Is there a handyman in the house?

Good thing we are inside a hardware store. The battery indicator of the recorder is blinking frantically during the interview and the tape is going to stop reeling any second now.

So I ask them if they have triple-A batteries.

Of course they do.

Batteries are, in fact, just one of the 18,000 different SKUs (store keeping units) or products from hundreds of brand names inside this store. Handyman Do it Best is the hardware’s equivalent of a really large supermarket. You need a hammer? Yup, they’ve got different brands and different sizes – from those cute small ones to those hammers so heavy you’re bound to sprain your wrist. You need a power drill? Yup, they’ve got Black & Decker from the US, Bosch from Germany, and Makita from Japan. You need prefab doors and windows or maybe cornices? Yup, they have them – you can choose the color and material or the style, like those ornate cornices that you find in Italian classic-inspired homes. You need hooks that won’t peel off the paint from your wall? Yup, choose from the different weights they could carry.

If you’re a do it yourself-er (DIYer), you’ll feel absolutely blissful here, like a child left in a candy store. Wait, let me rephrase that. Even if you’re not a DIYer, you’ll find yourself buying things that would inspire you to become one. Stuff like paint in spray cans to patch up the chair leg your dog chewed on; long, long phone cords to connect to your computer; sealer to patch up the hole on the roof; rechargeable lamps for those sudden brownouts.

They also offer key duplication services on the premises since they found out that homeowners go through duplicate keys like peanuts. They always need more than the three keys that come with the locks they buy.

The staff at Handyman DIB will be able to help you, too. How many of us go to the hardware not knowing what we’re supposed to buy, with the only information being the light won’t turn on or the doorbell has stopped ringing? You can ask any of the "promodizers" and they will tell you what you need.

In just short of 10 years, Handyman has grown to 41 stores nationwide, starting at Robinsons Galleria and opening branches all around Metro Manila and neighboring provinces. It’s also in key cities Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Roxas City, Davao and Cagayan de Oro.

In 2002, Handyman tied up with Do it Best, a global cooperative of hardware chains numbering 4,500, of which 300 are outside the United States and located in the Americas. Handyman is the first member in Asia.

Handyman general manager Jody Gadia explains that with their partnership with Do it Best, Handyman is able to keep their prices low and to offer a different kind of shopping experience to customers.

Handyman president Willy T. Co adds that since the cooperative is owned by member stores, "together they pull their purchasing power to get the lowest prices from manufacturers and then pass on the savings to members and eventually to customers."

Is the price difference really that significant? Jody says, "Yes, it is. Apart from the low price, Handyman is now able to negotiate with big US companies which wouldn’t have bothered with us, like if we go to a US factory for Christmas lights and our order is not able to fill their minimum requirement of two containers. A lot of our imported products are from the US, particularly the lawn and garden equipment."

Do it Best has also brought in its expertise in the science of selling. "The layout is different," explains Jody. "For instance, we have the ‘power aisle,’ where we highlight most of the value-for-money and fast moving merchandise."

Instead of the typical supermarket type of layout, Handyman Do it Best positions the aisle horizontally from the entrance. A customer who walks in immediately sees the power aisle in the middle and can quickly compare prices.

You do need these quick references when you’re shopping in a hardware with eight major departments (next year, when they start expansion, they’ll have 16).

Jody points to the floor and explains why it has red diagonal lines going into the aisles. "The science behind this is that when you walk into the store these red markings will divert you into the different aisles. The main difference DIB has brought into Handyman is the shopping experience. We take pride in our customer service. I’ve been walking through the stores of our competitors, even the promodizers don’t pay attention to you when they’re supposed to be working with you."

Don’t you just hate it when you ask for a simple thing as an S hook to hang your pictures on a chainlink and the saleslady looks at you blankly? That’s what happened to me at one hardware.

Handyman stores will soon be converted into Handyman Do it Best. They will follow a singular store layout, color (red), and standardized quality of service. The company is holding training sessions and special courses for its employees. "We get some experts from our concessionaires and our people here have gone to about three seminars. We’re looking at something on a sustainable basis. In fact, JG Summit Group is looking at some retail academy initiative not just for hardware but a training center for all business units, for special skills training."

At Handyman you’ll find all your needs under the eight departments, including electrical, houseware, plumbing, automotive parts and accessories, lawn and garden, building materials, and tools.

Being a DIYer, according to Willy Co, is not about saving money by doing things yourself, it’s about "the joy of doing something yourself. Like me, I enjoy fixing things with my son. Over the years, more and more women are coming to the store and doing things themselves."

In these hard times, it seems like a good idea to learn how to do things around the house. Willy says that "when the economy is down, people go to the hardware more often. Instead of replacing their things, they just keep repairing them."

Is it perhaps the same reason why, according to Handyman senior vice president Robina Gokongwei-Pe, the biggest growing section is houseware and the fastest moving products are the storage and home organizing units? That we are not getting rid of things we should be throwing away? Or perhaps it’s simply because, as she puts it, "we like to keep a lot of junk"?

In March next year, Handyman is building its first Big Box, a huge warehouse type home improvement center, in Novaliches beside Big-R and Robinsons.

Jody Gadia says with a wink, "It’s an ace up our sleeve."

With Big Box, they will have new categories, bathroom systems, paint mixing and other unique offerings aimed at architects, designers, homemakers and DIYers. Their business model is Home Depot, that great big stop for people building or remodeling their homes.

What about the traditional hardware stores? Jody explains that those are more into construction materials – cement, gravel, etc. – while Handyman is more focused on the "finishing" products. But he emphasizes that Handyman’s prices are "not higher than the hardware. It’s more convenient to shop in this environment because you can touch the merchandise before paying for it. Hindi madilim and you don’t have to haggle."

Yeah, but can you buy tingi?

It turns out you can. There’s an entire section where nails, screws and washers, are in tiny plastic bags – in twos, half a dozen, a dozen.

"We’re even more tingi than the traditional hardware," Jody says laughing, perhaps partly because of his Taglish.

He turns serious when he says that "Handyman as a company would want to be the widest and most profitable network of DIY chains in the country."

It’s definitely time to put on our overalls and start hammering away.