Op-Ed By Gina Schaefer
Capital Gazette (Annapolis), Feb 25, 2014
It didn’t take long after my husband and I opened our first hardware store in 2003 for people to start coming in and asking us to open in their neighborhood, too.
By 2009, we had grown to six Ace Hardware stores in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., with our seventh store opening in 2010 in Takoma Park. The next year, Old Takoma Ace Hardware was one of four stores, out of 4,500 locally-owned and operated Ace Hardware stores worldwide, to win the “Coolest Hardware Store” award from Ace Hardware Corporation.
We expanded further in 2012, growing from seven stores to nine with the addition of our Woodley Park, D.C., and Canton locations.
We may own the business, but we didn’t do this alone. Our growth would not have been possible without the help of our dedicated employees.
Paying fair wages helped our business grow fast to nine stores and nearly 200 employees even as our country suffered a terrible economic downturn.
Our starting pay for sales associates is $10. We know that gradually raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour makes good business sense.
Raising pay at the bottom is good for the bottom line in key ways ...
The writer is the owner of A Few Cool Hardware Stores, a group of nine Ace Hardware stores in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore areas.
Copyright 2014 Capital Gazette