One of Neiman’s peers, Richard Thomes, says Neiman is a master in the industry.

“Dave is a very aggressive, very good business person. He treats his employees very well so I think he has loyal employees.”

Thomes, who runs Thomes Bros. Hardware in Arlington, is also immediate past president of the National Retail Hardware Association.

“Dave understands very well what customers want. They want convenience, they want customer service, they have very limited time and don’t want to spend the day shopping,” Thomes said.

“What he brings that Menards and Home Depot and Lowe’s don’t, is you can park in front of the door, run in, he has the inventory, you can grab it, if you have a problem they can help you fix it and you can get in the car and get out of there.”

The neatly organized store, containing some 23,000 different items, was a flurry of activity recently as they readied for opening.

They stocked the entire store in three weeks. “The Ace Hardware guys said they’d bet us money we couldn’t do it that fast,” Dave said. “They said it’d take twice as long. We had a lot of people here — 40 at the peak.”

Said Brad: “Dad’s really good at organizing.”