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Lawrence Paint and Hardware, a staple in the Troy community for decades, will be showing off its new look March 21-23 with a grand opening after its partnership with ACE Hardware.

While that partnership means a newly remodeled store and ACE brand of products, that doesn’t mean Lawrence Paint and Hardware has sold out.

“One of the common misconceptions is that we sold out but ACE does not own me,” Lawrence Paint and Hardware owner JB Roberts said. “We still have the same owners – no ownership has changed – and it’s the same kind of relationship that we’ve had when we were independent buying from other wholesalers. It’s just ACE is a recognizable name and we want to utilize that.

“As far as being a locally owned – family feel hardware store – we’re staying the same. ACE doesn’t tell me what to put in the store. They offer solutions but they don’t make me put a single thing in the store I don’t want to.”

When deciding to partner with ACE, Roberts said that it just felt like a great fit.

“I think it answered some questions for me long term of how do we compete,” he continued. “In the beginning we envisioned that this would be a community store that brought in both contractors and homeowners and DIYers. When we bought the store it was heavy contract and industrial customers.

“We want to stay that way – that’s our bread and butter – but we started asking how do we get more of the general public to know we’re here. The store was old, it hadn’t been updated and the shopping experience felt dated. ACE offered solutions to all of that. The first time they flew me to Chicago to talk about how they do business it felt like it answered every question I had.”

The shopping experience – and remodeling of the store – was a big factor in the partnership.

“My people were going crazy. Things didn’t have price tags on them and you couldn’t price it because inventory was just stuck everywhere,” Roberts recalled. “We were running ourselves crazy just trying to keep up with the business. In the ACE remodel, it offered organization that we feel is better for us and it’s also better for the customer.

“There are certain customers that love that we will meet you at the door and take you to whatever item you need and check you out, but then you also have certain customers that just want to come in and shop around. We feel like we’ve made the store more shoppable and a much more pleasant experience.”

Roberts said ACE’s values as a company also fit the values that Lawrence Paint and Hardware share.

“ACE’s values are very similar to my own,” he emphasized. “They want to be the light in the hardware business; do business the right way, do right by people and do business with integrity.”

Lawrence Paint and Hardware will be showing off its new look at the grand opening on March 21-23. There will also be special sales on items throughout the store and there will be special giveaways each day. On Thursday the giveaway will be an EGO string trimmer, on Friday the giveaway will be a Milwaukee M18 FUEL cordless brushless two tool combo kit and on Saturday the giveaway will be a Traeger Pro Series 22 Wood Pellet Grill.

“We’re really excited about it,” Roberts said. “We’re doing a giveaway a day, so you have to be present to sign up for those. We’re really excited.”

Lawrence Paint and Hardware is located at 1301 S. Brundidge Street in Troy.