Women hammering DIY market

Goffstown Ace Hardware helps them tackle their home improvement projects. By REBECCA LAVOIE

For many women, a house is a sanctuary, the place they can relax after a long day, entertain friends and family, and realize their vision of a comfortable and inviting home.
A house can be a woman’s workplace too, the place where kids are raised, housework and gardening are tackled, and the car is washed on a Saturday morning.

For some women, though, a house is something else. It’s a project. Not a project they hire out, but one they take on themselves.

These days, a store like Goffstown Ace Hardware covets these kinds of women, and bends over backwards to make itself the place that the women do-it-yourselfer wants to shop.

“It’s a trend over the past decade or so that more and more women are taking on the kinds of jobs that their husbands and boyfriends used to do,” said general manager Karen Henderson. “We used to see women taking on smaller projects like gardening, but now every day we see women carrying in bags full of parts of their broken sink, lawnmower engine, door lock. They say ‘Help me fix this!’ Not to many years ago, they would have called someone.”

Lisa Brackett of New Boston, who frequents Goffstown Ace Hardware for her painting and faux-finishing supplies, agrees.

“I do all my own painting these days,” she said. ”There was a time when it was too much, I’d think. But I’ve learned that the right tools and good help make it totally doable.”

Henderson’s parents, Larry and Sandy Brown, own Goffstown Ace Hardware, the business once owned by Karen’s grandfather. She sees the trend of women do-it-yourselfers not as a fad, but something a long time in the making.
Henderson has worked at the store since she was 10, and for 23 years has watched even the store’s employee demographics shift dramatically. Today, more than 60 percent of the store’s workers are women, and according to Henderson, they are just as knowledgeable as the men, something women customers truly appreciate.

“These days, there are so many more single women homeowners, divorced women homeowners and even stay-at-home moms who feel they can take on projects they’ve never done before. And we love it when they come in and ask for our advice, a fact we took into consideration when designing the store,” she said.
“Don’t get me wrong, we love our male customers too, but our women customers appreciate our female employees, appreciate the play area we made for their kids, and appreciate a place they can hang out for a bit when they’re buying what they need.”

And just what are they buying? Nationally, women are making more tool and home improvement purchases than ever before, inspiring lines of hand and power tools designed especially for smaller hands and sometimes, even for the feminine aesthetic.

“We don’t carry the pink drills here,” Henderson said with a laugh, “but they do make them!”

She said the women who shop at her store want tools that are a good fit, but don’t necessarily want to give up the “power,” literally or aesthetically.

“We might sell a 14-volt drill instead of an 18-volt, because it’s lighter. But I’ve yet to have a customer who’d trade in function for style,” she said.

Brackett said she appreciates the women-friendly atmosphere.

“They have everything. Real tools, real help. Expertise and a neighborhood feel,” Brackett said. “All that, and my son, Nathan, can play at the train table while I shop!”

Henderson points to customers like Brackett as a compelling reason to continue the business model her store embodies. While she’s careful to point out that Goffstown Ace Hardware caters equally to a male clientele, she understands the reasons more and more women are walking through her door, and happily caters to them.

Creating an environment where women customers are comfortable bringing their questions and their competence in the door is her goal, one she fosters by sponsoring events such as the “Girls’ Night Out” home improvement seminars that cover a range of topics like faucet repair, spring planting and even the latest in Carhartt women’s work wear.

For a local family-owned hardware store, competing in an environment of big box home-improvement stores can be a challenge. But Henderson believes the way her store does business is what will keep them around for the next generation.

“It might be the sagging economy, and certainly home improvement shows have been incredibly inspiring to women when it comes to home improvement, but I don’t see women stopping doing these projects as times change. They like it, and they’re good at it. And we love to help them however we can.”

For the women who do their own plumbing, use power tools and garden expertly, that kind of help is welcome indeed.

And as for the ones who are still thinking about making their house a project?

“Bring them on,” Henderson said. “We’ll show ‘em how it’s done!”

Goffstown Ace Hardware is located at 5 Depot St. in Goffstown. For more information, call 497-2682.

Rebecca Lavoie is a freelance writer who lives in Hopkinton.