United States · Since 1924
Ace Hardware
The independent hardware store down the street may own a piece of the national brand.
5,100+
independent stores, dealer-owned
Ace Hardware was founded in Chicago in 1924. In 1973, founder Richard Hesse sold the company to its member-dealers, converting it into a cooperative owned by the independent hardware retailers who use it — rather than by outside investors or a franchisor.
Store owners buy into the co-op, then pool their purchasing and national advertising through it — collective purchasing power that lets a single-location hardware store compete on price and marketing with big-box chains. At year's end, profits are returned to dealer-owners as cash or stock rebates.
Today, of Ace's 5,100-plus U.S. stores (6,000-plus worldwide), only a small fraction are company-owned — the overwhelming majority are independent businesses that also happen to be shareholders in the parent cooperative that supplies them. Ace's own official materials describe itself more conservatively as operating in “over 5,000 stores around the world,” which is consistent with, if less specific than, the figures above.
Why it matters
Ace shows collective economics can work for competitors, not just allies: independent store owners who'd otherwise be fighting each other on price instead co-own the infrastructure that lets them all survive.