You might think it takes nerves of steel for a family-owned hardware store to compete with Home Depot and Lowe's, but Dave Rocknak says all it takes is the right numbers.
The numbers had to add up in order to get a loan from the bank to build a new 18,000-square-foot Rocknaks Hardware Plus store on West Broadway.
"We didn't want to do this if we didn't have a chance of making it work," said Rocknak, who owns the store with his wife, Gretchen, and son, Brian.
The new store is triple the size of the store it was in next door, which Rocknak, an avid woodworker, started in the mid-'90s out of frustration with the lack of growth on Idaho Falls' west side.
There is also considerably more parking, which was another frustration.
"There was a lot of business we weren't capturing because of the size of the parking lot and the store," Brian Rocknak said.
Sales were flat and costs were rising, so the choice in 2003 was clear: Get bigger or get out.
That was when the Rocknaks called United Hardware, a Minneapolis-based cooperative, for help. Researcher Mark Undis found that the Rocknaks' store sat in the dead center of a trading area bordered on the east by the Snake River, on the north by Osgood and on the south by New Sweden. The trading area has 4,967 households and a population of 14,229.
"The demographics showed that a lot of money from this side of town was going to Home Depot and Lowe's for no reason," Dave Rocknak said.
The numbers were convincing enough for the Bank of Commerce to finance the new store, which opened in January.
Since then, the customer count has climbed to about 250 a day, and the size of the average purchase has been growing as well.
"I think they (customers) realized the importance of service," Dave Rocknak said.
But the world of retail is littered with stores that prided themselves on service only to get beat by bigger competition.
What about price?
As part of a graduate project for her management class, Lisa Pack, a student at Idaho State University, conducted a price comparison study of 40 items at Home Depot, Lowe's and Rocknaks. The results were as follows:
• Lowe's: $323.15
• Rocknaks: $337.82
• Home Depot: $349.58
"(I) was sure that the results would show that Rocknaks' prices were much higher on average than the other two establishments," Pack said in her report. "To my pleasant surprise, I found Rocknaks' prices to be competitive."
She also found that it took her an hour to price 50 items at Rocknaks, compared with three hours at Lowe's and two hours at Home Depot.
As for staff assistance, Rocknaks came in first, followed by Home Depot, then Lowe's.
Both Home Depot and Lowe's have deep pockets for advertising, which allows them to create a perception of low prices, Dave Rocknak said. But it's usually a handful of high-visibility items that get marked down drastically.
"You've got to find out what these companies are giving away, and you've got to compete with them on that," he said.
But the "blinds" -- items for which the average customer has no basis for comparing prices -- are just as important.
Pack's price survey showed a Lufkin Tape Measure cost $4.99 at Rocknaks and Lowe's and $13.96 at Home Depot. In another case, 5 pounds of Harveys Plumber's Putty cost $4.47 at Home Depot and Lowe's and $7.19 at Rocknaks.
"There's this perception that bigger is cheaper," Dave Rocknak said. "Our job is to make sure we're right there with 'em. It's important for me to know we're competitive because I don't want to take advantage of anyone."

Reprinted from the Post Register, June 6, 2005