It’s the season for weekend do-it-yourself projects and evening picnics of grilled steaks, hot dogs and hamburgers, filling the air with mouth-watering aromas.
It’s the season for weekend do-it-yourself projects and evening picnics of grilled steaks, hot dogs and hamburgers, filling the air with mouth-watering aromas.
Whether it’s planting flowers, trimming trees or adding a deck to the back yard, the expanded floor space and shelving at E&H Ace Hardware in Middlefield Village are stocked with items to make the yard and garden a special place for families and friends.
Shoppers can sample free food, win prizes and see demonstrations of new equipment lines during the E&H Ace grand re-opening from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 29 at 15651 East High Street, said the store’s new manager, David Mudery.
Rather than a ribbon cutting ceremony, a chain across the front door will be cut to welcome attendees to the venue.
Saturday’s festivities include a snow-cone machine and Heritage Meats doing the cooking for visitors, Mudery said.
He said the renovation of the store, including new, brighter light fixtures, gives it a “re-polished” look, adding it to the chain of six other company stores with the new setting.
“Visitors can experience a brand new and improved store with all the best brands and services they need,” he said in a phone interview. “We have expanded and reset the store.”
Those brands include a wide selection of Traeger grills and Stihle and Milwauke power tools.
“I love this kind of stuff – grills and power tools,” he said.
Mudery, who recently came to the Middlefield E&H Ace store from another in Bedford, said he was a Lowe’s employee for 10 years before joining the family-owned E&H Ace Hardware company based in Wooster.
He said the Middlefield store is hiring more part-time employees.
The operation started out as a grocery store opened by Ed and Helen Buehler during the Depression, according to the company website. They relocated to Wooster in 1931 and spread their operations across Ohio.
In 1959, a hardware department was added to the Orrville location. The Buehlers continued to expand the grocery and hardware operations into a 13-store chain. By 2010, the family expanded to six Ohio hardware locations including Orrville, Dover, Delaware, Medina, Canton and New Philadelphia. Each location was integrated with a Buehler’s grocery store, according to the website.
After establishing E&H Hardware Group LLC in 2011, the family opened or acquired 16 more stores. In 2017, they sold the grocery business to the grocery store employees so the third- and fourth-generation owners could focus on hardware. The company’s flagship store in Wooster opened in 2022, the website said.
“The drive to exceed customers’ expectations through relationships built on trust is what continues to fuel the family’s desire to become the best neighborhood hardware store for do-it-yourself and professional customers alike,” the company said.
