Zac Groom

Experienced merchandising professional with a strong background in EPICOR (which I've noticed your company uses), retail, and inventory management. Proficient in analyzing sales data, market trends, and historical performance to develop effective merchandise plans, mostly through the use of Excel. Skilled in forecasting demand, setting inventory levels, and optimizing product assortments to maximize sales and profitability. Lastly, I would bring a vast knowledge of products in hardlines, in all departments.

Hi! I am 50 years old with a wife of 33 years and two kids, one is a Senior in high school now. We moved back to our hometown in 2000 and my wife is now the curriculum director for the district she has worked for since - Mabank, where you have a store by the way! I went to work for my family, taking over for my dad at his position as Purchasing Manager at Groom And Son's. Prior to our family's three stores being purchased by a holdings company in 2020, which, don't get me wrong, I was thankful to be part of and to have had a job for five years working for corporate, I was winning at retail—being responsible for any and all things that contribute to the profitability and growth of a store: merchandising, planograms, promotions, market buys, store layouts, project plans, new items, new categories, price management, inventory management, and probably more. Now granted, we are talking about three retail stores, but they also accounted for over $12,000,000 in hardlines sales, and over the course of those 20 years, I increased GMROI every year except for a few years when competition (Lowe's) came in 2004 and when the bottom fell out in 2008 and 2009.

Being an Ace hardware store helped us compete, however and my product knowledge in plumbing, electrical, paint, sundries, tools, hardware, lawn and garden, as well as my studies in economics in college, capabilities in math and problem solving, and proficiency in the computer system we used since 1984 (EPICOR), along with Excel spreadsheet management, I think gave us an edge over a lot of independent hardware retailers that would be up against the same odds.

An early accomplishment was winning an industry award "Young Retailer Of The Year" in 2003, 3 years after moving back home with a degree from the University Of Texas at Austin. I didn't really know where I stood among the other retailers, but working for corporate, I was able to measure my successes up through 2019 against 60 other stores (not counting 2020 because that wouldn't even be fair!). And the aggregate GMROI of my three stores, a home center (the inside items), a 14,000 sq. ft. hardware store in a rural, mid-sized town, and a 6,000 sq. ft. convenience store in a low socio-economic part of DFW was 170 basis points higher than their best store. I'm proud of that fact, and even if there's not a place for me to get back in the game that can pay close to what I earned based on my achievements, I will always have that.