Redwood City Party

We had a great Founding Customers celebration last night at the new Redwood City store. Thank you to everyone - customers, employees, friends and family, ACE partners - who helped us make this store look and feel so good! A special shout out goes to our San Mateo team who showed up in full force. Thank you for your support!

Repair Cafe, Palo Alto October Event

I got to spend last Sunday strolling the grounds of The Museum of American Heritage, helping volunteers find the right tool or part and riding my bike back and forth between the museum and our store in Palo Alto.This was all in service to the fabulous all-volunteer run Repair Cafe Palo Alto.

A few local Palo Alto residents were moved by our current rate of waste generation here in the US - we've nearly doubled the waste per capita since 1960, when each person produced about 2.68 pounds of waste per day. We now produce a whopping 4.65 pounds. Per person. Per day. In an effort to bring awareness, training and repair to their community, this group of friends founded the Repair Cafe Palo Alto.

Myself, one of the owners, and two of our employees have been supporting these events since their
inception, as the idea speaks to us on many levels: we like to tinker; we like to help; we're a certified green business and believe in fixing and reusing whenever possible; and I really like to ride my bike around on a nice day.

For more information on the Repair Cafe, visit their website, or join us for an upcoming event, either as a volunteer or someone who needs something fixed.

Our 2015 scheduled dates are as follows:

Feb 22

May 31

Aug 30

Oct 25

All events take place at The Museum of American Heritage:
351 Homer Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94301

If you need a repair sooner, visit the Mt. View Repair Cafe on Nov 16.

-Jocelyn Lovelle

ACE Tradeshow Floor

ACE Tradeshow floor. Always busy.

Vendor Negotiations

Eric negotiates ordering with a garden vendor.

Buying Discussion at ACE Tradeshow

Mark of Crown ACE and Sarah from Hassett Hardware Redwood City talk buying strategy.

ACE Tradeshow Talk Among Owners

Mark and Eric discuss what we're sure is very important strategy.

ACE Tradshow Talk

Eric and Courtney talk at a vendor booth.

ACE Hardware Tradeshow

Eric discusses ideas with Karen, the new CTO at ACE Corporate.

Company Culture and Rock Climbing

This is me, climbing. It's also approximately 15 years ago in San Diego, at a place aptly though uninspiringly, named Big Rock. The beauty of a three-partner climbing team is that A) You get to rest, and B) Someone has free hands to take photos.

Today, on my first rock climbing foray since the decade depicted above, we were only a two-partner climbing team, which was excellent in rock time, and hard on camera time. Note to self: Borrow the owner's GoPro before we go out next time.

And that's where the company culture comes in. Or really, before, since two people who work together very rarely, still found time and desire to go do something together outside of work, but I digress. The owner would gladly hand over his GoPro to us and would be stoked that two teammates were out doing something fun together. That's the kind of team we've built over the last few years, as we integrate a new company culture into the old one - for every company has a culture, it's just a matter or whether or not it's an intentional one. Our very intentional company culture supports and encourages an environment where co-worked respect, like and enjoy one another, inside and outside of the building.

So here's to Hassett Hardware: Thank you to everyone on our team, who makes each store a great place to work. And here's to Kyle, who trusted me with his gear and to catch him if he fell.

- Jocelyn Lovelle

Pet Adoption Event at Willow Glen ACE Hardware

Come join us for our next pet adoption event, Sunday, September 28, at our Willow Glen location: 2253 Lincoln Ave, San Jose, CA. 408-267-0223

Dancin' on the Avenue

Yesena and Shelby from Hassett Hardware hosted a children's activity booth for the second year in a row at Willow Glen's wildly popular Dancin' on the Avenue event, and we are so happy they did! 

We are all grateful to Jerry and Mary Perry, (pictured below) who graciously supplied the wood again this year. Their help and support really made this the best crafting experience! We had kids sitting everywhere they could find a spot, including the ground.

The crafters went through eight small bottles and one large one of wood glue and even got a nice piece of 2x4 stuck to one of the wooden work tables! We tried and tried to get it to come undone, but it took Jerry and a few good strong whacks with a hammer to set it loose.

Thank you to everyone who helped and everyone who visited our booth! We are so proud to be a part of such a great community.

I just had a wonderful meeting about culture with two young women (who work for another company) who are used to being in a typical hierarchical workplace where showing up to work with joy and excitement was quickly shut down by co-workers and leaders, and where they felt very much like they needed to show up with their game faces, keep emotion down and "get the job done".

They shared that now that they are in a work environment where they are asked and encouraged to share their thoughts, to disagree, to explore ideas, where they are allowed to feel safe, share personal experiences, feelings and emotions; they are needing to relearn how to feel and express that joy for work and how to feel safe sharing who they are in a work environment. They find that they are often second-guessing themselves as to whether they showed up "right" or said "too much". When they share with their friends what they talked about at work that day, their friends are incredulous that they shared something personal or vulnerable with co-workers: "You told them that?!" is often what they hear.

What came up for me while listening to them share, was a realization that we as culture creators, are, on a very basic and vital level, helping people reunite with their innate, childlike wonder and joy and with their own "weird selves" and that we are helping people to reconnect with the deep inner knowing that at our cores, we are trusting, loving beings - and that in doing this, we create a ripple effect that is boundless.

Sometimes, at the end of the day, I feel like I haven't done nearly enough (cosmically, not tactically) but watching these two young women struggle with being themselves, and worrying when that's too much, or when that's not enough, I realized that every day, I have the opportunity to help someone connect a little bit more with their joy, their weird self, their real self, and that that is a truly important thing for me to accomplish each day.

-Jocelyn Lovelle

Casey Hornback Delivers Amazing Customer Service

Casey at work with a Stihl chainsaw

We often get compliments and great reviews on our customer service. We have one employee, however, who consistently goes out of his way to offer spectacular customer service. Here is a letter we received from a very happy customer.

"Hello Hassett Hardware-
Thank you for the email, I am glad my new saw is registered and I look forward to long and excellent use of it. I used it last weekend to deal with the tree branch that had fallen part way onto my house, and it performed just superbly. It starts so easily and runs so well, it does everything the manual stated it would do which is nice to see. It was a pretty long branch, good sized, and when I was done I found I hadn't even used a half tank of Moto Mix in the saw! Outstanding, I am very pleased.
I wanted to take a minute to thank you for having an employee like Casey Hornback on board. When I had decided to purchase a STIHL after doing a lot of research and speaking with more chain saw experienced friends I started calling around to the dealers nearby to find one I wanted to buy from. I am in Mountain View, so there are about 5 or 6 dealers nearby to choose from. Frankly, I was looking for someone I could establish a rapport with for this purchase and future needs, and even though I was able to find the saw elsewhere for a few dollars less I was happy to spend the extra money to deal with Casey and Hassett Hardware. He is extremely knowledgeable about STIHL, personable, an excellent salesperson. In these days of people working hard to tell one what they actually do not know it is great to find someone who does and tells the straight story. He did an excellent job, did what he said he would do, and when I picked my saw up the day after speaking with him on the phone it was set up and ready to go. An excellent shopping experience all around.
You guys are lucky to have a resource like Casey on staff; I will be steering friends and family your way, and look forward to visiting you for my future hardware needs.
Cheers!"

-Jim A.

Growing Organic Potatoes

We hosted a local Girl Scout troop at our Neighborhood Celebration Weekend in April. They set up a table and taught people how to grow their own organic potatoes, and gained quite a following doing so. Here is their teaching on the subject:

Hello fellow potato enthusiasts,

 

Thank you so much for stopping by our booth at the Hassett Hardware Store Neighborhood Weekend Event. We really enjoyed talking with all of you, and we're so incredibly excited that you have shown an interest in living a greener, healthier, more potato-filled life. We sincerely hope that these gardening techniques help you to live this new life happily and easily.

Growing potatoes is a simple and fun activity to do with kids and by yourself. First take the seed potato that we gave you at the event (if you somehow lost the potato, don't worry just buy another organic seed potato and you will be completely ready to go) and cut it into to pieces that each have two eyes apiece. Place those pieces in the sun for about a day or so until the eyes begin to produce sprouts. Once that happens you are ready to plant them. Place each potato chunk about an inch below a layer of soil and several inches apart from one another so that the potatoes won't touch when they are full grown. You can also add some fertilizer to help your soil become richer in nutrients so that your potatoes will thrive, however fertilizer is not necessary. Once you've planted your potatoes you simply need to water and let them grow. Make sure that your potatoes continue to stay below the surface and cover them up with fresh soil, if needed, because if potatoes are exposed to too much sun they can become green, slightly toxic, and not-at-all fun to eat. You will begin to notice after a while that green sprouts have come out of the soil, this is totally normal, your potatoes will be ready to harvest once the green sprouts die. 

Here is a link to the instructional video on how to grow potatoes in a garbage can, that we mentioned to some of you at our booth: <http://www.almanac.com/video/growing-potatoes-trash-can>

 

Now that you have fresh potatoes all you need is some ideas of what to do with them. While we are huge fans of  baked and mashed potatoes, there are so many other amazing things that you can make. Here are a couple links to some scrumptious recipes:

Baked French Fries: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-baked-french-fries/

Potato Salad: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/grandma-jeans-potato-salad-recipe.html

Three Cheese Garlic Scalloped Potatoes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Three-Cheese-Garlic-Scalloped-Potatoes/Detail.aspx?evt19=1

Cheddar Potato Puffs: http://southernfood.about.com/od/potatocasserolerecipes/r/bl61109c.htm

 

- Girl Scout Troop 31009

Buy One Get One Free Paint Sale May 17 and 18, 2014

Spellbound in Seattle

I got to visit Seattle for the first time when I went to my self-compassion seminar last month and I fell in love. The clouds! The market! The Sound!

Did you know that Seattle is host to a huge, noisy, crazy-cool-shops filled Public Market Center? I may be the only visitor not to know this (or the fact that Dale Chihuly has one of his biggest permanent public displays over by the Space Needle, but we'll get to that later) and I think my joy in discovering it, completely without expectation, made the whole thing even more delightful.

I was jumping up and down and would have been running ahead yelling at

my friends to follow, but I was solo, so I had to restrain myself to just beaming madly at all the fishmongers, jewelry sellers and market-stall owners. The guy who sold me my postcards surely thought I was a little unstable, I was so excited and grateful for my $1 worth of memorabilia. Then again, he's never seen me at work, getting all overjoyed at someone on our staff dressing up for a holiday or really wowing a customer - my threshold for giddy excitement is lower than that of most normal adults.

I must have spent nearly three hours wandering around, discovering a Native American jewelry store with an incredible pink sapphire that was about eight carats, set in white gold with diamonds. It was only $6500 (I showed considerable restraint - not to mention I didn't have that kind of money to spend on a sapphire). I did indulge in some lovely, handmade, organic, local lavender products from All Things Lavender- if you enjoy lavender and don'thave a local supplier, check them out. I stocked my hotel room with fresh fruit and some delicious Bumble Bars. I found my way down an incredibly old, wooden gangway into the underground part of the market with great local art; a thrift shop with the best selection of handkerchiefs and tea towels I've seen since I was in the Midwest; a bookstore, an architect's office with a stellar water-front view, a record store (with people in it!) and a fortune teller who was un-fortunately closed for the day.

- Jocelyn Lovelle