Open Letter from Gray & Kim

Dear Fishers Do it Center Family and Friends…

We have what we think is exciting news we would like to share with you all.    After 111 Years, the Tweedy family is retiring from the Hardware and Building materials business.    On December 12th, Fishers Do it Center will become White’s Ace Hardware Fishers.  We have been so blessed by a community that has embraced and loved us from day one.  It’s been a wonderful 30 years here in Fishers and your kindness and support will never be forgotten.

While we are leaving our beloved store will go on as we are passing it to another great family who has been a part of the Central Indiana Hardware community for many years.  Steve and Chris White (White’s Ace Hardware) have built their company with the same values as our family.  We are excited to see where Steve and Chris will take our legacy!

While we are retiring many of your favorite members of the Fishers Do it family will be moving forward with White’s.  Bert, Lindy, Rusty and many others will continue to serve you as we have for over 3 decades!

Change is never easy and we will miss seeing you all!  We love and appreciate each and every one of you!

With gratitude and best wishes always,

Gray, Kim & Lucy

Open Letter from Steve White and Family

Dear Fishers Neighbors,

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our family to you while also sharing some information of things to come.  I am very excited about the opportunity to bring the Fishers Do It Best, which is such a great store with an incredible reputation, into the White’s family of stores.  The Fishers store has been a fixture in the Fisher’s community for thirty years, and I am looking forward to carrying on that tradition for years to come.

First, let me introduce myself and my family.  My name is Steve White and I was born and raised in Indianapolis.  I attended Northwest High School and later received a bachelor’s degree in Computer Technology from IUPUI.  My wife, Sharon, and I moved to Carmel in 1972 and we still reside there today.  Sharon works in the stores and oversees our accounts payable.  Our son, Chris, started working at the stores his freshman year of high school.  During high school he worked as a stock person and after high school he progressed into a sales position, then store manager and now is the Operations Manager for all stores.

Below is an overview of our company history, so you know a little bit about our stores.  Since we opened our first store, we have always strived to keep our stores relevant to the communities they are in.  To that point, you will notice that we have worked to improve our stores over the years by either expanding them or moving them to make sure that they fit the market’s needs.

  • In 1977 we opened our first store on the west side of Indianapolis in the Chapel Hill shopping center. Because of big box competition we moved the original store multiple times and it ultimately ended up in the Nora community.  We just recently sold that property to a developer.
  • In 1984 we purchased the Ace hardware store in Carmel. In 1988 we moved out of our 100-year-old building into a new 20,000 Sq. Ft. building on Range Line Road. In 2001 we added a 10,000 SF garden center and a 10,000 Sq. Ft. bagged goods drive thru facility.
  • In 1988 we opened our third store in a strip shopping center in Geist. In 1999 we moved out of the center into a new 17,000 Sq. Ft. building with an 8,000 Sq. Ft. garden center and an 8,000 Sq. Ft. bagged goods drive thru facility.  Geist was our first store that we designed and built with a garden center which has been an extremely successful model for us.

At this point, you are probably wondering if we are going to be making any changes to the store and the answer to that question is yes.  We are planning on making a large investment in both the facility and the inventory to help keep the store moving forward into the future. While change is never easy, we hope after reading about the changes you will be as excited as we are.

Following are some of the major changes we will be making to the store:

  • First and foremost, a large portion of the staff will be joining our team so you will still see the same faces you’ve come to know and rely on.
  • We’ve been told that the popcorn machine is as much of a fixture as the store so, we will still have the popcorn machine at the registers for you to enjoy.
  • We will replace the current garden center with a new 10,000 Sq. Ft. garden center. Part of this area will be covered for merchandising products like pottery, outdoor décor and other related items.  There will also be two outside cash registers to improve the customer’s ease of checkout.
  • The front of the store will receive new façade and signing. All the buildings will be repainted.
  • We will add 23 parking spaces on the south side of the property.
  • We will be reworking the stores current inventory assortments to new Ace assortments throughout the store. We will be bringing in new and exciting lines and brands such as Stihl power equipment, Toro mowers, Benjamin Moore paints, Traeger, Weber and Saber grills, DeWalt, Craftsman and Milwaukee tools, house plants and pet food.

Lastly, we would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Gray and Kim along with the rest of the Fishers team for making this transition smooth and for making us feel like family right away.  We are wishing Gray and Kim all the best in their retirement and we look forward to being a part of the Fishers community.

Sincerely,

Steve White and Family