This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

WEST VALLEY CITY - Jeff Caprin stepped through the doors of South Fork Hardware and headed to the nut and bolt aisle near the back of the store and a gray plastic drawer.

Moments later, Caprin, the training coordinator for the Sheet Metal Workers Union, closed the drawer and stepped away.

"Find what you were after?" asked store owner Cameron Sidwell.

"Yeah," Caprin said, showing a handful of small metal pins needed for a sheet-metal project. "I went to Lowe's first but they don't carry them anymore. I guess there just wasn't enough profit in it."

As his customer approached the checkout stand, Sidwell explained his strategy for competing successfully in the hardware business with the likes of Home Depot and Lowe's, both of which operate home-improvement centers a few miles from his store.

"You have to find out what the people in the surrounding community need," he said. "Then you make it available and have everything set up so if a customer wants, they can get in and out of your store in five to 10 minutes."

Some are trying more radical approaches, such as offering products as diverse as pet merchandise.

When Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank founded The Home Depot in 1978 they changed the face of America's hardware store business. Over the next few decades many hardware stores, some open for generations, faced new and formidable competitors in the form of giant home centers carrying upward of 50,000 items and offering "low day-in, day-out pricing."

Yet the notion that neighborhood hardware stores are an endangered species is flat-out wrong, said Scott Wright, spokesman for the North American Retail Hardware Association. "We lost [hardware] stores, but the good players just got better."

Lately, new store openings by Home Depot and Lowe's have slowed as those companies reach market saturation with their big-box formats, Wright said. And that bodes well for independent hardware retailers who have weathered the competitive storm.

"This is a mature industry, so we're not expecting any big increase in the number of hardware stores" in the years ahead, Wright said. "But we are starting to see some of the better operators opening new branch locations or taking over failing stores from less-agile retailers."

Although Sidwell is relatively new to the hardware business - he acquired his first store four years ago through a commercial real estate transaction - he is part of that trend. The previous owner of the West Valley City store operated another in Tooele, which ran into financial difficulties after a Home Depot opened nearby.

"The Tooele store's difficulties brought this [West Valley] store down with it, even though this store was always profitable," he said. "It was an easy decision for me to buy it."

Sidwell operates four other South Fork hardware locations, in Huntsville, Kamas, Brigham City and Tooele. And he is considering opening others along the Wasatch Front.

"In some areas, like home remodeling, we would never be able to compete with Home Depot and Lowe's," Sidwell said. "We just don't have room to offer cabinets and carpeting, or lumber. But we can compete in other areas by offering somewhere people can turn to get advice on home-repair projects, like a leaky faucet or a broken towel rack."

Wright said one sign of successful hardware store operators is the willingness to supplement their incomes by exploiting niche markets.

"One of the more unusual examples is at a hardware store in Ohio whose owner realized that his customers were driving more than 30 miles each way to buy meat and cheese from the Amish farmers in the region," Wright said. "He put in a refrigerated case at his store, stocked it with those items and now has a thriving niche business."

The Dick's Ace Home Center in Centerville for years has been offering camping, fishing and other outdoor gear to supplement its sales of faucets and other fixtures.

And like many stores, it also offers a bridal registry, although in Dick's case that service gets a boost from the bridal shop that is accessible to customers entering the hardware outlet.

"Our biggest niche by far, though, is that we sell Boy Scout merchandise," Dick's manager Clinton Smith said. "But we're also fortunate that we have a Dick's Grocery Store next door, because that and the bridal shop help drive a lot of our customer traffic."

Sidwell also has embraced the niche market strategy.

His store in Tooele offers a large selection of pet merchandise. His Huntsville store sells sporting goods. His Kamas store has a big lawn-and-garden section.

"It is all about taking stores back to the people and the communities where they live," Sidwell said. "Here in West Valley City there still are a lot of people who have chickens and horses, so we're set up to help meet that demand."

Sidwell said when it comes to product pricing, his hardware stores are competitive with the big-box stores. "We let our supplier set the prices, and they only do that after surveying the prices at our competitors."

Unlike the home-improvement centers, small hardware stores typically don't keep large inventories of products.

"We might have only three of a particular item in stock, while a Home Depot or Lowe's might have dozens on their shelves," Sidwell said. "But we're always aware of what the demand will be, and with our suppliers coming through once a week restocking our inventory, we're able to have enough product on hand, while still keeping control of our costs. And in this industry, keeping your costs under control is critical."

Coming Monday

Home improvement CEO ushers in new era

Home Depot aims for a less-glossy image under Frank Blake's stewardship.