy began offering
lottery sales recently in response to
customer demand.
Amanda Fancy, owner; with Dirk Drieberg and Scott Parker
of Allegion Canada, sponsors of the award.
G
ow’s Home Hardware in Bridgewater,
N.S., is one of Canada’s oldest hardware
stores. Amanda Fancy started
working there as a teenager. She left for a
time to attend business school and when
she returned, she worked in the accounting
department and later became systems
manager. When Peter Gow retired in 2012,
he sold the store to Amanda. She was just
32 at the time.
Amanda is constantly looking for ways to
improve her business. Her goal is to find a
balance between honouring the store’s long
tradition and making it her own.
In 2015 and 2016, Gow’s underwent a
major remerchandising. Several departments
were expanded, including housewares,
seasonal, and storage products.
The store has long been dominant in the
paint section and has consistently been one
of Home Hardware’s top paint sales performers
for the past 20 years. Amanda also
added a Benjamin Moore section, which
she was warned could be risky and steal
business from her private-label Beauti-
Tone paint sales, but it has only increased
her customer count.
With the renovation, Amanda was also
able to add more services that customers had
been asking for, such as lottery sales, knife
sharpening, water testing, and the sale of
hunting licenses. Recently, she also decided
after years of being closed on Sundays to go
back to being open seven days a week, because
customers had expressed they needed even
better availability from the store.
The store also keeps active in social media,
and produces monthly videos and Instagram
stories to keep customers engaged.
COMMITTED TO LOCAL
As the oldest business in town, Gow’s takes
its role in the community seriously. The store
sells local products, such as honey, maple
syrup, firewood, and fishing supplies, supporting
local entrepreneurs and farmers.
Manufacturing is Bridgewater’s main
industry. When the pulp and paper mill
closed in 2012, the store made an effort to
invest in local charity and non-profit organizations
to help support the town of 10,000
through the economic shift. Amanda even
allows local organizations to set up tables
in the store to fundraise.
The store puts an emphasis on selling
local products, such as honey, and
supporting community entrepreneurs.
Gow’s is also one of the largest employers
in town and strives to take good care of its
employees. Hard work can be rewarded with
a trip to one of Home Hardware’s Markets
in St. Jacobs, and everyone enjoys monthly
barbecues, years of service pins, birthdays off
with pay, and Christmas bonuses.
Amanda sums up her philosophy this
way: “The truth of the matter is, the formula
isn’t overly complicated. It’s about
knowing what matters to your customers:
being courteous, respectful, and, well... just
truly caring.”
That level of care and commitment represents
just one of the many reasons why
Gow’s Home Hardware has been selected as
the 2017 Outstanding Retailer Award winner
for Best Hardware Store.
28 FIRST QUARTER / 2018
Hardlines Home Improvement Quarterly
www.hardlines.ca