Competing with the Giants

With the likes of Home Depot, how does a local hardware store compete?
Make shopping there an astounding experience.

But what is an amazing experience at a hardware store? I'm not there to hang out, meet new friends etc. No, I'm usually there because I'm frustrated, something broke and now I need to find the exact thing-a-majig to fix it. So my goal is to locate what I need as fast as possible and decide on one thing-amajigs from the limitless selection of other thing-a-majigs (i.e. which of the million types of plastic-thingy's do I need?).

And there's one hardware store in my area, Logan Hardware, that has hit the "astounding experience" nail right on the head. Every time I walk out out, I am astounded with my experience. Why?

As soon as I walk in, one of the attendants asks what I am looking for. As I arrive at my destination I am immediately greeted by the zone manager who, informed via wireless headset of my quest, points me to the item in question. The manager often offers me suggestions to help narrow down the usually overwhelming selection (i.e. "most people have found this one effective" - and no, cynic..it's not the highest price item, in this case it was actually the cheapest)

Between the time that I located my item and paid for it, I was out of there in under 7 minutes. Seven! That was fast enough not to get my illegally parked car towed from the Whole Foods parking lot. With some simple (and relatively cheap) coordination the staff provides a customer service that maximizes my goals to a level I didn't think possible. Astounding. And you can tell by the positive ratings on Yelp, I'm not the only one.

Thanks and well done guys.