Once upon a time in 1924, four men brought their independent hardware stores together in Chicago, Illinois to create ‘Ace Stores’, named for the WWI flying aces, fighter pilots with dogged determination. The company grew by leaps and bounds, from one main store to over 300 and in 1973, it sold to its retailers and become wholly retailer owned and operated. These days it’s the world’s largest hardware retail cooperative and the nation’s 3rd largest non-grocery retail cooperative. With a history of service to its customers and a business model that treats the entire company as an extended family, is it any wonder that it’s a household name?
