The 2012 crop of Home Channel News Hardware Store All-Stars marks the second year of the state-by-state accounting of high-performance retailers. The common theme of “excellent customer service” runs through the entire list, but that’s just the beginning.

Here are the first three on our alphabetical listing:

Abbeville, Ala.-based Great Southern Wood Preserving, Incorporated, the nation’s leading producer of pressure treated pine lumber, acquired the assets of the Rocky Top Building Products companies. 

With the asset acquisition of Rocky Top and other wholly owned subsidiaries of Rocky Mount, Va.-based The Franklin Group, Inc., Great Southern Wood Preserving’s distribution coverage now stretches from the Florida Keys to Texas to Canada including all or parts of 27 states and the District of Columbia.

Oklahoma City-based Cedar Creek plans to open a new location in Birmingham, Ala. The company said the site is ready, and employees are being hired in anticipation of a Feb. 1 opening.

“We are pleased to further expand our presence in Alabama and the Southeast, in general, as we believe these areas will be on the leading edge of the residential building recovery," said Bill Adams, CEO of Cedar Creek. 

Oklahoma City-based building products distributor Cedar Creek and Wholesale Wood Products of Dothan, Ala., ended merger discussions, Cedar Creek announced Thursday.

"Despite everyone's best efforts, we were not able to get to a mutually acceptable agreement with Wholesale Wood Products," said Bill Adams, CEO of Cedar Creek. 

WWP's Chuck Harris said the discussions ended on the best of terms. 

Massachusetts has replaced California at the top of the Energy Scorecard Top 10, which measures the states' efforts to plan and implement efficient energy policies.

According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), which maintains and publishes the list, the six most improved states are Michigan, Illinois, Nebraska, Alabama, Maryland and Tennessee.

The Scorecard ranks the states based on metrics that capture best practices and recognize leadership in energy-efficiency policy and program implementation, according to the ACEEE.

A retailer who spent three decades working at Mazur’s Discount store chain has joined forces with a wholesaler to open a new hardware store outlet in Birmingham, Ala., according to an article in the Birmingham News.

Home and Hardware Outlet, which opened in early October, is co-owned by Keith Russell, who operates a wholesale business in Pelham, and Danny Lambert, who left a position as head of purchasing at Mazer's Avondale store five years ago and opened his own outlet store, Lake Home Center, in Pell City in 2007.

Scott Rhodes knew that for his innovative “dumpster in a bag” product — the Bagster — to make an impact in the home channel, it was imperative to forge relationships with major dealers.


“We knew we needed a national footprint to expand our retail distribution with Home Depot and Lowe’s,” said Rhodes, co-founder of the product and now a director at Waste Management Inc., the parent company. Bagster is Waste Management’s first retail product. 


The Home Channel News editorial project travels to Oklahoma, Oregon and Pennsylvania to report on hardware store high performers.

Las Vegas — The retail panel discussion started with customer service and advanced to strategic planning. From there, it detoured at automatic doors — apparently still a novelty in rural Texas — and finished with a somewhat optimistic economic forecast. 


Federal authorities are looking into a fatal accident that occurred at a Lowe’s store in Enterprise, Ala., the company has confirmed. The victim, who has not been identified, was pinned between a delivery truck and a trailer and was airlifted to a local hospital, where he later died from his injuries. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is investigating the incident. Karen Cobb, a spokeswoman for Lowe’s, said the cause has not yet been determined.

In wake of the recent severe weather spanning from Alabama to Virginia, which has caused hundreds of fatalities and overwhelming destruction, Lowe's said it will donate an additional $500,000 to the American Red Cross National Disaster Relief Fund.

From New York's Island to the Redwood Forests, the great American hardware store maintains a revered place in commercial history of these United States. 

The May issue of Home Channel News compiled the first-ever Hardware Store All Star list. Here are three of the 50: standout stores from Alabama, Alaska and Arizona. 

• Alabama