Ace Hardware

Working On Building A Loyal Local Following

By John Voket

Promising good, old-fashioned knowledgeable service one would expect in a hometown hardware store, shelves well-stocked with constantly changing seasonal products, and a virtual stockroom as big as the worldwide web, Ace Hardware is open for business on the corner of Church Hill Road and Queen Street.

Owners Ed and Dorothy Pitochelli even got their 7-year-old son, Ian, into the store to help greet and show new customers around during recent official grand opening festivities. Along with an entourage of red-vested staff, the family is taking its first steps toward business ownership after working in the corporate world for decades.

While the store has been open since early September, putting the finishing touches on everything from its seasonal displays, to its checkout and inventory control systems, the Ace franchise owners wanted to be sure everything was “just right,” before they officially welcomed customers with refreshments, giveaways, and in-store specials the weekend of October 10.

Ed Pitochelli, who until recently exclusively applied himself to designing hydrogen fuel cells for United Technology, is now splitting his duties between his 25-plus-year career and the store, while Dorothy, who also worked for UT, took on more of the store’s hands-on management.

“Ace is our first venture into other work,” Mr Pitochelli told The Newtown Bee. “But being an engineer for almost 30 years, I understand tools and mechanical things.”

What began as an exploratory venture with his brother, a Florida flooring contractor, turned into the acquisition of a Newtown Ace franchise when Ed and Dorothy decided they wanted to remain in New England. But the prospect of finding the best location and opening their Ace franchise was a three-year process,

“We lived in East Hampton and we were driving around one day and stumbled into Newtown,” Mr Pitochelli said. “And we immediately fell in love with it. We thought it would be a perfect fit, and all the research pointed to Newtown being a great place for our store.”

The Pitochellis believe that Ace was the perfect fit for them as well, once they met several franchise owners and other company personnel.

“A good friend of my brother owns two stores in Florida, and as he began introducing us to other Ace representatives, we discovered the whole company is like one big family,” Mr Pitochelli said. “Everyone was just great, and they all wanted to see us succeed.”

Taking on the project, and contracting the franchise was just the start. The Pitochellis then had to handle all the retrofitting and renovations in the former Brooks drug store and Wachovia Bank building.

“We were responsible for the total interior buildout,” Mr Pitochelli said. “My wife and I did everything, including picking out the flooring and the interior colors. Then Ace stepped in with the displays, merchandizing, and pricing.”

The family is committed to the community, and plans to offer their site not only for fundraising and awareness-building for the Ace corporate charity, The Children’s Miracle Network, but for local organizations as well. The Pitochellis will have a huge food donation site within the store to collect for Newtown’s two food pantries, and they have already hosted fundraisers for a national breast cancer cause, a local swim team, and a scout troop.

“We like doing stuff like this,” Mr Pitochelli said. “My wife and I are longtime volunteers with Special Olympics and United Way through UT. It just makes us feel good — we’re not opening a business here just to take from the community; it’s important to give back, too.”

When it comes to the store’s product line, The Pitochellis plan to stock popular seasonal items like holiday gift ideas, holiday lights, and trees. They also have their basic year-round staples from “a 49-cent box of screws to housewares, to small appliances, to power tools.”

The store is also planning to open a design center to assist customers through their entire home improvement projects.

“We just want customers to come to one place to get what they need. They don’t have to keep driving around from store to store,” Mr Pitochelli said. “They can just get what they need and go home and put it to work.”