Menards preparing to move plans forward for Gaylord store

GAYLORD — Home improvement retailer Menards Inc. has restarted plans to enter the Gaylord market.

The Gaylord City Council approved a zoning permit application from Menards for a site on Meijer Drive off M-32 at its Feb. 10 meeting.

In 2016, a site plan from Menards was approved and construction was originally projected to begin in the spring of 2017. However, work never started.

“We have been busy making some design changes in our existing stores over the past few years but are now able to work on our plans to build a new Menards home improvement store in Gaylord,” said Jeff Abbott, spokesman for Menards.

“Although we are still working through the approval process, if all goes as planned we hope to begin construction later this spring. No official timeline has been established as to when the Gaylord Menards store might open,” he added.

Abbott didn’t comment on the delay, but Travis Hewitt, city treasurer, told the Herald Times in 2017 that correspondences between the city and Menards indicated that the company had to push its schedule back for many of its projects.

At that time, Hewitt said that “last year (2016), they didn’t open stores, they were just acquiring real estate.” Hewitt also has said construction on most of those properties had to be delayed, though he did not know why.

Previously, the company indicated it would build a 220,000-square-foot store that would eventually employ about 150, including about 50 full-time personnel.

The Gaylord market already includes big box stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s, plus Builders FirstSource, a manufacturer and supplier of building materials, and two hardware stores.

Dan Tratensek, the executive vice president of the North American Retail Hardware Association and executive editor of industry trade journal Hardware Retailing, said it’s possible that much of Menards business may come from the other two big box retailers.

“When consumers are presented with three big box retailers (like Home Depot, Lowe’s and Menards), many tend to shop at the location that is closest and most convenient for them,” said Tratensek. “Others chose to shop at Menards and then one of the other (big box) stores for items they didn’t find at Menards.”

Tratensek said Menards is different from Home Depot and Lowe’s.

“Menards doesn’t look like a warehouse. For example they have tiled floors,” he said.

Tratensek said the two hardware stores are already competing successfully against Home Depot and Lowe’s.

“That means those stores are meeting the needs of their customers. If they continue to do that they should be all right,” he said.

In a research report on home improvement stores in the U.S., consulting firm IBISWorld said, “Menards prides itself on its local focus by offering a specialized understanding of local home improvement needs and establishing intimate relationships with its customers by creating a hometown feel in its stores. To leverage this customer relationship into market share, Menards encourages customers to come into its stores to see and touch products.”

Menards is headquartered in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and is a family-owned company that began operations in 1958. The company has more than 300 stores and besides Michigan, operates in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Though the company is private and does not release financial statements, IBISWorld believes that Menards had revenue of about $11.6 billion in 2019.