Content about South Dakota

The 2012 list of Home Channel News Hardware Store All-Stars -- one from each state -- contains a great variety of businesses linked by a commitment to strong customer service and an innovative approach to retail.

The honorees from South Carolina, South Dakota and Tennessee reveal a wide range of products, services and store footprints. Gardening, housewares, live goods and even color-coordinated dish towels offer areas of competitive differentiation.

Four South Dakota hardware stores have joined Ace Hardware, the Oak Brook, Ill.-based co-op announced recently.

The stores, owned by John Niederauer, are located in the South Dakota cities of Dell Rapids, Miller, Redfield and Tea. All four stores underwent the transformation in mid-August.

The damage done by the mountain pine beetle to the forests in British Columbia has received much attention, given the billions of dollars already lost to this pernicious pest. But Dendroctonus ponderosae knows no borders, and now the western United States is grappling with the same epidemic. The pine beetle has spread to Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Colorado. 


Back in August 2006, this “From the Editor” page was dedicated in part to an examination of Star and Bullock Hardware, the fictitious, gold-rush era building supply store from the HBO Series “Deadwood.” 


At the time, some suggested that I was watching too much television.


But now look at page 30 of this magazine. There’s an actual, real-life Deadwood, S.D., hardware store on our Fifty Hardware All Stars list: Twin City Hardware.