For a century and a quarter, the North American Hardware and Paint Association (NHPA) has been serving the needs of independent home improvement retailers and providing resources to help them be better and more profitable. This year, NHPA is excited to celebrate 125 years as the trade association for the independent channel, and this is your invitation to celebrate.
Follow a timeline of NHPA’s storied history and evolution, learn how the association has shaped the industry and celebrate the retailers, wholesalers, vendors and others who have shared in the association’s success.
Stronger Together From the Start
During the last half of the 1890s, hardware retailers in several states formed hardware associations. By 1900, there were 14 state organizations whose main purpose was to convince wholesalers and manufacturers to support the traditional channel of distribution.
One retailer, Zachariah Miller, who was also president of the Illinois association, contacted his counterparts in other state associations. On March 12, 1900, nine associations met in Chicago and formed
the Inter-State Retail Hardware Dealers’ Association, which included the state associations from Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and North Dakota. Minnesota and Wisconsin would join
two years later, and the association would undergo several name changes.
No matter what it was called, the association continually grew and evolved to serve independents with education programs, advocacy initiatives and networking events.
Shaping an Industry
Since 1900, NHPA’s mission has been to help home improvement retailers, regardless of affiliation, become better and more profitable.
The association has supported retailers by providing business services, advocating on their behalf with lawmakers and industry leaders, offering educational opportunities and creating a
nondenominational space for retailers to come together to take on challenges, create solutions, share ideas and discuss best practices.
NHPA has always pushed retailers to take the next step with their businesses and to rely on each other for solution sharing. It has championed the buying power of the independent channel with vendors and manufacturers and continues to deliver resources to help retailers grow their businesses. NHPA is the only industry organization providing an exclusive opportunity for the independent channel to share ideas and learn from each other in the interest of continued growth.
From its inception, NHPA’s focus has been on helping independents across three main pillars.
- Educate. NHPA provides business owners with resources, online courses and college-level programs to educate themselves and their employees with education for staff at all levels.
- Advocate. NHPA serves as a collective voice for independent retailers across the industry, advocating on behalf of retailers by maintaining close ties with industry distributors and manufacturers.
- Associate. NHPA gives retailers across North America multiple opportunities to come together to meet one another, discuss challenges, create solutions and share ideas and best practices, learning together and from each other.
Learn more how these three mission pillars have changed and evolved over the association’s history.
Educate: Sharing Best Practices So We All Succeed
Even early on, retailer education was a priority for association leaders, many of whom were retailers themselves.
In 1917, in an effort to get to know the association’s members so he could better service their needs, Herbert Sheets, who ran
the association’s member advertising services, collected information from 2,400 members. The information he gathered became the forerunner for the Cost of Doing Business Study and identified operational areas where retailers needed assistance.
In response, the association developed accounting forms to help retailers institute standardized accounting systems to better control credit. It also provided retailers with prospect cards and community survey forms to collect demographic information that allowed them to respond to local market needs.
Building on these offerings, in 1920, the association made a shift
to focus on education. It developed store planning and merchandising services, including a monthly merchandising section in Hardware Retailer magazine that included lists of products to display and promote each month and suggestions for window displays, interior fixtures, signs and display trimming.
The How-to-Sell Manual and Hardware Retailers’ Sales Manual were early attempts at product knowledge training and led to the association working with City College of New York’s Midtown Business Center in the late 1940s to develop a retail hardware merchandising course, the first of its kind in the U.S.
The middle of the 21st century brought the DIY revolution to the industry and explosive growth for the association. The association responded by identifying eight industry needs that would become the blueprint for future programs and services: store traffic, increased sales, increased profits, trained personnel, modern merchandising, promotion, improved competitive position and better communications.
In 1952, the association built a small model hardware store, a merchandising laboratory of sorts, at its headquarters for retailers, merchandisers and manufacturers to test new ideas.
Throughout the middle of the century, the association produced management bulletins, an accounting and bookkeeping system and an annual Selling Guide. Training programs for employees took center stage as retailers grew and expanded, and the first edition of the textbook for the Advanced Course in Hardware Retailing came out in 1957.
The association’s first training film, “Don’t Call Me a Clerk!” came out in 1963, and in the 1970s, Hardware Retailer became a major vehicle for communications for the association, sharing best practices and trends retailers relied on to be successful.
During the 1990s, the association added the Building Materials Product Knowledge course, developed the College of Hardware and Home Center Knowledge and Retail Management Institute and branched into consumer education with the Show-How brochure program. During this time, association education would evolve along with technology and computing, and the association set up an internet website in 1996.
Since the early 2000s, education from the association has seen major updates and evolutions to match the needs of retailers. Currently, the NHPA’s Academy for Retail Development offers resources for training and enriching individual employees, whether they are brand new to the home improvement industry or have decades of experience. The association also provides education through compliance training, roundtables, webinars and research like the Cost of Doing Business Study, Market Measure, Merchandising for Profit, Independent Retailer Index and case studies.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same,” says Scott Wright, vice president of content development and publisher for NHPA. “When you look back through NHPA’s history, the content that retailers needed from us a century ago, including product knowledge training, selling skills and merchandising best practices, to name just a few, are things independent retailers still depend on us for to keep them competitive and viable today. Content delivery methods are very different today with the internet, but the subject matter that was important to them then, is still very relevant today.”
Advocate: We’re More Powerful With 1 Voice
According to the association’s founding constitution, the object of the organization was “to promote the welfare of the retail hardware dealers of the U.S.”
The association wasted no time working on behalf of its retailers. In that first year as an association, officers addressed trade practices with the National Hardware Jobbers Association
and manufacturers. Retailers wanted manufacturers to stop selling to catalog houses or at least control the prices at which catalog houses sold their products to protect the margins of retail store owners. By 1905, over 300 manufacturers assured the association they would not sell to mail-order houses and if they did, the retailer would be given a fair margin of profit.
Through the 1910s, the association supported the principle of price maintenance, urged the passage of laws promoting truth in advertising, worked to pass laws against giving trading stamps and helped defeat a bill to allow banks to charge for processing checks.
After World War I, the association fought accusations of profiteering and reviewed hundreds of textbooks, which were teaching that the difference between retail price and factory cost was profit, leaving out the business costs retailers have to pay. These textbooks were revised to properly educate the public on the real story of retail profits.
In response to competitors’ business practices, the association adopted a Hardware Merchant’s Ethical Code in 1923, which encouraged the retailer “to be a man of character, truthful in his relationships, just in his decisions and fair in his conduct.”
In 1924, the association’s board of directors approved a resolution to form the Hardware Council, which would include wholesalers, manufacturers and retailers. The council’s purpose was to identify trade practices that could be changed to reduce costs to retailers.
Turning to consumer promotions to help move the channel forward, the association launched National Hardware Week in 1938, a national advertising promotion that emphasized hardware stores’ broad assortment of merchandise, the local store’s importance in its community and the value of shopping in an independent hardware store.
In 1949, the association launched a nationwide public relations campaign, which expanded in 1954 with the creation of the Handy Helpful Hardwareman symbol. In 1955, it affiliated with the Canadian Retail Hardware Association, expanding advocacy across the border.
Through the rest of the century, the association would stay involved in advocacy work, including addressing trade relations, pricing, wages and more. Today, NHPA backs various organizations that support independents, keeps members abreast of the laws and regulations impacting the industry and promotes careers in the channel. It maintains close relationships with industry distributors and manufacturers on behalf of all retailers.
“It’s easy to forget what a powerful force independent home improvement retailers are when they combine their voices,” says Dan Tratensek, NHPA chief operating officer. “Combined, independent retailers in this industry account for roughly
$250 billion in annual sales—that is huge. Our association represents all of those voices and we work closely with other organizations to make sure they are heard. That being said, we think one of the biggest things we can do to advocate for independent retailers is to make sure that the rest of the channel understands their challenges and concerns. That’s why we focus time and effort advocating for independents within our channel, talking to distributors, manufacturers and others to make sure they understand what our members need to continue to be a vibrant and growing force in the industry.”
Associate: Supporting Each Other When We Come Together
From its inception, the association made attending and hosting industry events and coming together as an organization a priority through its annual national convention. In the 1920s, the focus for the annual association conventions became more educational.
Over its history, the association has supported major industry events, including the launch of National Hardware Week. This campaign included an Independent Retail Hardware Association (irha) shield-shaped decal retailers could use to show they were part of the association.
Mid-century, the association created advisory committees of retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers, uniting the industry for the betterment of everyone involved. The association was the original association participant in Hardware Industry Week, which accompanied the National Hardware Show.
“It’s easy to forget what a powerful force independent home improvement retailers are when they combine their voices.” —Dan Tratensek, Chief Operating Officer
Other ways the association brought the industry together was through the State of Independents Conference, the
All-Industry Conference and annual conventions.
The association still strongly believes that “we are stronger together” and hosts events throughout the year to encourage solidarity in the channel like the Independent Home Improvement Conference.
Other ways the association brings the industry together is by supporting industry awards like the NHPA Top Guns Awards and Young Retailer of the Year Awards.
Business Services: Creating Solutions for Your Biggest Headaches
Early on, the association worked to create a national mutual fire insurance company. While the idea failed, it set the tone for the association to provide services that would help
members be more profitable. During the 1910s, the association ran a Price and Service Bureau, which gave members price and other purchasing information to buy products in the most efficient and cost-effective ways possible.
Those member services and educational opportunities expanded exponentially in the following decades to include all aspects of store operations: research, information, accounting, inventory management, business planning, store design and employee training.
The first individual retirement account program for members came in 1975. Today, business services are still a key benefit to association members, who have access to the Retail Marketplace, small business loan programs, insurance programs and credit card processing.
125 and Counting
While the industry is dramatically different today than it was when NHPA was first formed in 1900, there is so much that remains the same, including the association’s focus, role and mission, which has basically remained the same for the entire existence of the organization.
NHPA’s mission is: To help hardware stores, home centers, LBM outlets and paint and decorating stores, regardless of affiliation, become better and more profitable retailers.
“It’s always been the guiding principle to how we serve our retailer constituents,” says Bob Cutter, NHPA president and CEO. “It’s something that all employees who work at the association understand and can recite because for the past 125 years it’s been our mantra, and it will continue to guide us forward into the future.”
