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Finding a need and filling it. It’s the secret to a successful business.
It’s also the formula that’s helped the Falcone family grow its Rocky’s Ace Hardware chain from a single store to a multi-state powerhouse.
On the heels of its most recent acquisition – the nine-store Handyman Hardware chain in Ohio – Prime sat down with third generation President Rocco J. Falcone II and his son Johnny in Rocky’s corporate offices in Springfield to talk about the evolution of their family-run business and what they see as the future of retail.
Rocco said his grandfather, also named Rocco J. Falcone, started his career in the hardware business in the early 1920s working for Lewis Zundell Hardware in downtown Springfield. By 1926 the elder Rocco had branched out, opening his own hardware store that bore his nickname, Rocky’s. It was a mom-and-pop operation, but one with a difference – as the country was pulling itself out of the Depression in the late 1930s, Rocky’s offered something other hardware stores didn’t have at the time – a tool rental center.
It was an idea, the younger Rocco said, his grandfather had been nursing since the time he’d worked for Zundell. “He suggested they rent out tools,” Rocco Falcone II told Prime, and when he met resistance to the idea, his grandfather “left and went down the street and opened his own hardware store” and eventually, the very successful rental center.
Rocky’s stayed a one-store hardware and tool rental operation on the corner of Main and Union streets in downtown Springfield right through the early 1960s. “As a kid in the 1960s I remember going into that store, it had hardware, the rental, wallpaper, paint,” the younger Rocco recalled fondly. When the elder Rocco passed away in 1965, his son, James, took over the helm, bringing with that change a vision for growth.
When James Falcone took the reins at Rocky’s, Rocco said his dad saw another opportunity – this one to bring the hardware store to where customers were – in their neighborhoods. James opened two new Rocky’s locations – one on White Street and the other on Breckwood Boulevard across from Western New England University (then Western New England College). James also relocated the flagship store from its Main Street location to its current home on Island Pond Road.
“When we opened here the store was much larger,” Rocco noted, adding that the store’s footprint at that time encompassed the storefronts that now house an insurance company and rent-to-own furniture center. “Where the propane cage is, we used to stack lumber.”
Shortly thereafter, James opened more stores in Agawam, Westfield, Hadley and East Longmeadow. The stores James opened became larger and carried a wider line of products, including cabinets, carpeting and lumber, creating an all-in-one “home center” shopping experience for Rocky’s growing customer base. The store chain also gave up the tool rental business as it expanded.
Rocky’s also made one other important change. “It was at that point that [my dad] James went into the venture with ACE hardware,” Rocco said. The partnership with the hardware co-op gave Rocky’s access to a national chain, with national chain advertising and computerized accounting and inventory procedures while allowing it to maintain local control of its own brand. Working with ACE also gave Rocky’s contacts that resulted in the family business’ first out-of-the area growth, the acquisition of the leases for NDH Hardware in Eastern Mass.
Rocco Falcone II took over as president of Rocky’s in 1992 and his father James, who maintains the title of chairman, moved into focusing on real estate ventures, something he had dabbled in since constructing the Island Pond store. “He opened the Bank of Western Mass and worked on the rebuilding of the East Longmeadow Center, including a health club called Racquetball East, which is now HealthTrax,” Rocco said. Around the same time Rocco’s brother, Jimmy, returned from a stint living in California and went back into the tool rental business – this time under the Taylor Rental brand. He has two locations, one in Hadley and another in South Hadley.
Rocco also expanded the Rocky’s footprint locally, opening locations in South Hadley and on Liberty Street in Springfield. He then relocated the Breckwood Boulevard store to Ludlow.
But in 1992 the retail hardware landscape was beginning to shift. Home Depot – the first of the big box hardware stores to come to the area – opened its first store in Western Mass. Rocco said it was time for Rocky’s to reinvent itself again.
“We made the decision to get out of the new construction items and focus on repair and maintenance as our main focus, and we decided to make the stores smaller,” Rocco said. Rocky’s Hardware locations has found its new niche by specializing in high-quality interior and exterior paint, lawn and garden needs, Craftsman and Stihl tools and supplies for household repairs and maintenance.
Leveraging its connection with Ace Hardware, Rocky’s also expanded its brand during the ensuing years to include locations in Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island – and most recently, Ohio – for a total of 47 stores currently. Some of the acquisitions have been of other family-owned hardware store chains where the “children are not ready, willing or able to take over,” Rocco said.
“Ohio was a friend of mine,” he continued, indicating that recent acquisition fell into that category. In Florida, Ace helped Rocky’s locations for expansion when opportunities were not available in the Northeast.
Rocco said the coronavirus pandemic – and the subsequent shuttering of most of life as we know it for nearly two years – was another upheaval that required Rocky’s to reinvent itself yet again. Laughing at the collection of hand sanitizers on his desk – and the fist bump he had greeted Prime with in his office, his “new COVID [19] handshake” – he noted that being declared an “essential business” by the Baker Administration had helped the hardware chain survive – but also produced its own set of challenges. The weekly staff meetings quickly became daily occurrences, Rocco said. There were supply chain issues in trying to keep the shelves stocked as sheltering-in-place customers were focusing on home repairs and improvements – and the sourcing of new items such as personal protective equipment and hand sanitizes that both employees and customers needed.
“I’ve been in merchandising for the past two years and dealt with the supply chain challenges,” said Rocky’s Category Manager Johnny Falcone, the fourth generation to join the family business. Johnny left a career in corporate real estate two years ago to rejoin Rocky’s while also pursuing an advanced degree in entrepreneurship. “It’s been a lot of fun and a great learning experience,” he said of the COVID-19 product sourcing challenge.
Then, the pair noted, there were the regulations required to continue operating during COVID-19.
“In every store we were dealing with national laws [on COVID-19 restrictions], state laws and regional laws,” Rocco II said. For example, he said, with face mask requirements, there was always the question of who was responsible for enforcing the rules. “In Maine the law was that you have to wear a face mask in a store, but Bath Ironworks didn’t require it of employees, so they didn’t want to wear them in our stores,” he gave as an example.
Rocco said though the country is emerging from the worst effects of COVID-19, running a retail operation still presents challenges. “We’re still trying to get product in, but now if we are out of one product, we have alternatives,” he said. But with that flexibility has come another challenge – rising prices. “This year we’re seeing inflation … prices going up on steel and items such as grass seed.
“We were just talking about [the effect of inflation] at our board meeting,” Rocco II continued.
The other challenge Johnny sees is enticing customers who are used to the ease of online ordering back into the store.
Rocky’s, he said, has responded to the ways customers wished to shop during COVID-19, adding services such as curbside pickup, in-store pickup, delivery from store and same-day delivery of product. Now Johnny said Rocky’s is “very focused on building the store experience [and] giving people a reason to shop in the store that they can’t get online.
“We want our customers to feel like they are in their backyard when they shop,” he said. “We want them to walk not just through a retailer that has product, we want them to have an experience.”
New signage that includes a scannable QR code that allows the shopper to access a wealth of information about a product on the spot is just an example of the type of enhanced shopping experience Rocky’s is offering, Johnny said. The father-son team is also looking at the next step for the Rocky’s chain
“We have 47 stores now. We want to comfortably manage growth, Rocco said.
“We have 700 associates who rely on us,” he continued. “Johnny has aspirations to take over the family business with family values.
Dates and facts from Rocky’s “Our Story” on the company website, https://rockys.com/about-rockys/, were used in this article
