Alpine Hardware of Aspen Colorado began in 1971 when Vance Grenko and his family purchased the hardware side of United Lumber, a store that had opened in Aspen in 1931. After serving as Managing Partner for 10 years, Vance’s eldest daughter Vicki took the reins and made Alpine Ace Hardware in Aspen the helpful neighborhood store it remains today.
With the support of a strong group of dedicated employees, Vicki was able to purchase Alpine Hardware in Aspen from her parents in 1995. In 1998, she and her son Vance opened another small, neighborhood, mountain town, hardware store in their home town of Carbondale, Colorado. She remarried in 2002 and brought her new husband, Chris Peterson, into the business as a partner.
At the same time, she brought in as a partner her General Manager, Tony Wells, who had helped her father and then her grow the business over the last 20 years. Because of Vicki’s passion for helping her neighbors and the associates’ and her partners’ commitment to her cause, the stores grew and in 2006 they bought the existing Ace Hardware of Clifton store in eastern Grand Junction. In 2007, they built and opened Ace Hardware on the Redlands in western Grand Junction just down the street from Chris’ parents.
“As part of a cooperative, every Ace Hardware store is independently owned and operated. Our four Western Colorado Ace Hardware stores are all part of Alpine Hardware of Colorado; a Partnership including Vicki and Chris Peterson, Vance McKenzie, and Tony Wells. We four partners and the management team in each of our stores are committed to making our associates feel like they are part of our family. We are all committed to making our guests feel they are among friends and are appreciated.
We all strive to be successful so we can support our associates, our guests, and our community. We are all committed to being ‘the Helpful Place’ in each community we serve by offering our customers knowledgeable advice, helpful service and quality products in stock when you need them. As the helpful hardware folks, we promise that, ‘Helping you is the most important thing we have to do today’.”
