True Value 2014 Annual Report Download - page 18

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16 TRUE VALUE 2014 ANNUAL REPORT
A true family business Michelle has helped
out around Leeway True Value, the store her
parents founded, since she was seven years
old. Many of the store’s regular customers
remember Michelle when she was a little girl,
and now she’s helping those customers’ kids
and grandkids. Family serving family. That’s the
beauty of the independent hardware store.
Growth through DTV and lawn and garden
When Michelle took over running the store, she
did her homework—research told her lawn and
garden was a key growth area. “It’s a strong,
profitable category built on repeat business,”
she tells us. “Today, we do better than half our
year’s sales in the spring season.” She has since
invested in success with a DTV remodel and
a new, separate facility for Leeway’s lawn and
garden business.
Merging passion and career “I remember
my job search after I graduated from college,”
Michelle says. “I soon realized I already had a
place where I could do what I absolutely love.”
For her, it’s all about loving what you do, and
customers are responding—more are choosing
her brand of personalized service over big-box
competitors every day.
“If we don’t have it, we’ll get it.” That’s the credo at Leeway True Value in
North Smithfield, Rhode Island, and it captures perfectly owner Michelle
Deschamps’ passion for the hardware business and the key to the store’s
success against big-box competition.
Leeway True Value
MEMBER PROFILE
“WE PUT OUR HEART AND SOUL INTO
HELPING O
MICHELLE DESCHAMPS, LEEWAY TRUE VALUE
True Value member Michelle Deschamps
and her father, Robert Leduc