Tri-County Ace - Salem, South Carolina

Evelyn H.

I've excitedly awaited the opening of this store, fingers crossed that it would be an actual HARDWARE store and NOT a gift shop with hardware as a sideline, as it looks rather small from the street. But THEY HAVE HARDWARE, LOTS AND LOTS OF HARDWARE! I know a little about hardware, I'm an actual afficionado lol. (My lifetime favorite hobby is browsing through old hardware stores which, sadly, have almost disappeared.)I've worked at a very successful Ace store, a very positive experience all around. I saw what made them successful. Ive also worked at a Lowe's and Lowe's is successful in spite of itself. Ace stores didn't do installs at the time, as Lowe's and Home do, but i see Ace has recently added that service. But there's a difference between Ace and the big outfits and it's an important difference to customers. Lowe's installs were done by outside contractors when I worked there and I saw nothing but disaster with the plumbing installs. The GOOD plumbing companies, plumbers I knew personally, were not even interested in being involved with Lowe's. Could be the same way here locally, I can't say. But the contractor installing for them at the time at that location was sub par, I often inspected his plumbing work after customer complaints. I couldn't and wouldnt sell an install to a customer knowing it would be sub par work I wouldnt allow at my own home. Lowe's lacked the level of control necessary to make the installs successful, because there was that wild card I don't know how they do it now as I steer clear. But I see Ace has their OWN employees doing their installs! I think this is such a BRILLIANT idea! A WIN FOR ALL! So simple, so BRILLIANT an idea that I would like to shake the hand of the person who made this decision. The control Ace will have over installs by eliminating that middleman should result in much better results for the CUSTOMER and Ace and it's employees. If handled correctly, i predict great success for the install program, I wish them well with it just as I do smaller businesses.

The overall prices seem better than I expected, but I was mostly scanning ALL inventory. Scanning in amazement too, as I have never seen such an efficient use of floor space in ANY store!( It's a quirk of mine to take note of this detail in every store i enter) I am NO fan of end caps for several Items I've recently purchased elsewhere did catch my eye and so much lower on a couple that I had to fact check myself later on my previous purchases. I had expected bigger markups on skimpy hardware I didn't need and too much pretty stuff because of this store's proxmity to gated lake.I have seldom been so happy to be so wrong! I am one happy plumber! Salem now has its own HARDWARE store, and it's a DESTINATION, (instead of desperation) HARDWARE STORE for me. 2 MINUTE'S. AWAY!

Barry W.

Great selection and closer to my home than the Pickens location. The staff is friendly and helpful but it’s located behind the building facing Hwy 11. I am SO happy they are there on the north end of Keowee.

Anthony S.

Very friendly and knowledgeable staff!

Melinda S.

That was a unique place for a hardware store. Place was nice and the people there were friendly.

Jerry N.

Dennis D.

Peter G.

Terri B.