Akard True Value Hardware Zionsville in Manta
By Chris Jensen
Leigh Ann Akard has and then many community service initiatives going on throughout the twelvemonth, that it's a wonder she has any fourth dimension left to run her 2 stores, Akard True Value Hardware and Akard'due south Back to the Bricks Village Hardware in Zionsville, Ind. She has a big heart and a generous spirit and is not someone who can stand past idly when she sees a need.
The tertiary-generation retailer likewise has trouble saying no to the local charities and nonprofits that hit her upwardly for support. Leigh Ann is not i to just write a check—she's agile, involved and blest with infectious enthusiasm for each cause.
CARING FOR THE WHOLE Customs
Akard's has been supporting The Caring Center for a number of years, which provides food, clothing and other essential items to the needy. "They needed donations to support families in crisis, so we set up a tree in the shop to do good them. The Caring Center has been going crazy with nutrient needs this year. Same thing with Promise for Heroes to back up homeless veterans. We react when there'south a need," Leigh Ann says.
The principal shop serves equally a collection point for Sew together 2 Serve, with people dropping off masks and fabric to make masks. They have also held two claret drives this twelvemonth instead of the usual one.
1 of Leigh Ann'due south favorite groups to support is the Hawk Foundation, which provides free seasonal events to help families who have members with special needs. "Our VIP funfair for the Militarist Foundation had to exist canceled, merely we're determined to make certain our Christmas consequence happens this year," she says.
Return TO ROOTS
Leigh Ann opened up a pop-upward shop in early May that is a render to roots for her business organisation. Her grandfather, JJ Akard, bought Zionsville Hardware in 1955, which was then located on the Brick Street, every bit Zionsville'due south Chief Street is affectionately chosen.
Her begetter, Steve, purchased the business organisation in the tardily 1970s so moved information technology 1 mile abroad to a 25,000-square-human foot space in the Boone Village Shopping Center.
With the business celebrating its 65th anniversary this twelvemonth, a fortuitous result happened. The store'south original space on the Brick Street became available, so Leigh Ann decided it fabricated sense to open up a pop-upwards shop there every bit a salute to her family's legacy.
"My dad had to movement to the current location to compete with the big boxes. Fifty-fifty though nosotros've been there now a long time, people all the same didn't know who we were," Leigh Ann explains. "So, we had to come 'Back to the Bricks.' Nosotros didn't go to have a grand opening or celebrate our 65th anniversary, but we've had more one-on-one contact with customers in this pop-up store."
The main store features a 25,000- square-foot sales flooring that includes a standalone rental eye. To Leigh Ann, the store is about giving kids and retirees a job and those employees go family. It has an integral place serving all the needs of the community, not only supplying hardware for projects. "You come across what's happening out there and ask how you can exist involved," she explains.
LEARNING TO PIVOT
When the coronavirus hit, Leigh Ann wanted to make the best decisions for her staff first. When the stay-at-home society was issued for Indiana, Akard's was short-staffed and swamped with customers who had zippo better to do than wander around the store for an hour. "People merely lost their minds at the offset. There are no best practices that are non chancy. It's like playing Russian roulette every twenty-four hour period," she says.
She sat down with her management team two to iii weeks in and said she wanted to advantage the staff now—either a dollar amount or a iii-day weekend. "You need to requite encouragement at the showtime. That helped with morale. And so I fabricated sure everyone got back- to-back days off," she explains.
Leigh Ann tried to use humor and mail fun videos early on, but people were beingness and so hateful with their comments that she had to stop. "Anybody knows what's going on with masks and it'due south a highly emotional outcome. I finally took the arroyo to exist where the customer is at with masks," she says.
Akard's focused on social distancing and sanitizing everything, and they figured out on the wing how to offer curbside pickup and delivery. "We accept the ability to shift and to pin. COVID will have out those retailers that don't know how to pivot, while stores that make changes will be better positioned to shine subsequently on," she says.
"My discussion of the 24-hour interval is gratitude. We are so grateful to be an essential business during a pandemic," Leigh Ann adds, "We endeavour and then difficult to meet people'due south needs and sometimes there'southward no way to please everyone. We're operating as normal equally possible in aberrant times."
She said it was crawly to see her team work so well in such adverse conditions this year. "It's like existence on a treadmill and every day the speed and the incline picked up," Leigh Ann points out.
They implemented a full computer upgrade and installed a new phone system while opening a new shop during a pandemic, despite the fact Akard'southward is still short-staffed. "Epicor has been great to work with, and we're positioned well now with our technology," she says.
"Winning the Beacon Award for Community Service is a huge affirmation that we're doing a good job. I tin't think of a time this would be more than meaningful. Information technology shows our foundation was firm. We were just doing what we felt nosotros should exist doing," Leigh Ann says.
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