Ace Hardware, a mainstay in the Richland Shopping Center for decades, is closing its doors due to flagging sales and rising expenses brought on by the minimum wage and utility costs.

“It’s just the economics,” explained store owner Rob Nelson. “I think it’s just been a shift in consumers, the influence of Amazon. I think Tractor Supply’s had a little bit of an influence being new, the Super Walmart. It’s just gotten so fragmented with the way that people are shopping.”

Nelson said he began considering closing the store about 18 months ago due to the downward sales and escalating overhead. Ironically, his others stores in Tracy, Jackson and Elk Grove are all growing – but not in Ceres where customers seem to be “super price sensitive.”

“It’s a big Amazon market, I think. I mean, I argue with people over 50 cents and in the other stores we don’t have to do that. People are a little bit more understanding of the convenience of things and the service and all that kind of stuff and put a little bit more value on.”

Theft also has been an issue but “hasn’t been terrible” like it is in Tracy and Elk Grove, he said.

Nelson particularly wrestled with the reality of putting employees out of work.

“You want to do right by your people. I mean, I’ve got 10 people that are losing their jobs. We’re working with some of them to transfer to Tracy, but it’s kind of a commute. We’re writing letters of recommendations so maybe they can go to work in Modesto or Turlock. We’ve got a couple of our employees who actually live in Turlock so it’s like just go to work for Ace in Turlock.”

It was also hard to close “from an ego perspective,” said Nelson, “to say we failed, and now we have to close.  But I was talking to some other very successful multi-store Ace Hardware owners, and they’re like, ‘Sometimes you just gotta do it. You gotta do it for the health of the entire company.’ And when we’ve got the other threes offsetting the losses for this one, it’s like this is not worth it.”

The store is selling its entire stock at a discount with signs indicating the markdown offered on items. To announce the closure and get the inventory sold, the company direct mailed 10,000 postcards to households in the area and kicked off the storewide sale on Wednesday last week. The store was besieged by customers taking advantage of the discounts.

“We did 600 transactions yesterday (July 23), and we usually average about 200.”

Nelson has scheduled with a liquidating company to continue operating until the end of September.”

The remaining products will go to a liquidator and some will be donated to Habitat for Humanity, he said.

“I’ll take some of it to my other stores but it’s just so labor-intensive it’s not worth it.”

Nelson bought the store in May 2019 from a man who owned it for about 20 years. Previously the Pallios family operated a hardware store and in the 1960s was the grocery store.

“I think the community needs a hardware store here,” commented Nelson, “it’s just not for me. And they might run their business a little different from a payroll perspective, maybe a little less service.”

While a bunch of longtime customers have expressed disappointment that the store is closing – and he finds that tough to face – he acknowledges that “they’re not shopping in here enough to keep us open.”