Las Vegas Here We Come

I have my plane reservations, hotel room and my official Hardware Show Badge. The clock is ticking down and we are less than two weeks from the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas.
This will be the third year for the Hardware Show in Las Vegas and it will be interesting to see the changes this year over last. I look forward to seeing friends and catching up on the latest in the industry. I also enjoy looking for the latest new products.
If you plan on going to the Hardware Show and would like to get together, please send me an email at aim@cannonadvantage.com and we can swap cell phone numbers and arrange a time and place.
Hope to see you there!

Remember Wal-mart

Amazing how things change. Remember a few years ago when hardware retailers were concerned about having a Wal-mart nearby. Today the hardware department in Wal-mart is almost non-existant. The move to become more like Target is almost complete in the hardware department.
Twice now, I have been in Wal-mart to pick up some grocery items and stopped in to the hardware section to pick up a couple of odds and ends. The latest trip was to grab a couple of wall anchors so that I could hang a towel ring in a guest bathroom. I was amazed, there was nothing there. I looked around and realized that Wal-mart is no longer a hardware destination.
In one sense, it kind of makes you wonder if the changes at the big boxes to include appliances and more recently automotive might signal a future where these folks might not be hardware destinations either?

Trade Association Meeting

I recently returned from a trade association meeting and thought you might be interested in some of the information I gathered, so here it is in nutshell form:

Sales in most markets are up, but manufacturers report that profitability is down.

China has grown to about 35% market share of the hand tool market based on dollars and about 75 to 80% based on units. Thank heaven they don't have a strong brand or marketing!

Concensus is that Sears is in trouble. Home Depot represents about 36% of hand tool sales while Lowes represents about 19% leaving everyone else with 46% of the business.

Autozone, Advance, General, O'Reilly, CSK, Genuine, PEP Boys and Fisher are the leaders in the automotive, retail aftermarket.

There is continuing concern about China, but there is a growing school of thought that China is poised for some really big problems as well.

Continuous Improvement via programs like LEAN are still hot topics.

There is a resurgence in trying to lobby for legislation to help manufacturers.