“Back in 1945, my dad and his partner at the time, Jack, purchased what was once an unclaimed freight store. There was a railroad station four blocks down, and the stuff that didn’t get picked up, would be brought to this building and sold. They started getting into hardware, and that’s when my dad and his partner purchased the building and its contents.
We had a store in Saginaw as well, called Super Bargain Center, that was knocked during Urban Renewal to build the Civic Center. In high school, I’d work at the store part-time, then I went to Western Michigan University for a degree in marketing. After graduation, I came back and I’ve been here ever since.
Here you can get pretty much everything you need for around the house except for lumber. Everything for ‘home preservation’ is what we call it. We can sell things to paint your house, fix your plumbing, fix your electrical, we can sell you a nail or a screw, and people come here when they’ve got a problem and they don’t know what to do because we've got the knowledge to help them.
I love interacting with customers. People are just fantastic to work with and really appreciate what you can do for them. For me, it’s not about selling something, but solving problems. People come in the door worried and walk out the door happy saying, ‘Please don’t ever close.’”
—Tony Dodick, Unclaimed Freight Ace Hardware
“Before high school, I started coming in on Saturdays to check in orders. Everything came in the back door, and I’d have to find the price stickers. After high school, I went to Northwood for automotive marketing, but I started figuring out that I didn’t want to do cars. About halfway through, our power equipment manager, Kevin, had back surgery. I left school to help cover, and that helped me figure out working at the store was what I wanted to do.
There’s knowledge here, and a relationship with people that you don’t get walking into a big box store. We’re here to help you every day because the people that come through that door are part of this community, so it’s better for everybody to come together and be the best that you can be.”
–Jeff Dodick, Unclaimed Freight Ace Hardware
Unclaimed Freight Ace Hardware is located at 706 E Midland Street in Bay City, Michigan, and is open Monday through Friday from 8AM to 5:30PM, and Saturday from 8AM to 4PM.
