Flagstaff Featured Business: Killam Home Hardware
(as published in the July 8 edition of The Community Press)
The Flagstaff Region Featured Business is a monthly newspaper and web feature presented in partnership by Flagstaff County and The Community Press.
Killam Home Hardware Building Centre
780-385-2364
5029 – 57 St., Killam
Darek Graff fondly remembers his first job.
It was at the Home Hardware store his parents owned and operated on Killam’s main street.
“I was 13 years old,” he recalls with a smile, “so stocking shelves, moving, cleaning, all that type of stuff that you get a 13-year-old kid to run around and do.”
Darek moved away from home after high school, playing university and junior football, and earning his ticket in carpentry. Circa 2015, the Red Seal carpenter returned to his hometown with wife Stacy, his fiancée at the time.
In 2017, two decades after his parents, Gordon and Lynette Graff, opened the hardware shop, Darek and Stacy bought into the family business at its present location on the west side of Killam.
“Of the two of us, Darek has been the primary person working in the store, and I joined in September,” Stacy explains. “In the last three years, he’s done a lot in trying to adapt our store to meet the needs of the customer.”
That includes expanding product lines – adding large appliances such as fridges and stoves, for instance.
They’ve also introduced some locally made goods to help support other local businesses in the region.
“Flagstaff Crafted (a program and platform run by Flagstaff County that enhances the exposure of makers, artisans and retailers of local products) gave us a really good avenue to reach all these people with, and we thought this would be awesome just to be able to put them on our shelves,” Stacy says. “So, we’ve really tried to respond to community needs.”
As part of their local push, Killam Home Hardware offers an ongoing ‘Locally Made, Locally Loved’ promotion and accepts applications at any time.
“We will feature that business or crafter or maker for six weeks on an end bunk – that’s a shelf that faces the aisle. So those ones get the most attention from customers,” Stacy says. “As soon as you walk in, it’s one of the first things you see. Then we promote it through social media and ask that they promote us back by re-posting or sending out their own post about them being in our store.”
The recent additions have only served to enhance an already diverse offering of products – from housewares and plumbing, to tools and lumber, and much more.
“We try to carry a little bit of everything and a lot of the things that we know people are going to need large amounts of so that people are making one less trip to the city,” Stacy adds.
Of course, there’s only so much square-footage to go around. Where they really strive to set themselves apart from the bigger stores in the city is through first-rate customer service.
“Customer service is what makes us unique,” Darek explains. “If we try and take a big-box store approach, we simply don’t have the land space or the inventory space to try and carry everything that we possibly could. So where we try and make up for that is expertise and service.
“A customer comes in with a general idea or a problem or something of that nature in the home-building world, I feel very confident that myself and every one of our staff are able to address those issues and give a knowledgeable answer to each one of their questions.”
Darek calls it playing to their strengths. “Being a part of this community and living and working here, it gives us a chance to build a relationship and rapport with as many people that come in the door as possible,” he says.
“We honestly do care about the people that come in and choose to spend their dollars here. They have the choice to drive 45 minutes or to order online or to do many other things, but they choose to physically come here and support us and we don’t want that to go unnoticed.”
Stacy agrees, noting that they’re extremely grateful for their loyal customer base.
“We have great customers in Flagstaff,” she says. “They come once, twice, three times a week. We have people who come in to see what’s new this week or just to have a chat over the lumber desk. There’s a lot of people that like to do that or just come in and ask Darek a question about ‘how would I do this’ or ‘I bought this and now I’m at this point and I don’t know what to do now.’”
Customers also have the option of ordering products online. Orders are shipped to the store and can be picked up on Fridays.
It’s one of the many perks of being part of a franchise, says Darek.
“Home Hardware isn’t owned by one big corporate entity,” he notes. “It’s a group of small owner-operators coming together to collectively pool their resources to try and get the best pricing and provide the best service possible.
“So what it does is it enables a business of our size to have online tech support, to have tons and tons of training that’s available to us, as well to have people that you can call if you have a problem and find out immediately an answer.”
Darek and Stacy are also extremely grateful for their personable and knowledgeable staff, which they know is absolutely essential to providing great customer service.
“We are extremely, extremely blessed to have the staff that we do,” he says “It gives me the assurance to be able to step back and let this place run on its own and that’s a luxury that a lot of small businesses don’t always have.”
Over the past three years, Darek and Stacy have given the store a strong local presence digitally – arguably made most memorable around Christmastime every year when Darek dons his elf-on-the-shelf costume and the hilarity ensues.
Stacy handles most of the social media, posting about the latest promotions, as well as various upcoming workshops, including crafting evenings (in partnership with Willow Hill Designs) and paint nights, where customers can learn best practices for using their paints.
The husband-and-wife team continues to look for ways to improve the store and introduce new services for their valued customers.
“It’s one of the steps that we’re taking to try and make sure that we stay relevant with our customer base and with the industry moving forward,” Darek says.
“If you’re standing still, you’re getting left behind. So we always make a point to try and reinvest capital into this business to make sure it’s as up to date and current as possible.”
For more information, visit www.killamhomehardware.com, find Killam Home Hardware Building Centre on Facebook. Watch for their regular flyer inserted into the local paper in the Killam market.
As published in the July 8 edition of The Community Press – on newsstands today or purchase a digital copy below. Never miss an issue, become a SUBSCRIBER today!
The Flagstaff Region Featured Business is a monthly newspaper and web feature presented in partnership by Flagstaff County and The Community Press. For more information, contact Jenalee Waring, Economic Development Coordinator, at 780-384-4152.
