Ace Hardware

Ace Hardware Corporation is a hardware cooperative based in Oak Brook, Illinois, United States. ACE Hardware Corporation, with 4,444 (May 2011) stores, does over $3 billion in retail hardware sales annually down from its peak of $12.5 billion in 2007. Ace Hardware was founded in 1924 by Richard Hesse, E. Gunnard Lindquist, Frank Burke, and Oscar Fisher in Chicago, Illinois. Ace Hardware, incorporated in 1928 as Ace Stores Inc., was founded to provide a centralized purchasing organization to supply the founders' and members' stores. The company was named after the Ace fighter pilots of World War I, who were able to overcome all odds. Its retail network expanded to hundreds of dealers by 1949, when annual sales reached about $10...