We were lucky to catch up with Vincent Ayd recently and have shared our conversation below.

Vincent, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?

First and most important is PASSION. If you are passionate about your endeavor, success will follow. I have always really enjoyed the all aspects of the retail hardware business, the customers, my fellow associates, and the daily variety of challenges. I have never felt like I was going to work in the morning, as I believe deep down that work is what you are doing when you want to be doing something else. That is where the passions comes in, when your job is your bliss, no is better.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I really started my career on the ground floor, literally sweeping the floor of Mt. Washington Hardware, here in Baltimore. The store had been in business for decades when my family made the decision to buy it as an ongoing concern to compliment the maintenance of apartments built in a joint venture between my father and uncles. The store was a place where time had stood still for a very long time, wooden floors, pull out and drop down wooden bins filled with bulk hardware, no blister packaging back then. Display tables where a variety of goods were placed on display, and you can imagine goods of all types set about the store in every nook and cranny. Best of all was the pot belly stove situated in the center of the store, that not only provided heat , it also kept the coffee pot at the desired temperature. It was here under the tutelage of the Store manager Mr. Harold O’rourke, that I learned how to cut glass, mix paint, cut keys, mix grass seeds to local specifications, weigh out seeds and nails from wooden kegs. I know this sounds almost unbelievable, but it was my start. Mt. Washington Hardware had the smell of history. We used a black wax crayon to mark prices on merchandise that when sold was rung into a crank cash register. I was taught how to repair window screens and broken glass in wooden frames. Lessons that instinctive to me today. In that building with my mentor always there to help me if I got into a mess, I learned to be passionate about everything hardware ,and especially how to be helpful to customers.

Fast forward to today, where should I start, the bins and tables have been replaced with pegboard, slat board and metal shelving. Merchandise is mostly blister packaged with bar coding, that hangs on hooks. There are no more dark corners hiding treasures, LED lighting, tile floors, defined aisles, retail hardware came of age, and I was lucky enough to ride the wave. Computers, high tech ordering systems have replaced the pen and paper want books. Three step, then two step, now nearly a one step distribution system of hard goods unfortunately mostly made in China, has replaced the labor intensive ways of the past. Colossal has been the changes over the past few decades, it as been a Herculean task to keep up with the constantly changing retail environment. The entrance of the box stores, weeded out the less well managed run stores and supply houses, creating the need for those of us who have survived the onslaught to be ever vigilant and find more innovative ways to operate our stores. What the competition has taught me is the importance of keeping up with market trends, and more importantly maintain close relations with the customers.

Customers are the keystone to any successful concern, I feel that they need to be recognized when they appear in your store, greeting and getting to know as many as possible on a first name basis is important as it leads to friendships and loyalty. The number one complaint I hear from customers who on the occasion of visiting a box stores, is that they have difficulty finding someone to help them, I impress upon my team the importance of providing the customer with assistance with all their needs. Each customer comes to Ayd Hardware with a specific and often a curios need, be it a plumbing part, electrical, nut or bolt or you name it, we have been asked for it. Mostly the customers just want help with whatever the project dejour is. I often tell my customers that the only thing we don’t fix is broken hearts, on the table is just about everything else, including this week the repair of some costume earrings.

Repair is a very important part of the business, and critical to the financial success of the company. Painted on the side of the building on an oversized mural in the shape of a treasure map is the list of repair services at Ayd Hardware. Screen and Glass repair, Lamp repair, keys cut, Lawnmower repair just to name a few. Over the years I have found myself tasked with repairing concrete lawn ornaments, a fox with a broken ear, a rooster that lost its beak. Willingness to go the extra step to help someone in need does not go unrecognized and is usually well rewarded. We will try to do just about any task to help the customer and this is as important as any other aspect of the business, in fact this is what our business is all about.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Reputation is paramount in any business endeavor, in the public arena of a retail store the development of a good and sound relationship with the consumer is essential. Simple things like keeping to published store hours, being responsive to the needs of the customer and delivering on time whatever the commitment. Making sure that you keep the store well stocked and staffed at all times goes a long way to solidify in the consumers mind that you are here to stay. This in my mind is what reputation is all about.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Resilience is defined by me as the immediate tackling of what may seem to be an insurmountable problem head on. When the box stores came into my market, the modis operandi was fairly straight forward, build megalith stores fill them to the brim, overstaff the store and chase the competition out of the market with predatory low pricing. I was challenged by the latter, I could travel to the box and find the same items that I sold priced way below I was paying for the same. Challenge, how to compete in this environment. Take total control of your operating cost, reduce everything that you could without a negative effect on the business. One of my older team members at the time, put it simply “ pull your belt in another notch”. Taking these wise words to heart, that is exactly what I did, there was no excess anything during that time. At the end of local trade shows that I attended in the Baltimore area, I would gather up as many empty samples of products that I stocked and place them behind the 3 or 4 products I had placed on my shelf. I reduced the length of pegboard hooks so that fewer items still produced the effect of more than ample stock. My best maneuvers during this highly competitive time was to actually take advantage of their low pricing strategy, on more than one occasion purchasing from them directly. This might seem counterproductive when in reality I knew that their piranha pricing could not go on for long. Within a short period of time the scale of the boxes was not reduced, but many factors were, gone were the 16 cashiers, gone was the vested help in the cavernous aisles, and what do you know prices increased significantly..Time was on my side, I love my business and steadfastly held my course during this storm. My store stands as a testament to the fact that if you are creative and willing to stay the course, one can find success.

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