John Venhuizen, president and CEO of Ace Hardware, and Jules Pieri, CEO and co-founder of e-commerce start-up The Grommet, joined Cheddar to discuss the major stake Ace Hardware recently took in the online retailer.
According to The Grommet's CEO Jules Pieri, the partnership with Ace Hardware is going to provide entrepreneurs who sell products on The Grommet greater access to capital.
The Grommet currently brands itself as a company that "launch undiscovered products and helps them succeed." It is known for launching companies such as Otterbox, SodaStream, and Fitbit on its platform.
The deal with Ace is projected to help The Grommet expand its audience and grow its base of 3 million subscribers, according to Pieri. To make that possible, selected products from The Grommet are set to hit in-store and online shelves at Ace Hardware locations across the U.S.
The Grommet and Ace Hardware alliance comes at a time when entrepreneurs are gravitating towards locally-sourced products. Companies such as Amazon, and recently Wal-Mart, are competing in the field. Wal-Mart recently launched "Uniquely J" an independent label to rival Amazon.
Jules said that she believes locally-sourced products have piqued consumer's interest because people have a natural drive to create, and technology offers a platform for this creativity to flourish.
Venhuizen adds that Ace Hardware's brick and mortar stores offer independent entrepreneurs another platform to sell products beyond Amazon.
"We can now bring these makers what we think is a real clear path and a meaningful path to growth without always having to bow down to the altar of Amazon," he said.
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
