An antique armoire stocked with scented candles sits at the end of the aisle in this west Omaha hardware store, a few feet from the familiar white bag of Scotts lawn fertilizer.
The armoire and candles are a testament to the growing purchasing power of women, as are other stylishly selected items around the store, in areas dedicated to home decor, children’s birthdays and kitchen ware.
This True Value Hardware store has all the nuts and bolts (and fertilizer) of a typical hardware store, but with additional areas designed to draw women into widget land.
Think Westlake meets Michael’s after a brief fling with Yankee Candle.
“I wanted our customers, when they stepped in there, to know they were stepping into a different area,” said store co-owner Laura Castro, who designed the female-oriented areas of the store at 5312 S. 136th St.
Castro and her co-owners are among a wave of local and national retailers tapping into women-led purchases. From a digital clutch laptop by Hewlett-Packard to do-it-yourself workshops at your local hardware or big-box store, more retailers and manufacturers think about female customers when designing their stores and products.
It comes as women’s incomes are rising, though women continue to make less than their male counterparts do. Between 1990 and 2008, women’s median income grew 28.6 percent, compared with 2.3 percent for men, according to census data.
Independent hardware stores and the big home improvement chains such as Lowe’s and Home Depot have long sought ways to cater to women. The stores offer do-it-yourself workshops that target them and also prominently display their paint selections.
It’s no wonder. It’s long been assumed that wives wield considerable sway over home renovation projects, although there is no hard data on the exact buying power of women.
It all comes down to surveys, which can often be contradictory. In one survey, women told the Boston Consulting Group that they controlled 72 percent of discretionary spending in their households. However, men surveyed by the same group said they controlled 61 percent of the spending.
Still, no one disputes the growing power of women in the retail market, or retailers’ awareness of women shoppers.
Take the automobile industry.
Susan Sampson, director of the Prince Program in Retail Management at Simmons College in Boston, recalls the first time she tried to buy a new car in the 1980s. The dealers kept urging her to return with either her father or her husband.
Now, automobile dealers manufacture cars with women drivers in mind. And, last summer, when Sampson went to buy a new car, there was no talk of returning with her husband.
“They just wanted to know if I’m paying cash or financing,” said Sampson, who teaches marketing to female business students.
Another reason for the rise of women in the hardware market: More single women own homes, and more are doing home maintenance and remodeling themselves, said Dan Tratensek, vice president of publishing with the North American Retail Hardware Association.
Single women are responsible for 21 percent of home sales, second only to married couples, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Tratensek said retailers who try to capture the female market should be warned that it takes more than soft lighting and bright colors to entice them to buy.
Research has shown that women and men shop differently, although they both want similar things. To put it simply, women are more demanding. They want better service, better prices and better selections, said Tratensek.
“It’s not about adding hammers with pink handles. It’s about doing the basic things and doing it right,” he said.
Women also want a “shopper-tainment” experience, he said. “They want an experience ... that gives them ideas and experiences and that entertains them while they’re shopping.”
Reaching out to women makes good sense, he said, especially for independent hardware stores that must compete with the big-box chains, such as Menards.
These days, big-box stores control about 48 percent of the hardware market, with independent stores at 52 percent.
Castro’s True Value Hardware store in west Omaha was designed, from the beginning, with women in mind. Their idea for a female-friendly hardware store began with a conversation between Castro and Kevin Parks, who owns a hardware store in North Platte, Neb.
Parks bemoaned that it was often hard to get women into hardware stores. Not if you build it right, Castro responded.
The two then joined forces with Paul Gapinski, a longtime hardware store manager, to design and open the store.
The three co-owners visited countless competitors, seeking ways to make a store more attractive to women, while maintaining the hardware store basics.
What they came up with was a mix of aisles filled with plumbing pipes and electrical gadgets, near areas that feature Oprah-approved aprons and dish towels. In the front of the store, a table is laden with colorful dishes and seasonal touches, not far from the grills and smokers.
There also is a larger canning section for women and an area devoted to children’s toys.
Castro says she has little fear that the colored walls and women’s area might turn off potential male customers. The store’s idea is to satisfy both genders, and men may appreciate the larger selection of coffee makers as much as women, she said.
“We have all the nuts and bolts, one of the things that speaks specifically to men,” Castro said.
But Castro is proud of the store’s bent, especially the women’s bathroom, which is splashed with bright lime colors and features fresh daisies daily.
The bathroom touches are good examples of the details they considered, Castro said.
Men may not know this, but the doors on women’s bathroom stalls often don’t shut. That’s because women hang their purses on the door. The weight eventually causes the doors to sag.
Castro made sure that wouldn’t happen, putting the hooks on the side of the stall.
She also made sure there were purse hooks near the sink.
And Castro and her co-owners make sure free popcorn is always available. Moms with fussy children appreciate the snack, and, more important, it buys them more time to shop.
“We know who buys and makes decisions in the household,” said Parks, smiling.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1309, robynn.tysver@owh.com
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