The Grit Blueprint

Adapting While Honoring Legacy: Meny's True Value | Sponsored by Do it Best

• Grit Blueprint

Share episode

Dalton Meny shares his journey as a fifth-generation hardware store owner, combining his computer science background with traditional retail to modernize his family's business while maintaining its community-centered values. 

• Originally had no plans to join the family hardware business after graduating with a computer science degree
• Stepped in temporarily to help open a third store location and never left
• Created custom software for inventory management across three rural Indiana locations
• Implemented consistent pricing systems and reports to ensure customer trust
• Built the business on flexibility: "You have to do what your customer needs"
• Serves unique customer segments including farmers who purchase products like 40-gallon buckets of fly killer
• Community involvement distinguishes them from big box competitors: "We're not Home Depot, we live here"
• Family business history dates back to 1881, starting as a general store selling everything from hardware to dynamite
• Advises gradual change when entering family business leadership: "You can't change everything all at once"
• Excited about future technology integration while honoring the business legacy


Watch the Video Version

Catch this episode of The Grit Blueprint Podcast on YouTube:
👉 Stefanie Couch on YouTube

Subscribe to Built to Win

Get exclusive insights, tools, and updates from Grit Blueprint, designed to help you lead and win in the building industry.
👉 Subscribe to Built to Win

Connect with Stefanie Couch & Grit Blueprint

Grit Website: GritBlueprint.com
YouTube: Stefanie Couch
Instagram: @StefanieCouchOfficial
LinkedIn: Stefanie Couch
Stefanie’s Website: StefanieCouch.com

👉 What Is Grit Blueprint?

Grit Blueprint is a media and growth company for the building industry. We help ambitious businesses in the building materials and construction industries grow through visibility, storytelling media, and smart systems.

👉 Book a Strategy Call




...
Dalton Meny:

Keep your mind open. You can't come in with a big attitude and change everything all at once. You have to pick your battles. Definitely you have to get everyone on board with you, because if you're not a cohesive team, it's not going to work. Work with your team, change things, but don't be against them too much. You have to do what your customer needs. You can't be too rigid in what you think your business is. You have to adapt.

Stefanie Couch:

Congruency like that, especially if something's online it's one price and in the store is another things like that. It can really irritate people and it can cause their customer experience to think you're cheating them or something.

Dalton Meny:

It's so important to give back and be involved in your community. You're the local business. We're not Home Depot, we're not a Lowe's. We're here, we live here, we work here. You need to make yourself seen and give your time to the back community, because you're the difference between the big box store.

Stefanie Couch:

Welcome to the Grit Blueprint podcast, the show for bold builders, brand leaders and legacy makers in the construction and building industry. I'm your host, Stefanie Couch, and I've been in this industry my entire life. Whether we're breaking down what's working in sales and marketing, new advances in AI and automation, or interviewing top industry leaders, you're going to get real world strategies to grow your business, build your brand and lead your team. Let's get to work. Welcome to the Grit Blueprint Podcast. I'm your host, Stefanie Couch, and I'm here today, live in Orlando, with my friend, dalton.

Stefanie Couch:

Welcome to the show, dalton, thank you, and Dalton is actually a fifth generation hardware store legacy business. Amazing, fifth generation is so cool and we're going to talk today about a lot of interesting stuff your background and I'm excited to get started. So let's do it. He has been in the business, but you actually have a non-traditional path to the hardware store, so you started with a computer science degree, yes, and you have done a lot of things to change your business and your family's business in just the short time that you've been there. You actually are the head of operations in your locations and you have three stores. Your business has been in business since 1881. Yes, I cannot even fathom that. So cool. Do you guys have pictures and stuff for your original?

Dalton Meny:

I have a lot of pictures on my phone like files I've gotten from the family. I love it.

Stefanie Couch:

I would love to see some of those. We actually are talking about three stores in Indiana which we're going to go into and what you've done in your multi-store operation in the last four years. You, in 2023, won a top young retailer award, so congratulations on that. You've been decorated and I'm really excited to talk to you today about some of the tech stuff, because you know I love tech. It's one of my favorite things to think about. How can we change a super traditional industry that is very old school? Anything that started in 1881 is pretty old school, right, but you are flipping that on its head. So tell me a little bit about the computer science background, what you got into, that then led you into this family business, and how you got started.

Dalton Meny:

Okay, it definitely wasn't my plan to come back to the hardware business. So I graduated in 2019 from college and I came home looking for a job and the midst of that my parents decided to open their third location and I started helping in this project. And I kept helping and I kind of took over the project and I've never left. I just kind of jumped in and kind of took charge of it and I took over and kind of what was that first project that you came in?

Stefanie Couch:

What were you doing when you first started?

Dalton Meny:

We were opening our third location from the Roundup, okay. So I graduated in school in May. My parents bought the building in June Okay, and we did a full remodel new flooring, new paint, new lighting, and then we got a new fixture, new product, and we were open by September 30th Wow. So it was a very fast-tracked project. That is fast-tracked, a lot of work. I wouldn't recommend it, but it definitely was a big learning experience, yeah.

Stefanie Couch:

What kind of area are your stores in? Are they pretty rural? Pretty rural, yeah.

Dalton Meny:

Okay. The one has about 14,000 people, the other one has about 3,000 people in the city town Okay and the other one has about 400.

Stefanie Couch:

And you guys are a true value store. Yes, so true value just got purchased and acquired by Do it Best the last year. Tell me a little bit about what that's been like for you guys transitioning and how that's worked.

Dalton Meny:

It's been a little chaotic, I won't lie. You know we weren't sure what to expect at first. We first learned about the whole bankruptcy and what was happening. But really, I think do the best has been the best option for us. I think that was our next choice, that we had to pick another one. Yeah, and I'm really excited for the future brings. I think in the end, with this all settled, we'll have a really good company for all of us.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, I'm excited about what's happening and it seems like a lot of the True Value members are getting a lot of resources that maybe they've been starving for for a while, so it's exciting for you guys to have that. Tell me a little bit about the day-to-day in your business and in your role. What are you doing in every day when you go in?

Dalton Meny:

Well, last two years I'm working a lot on orders and inventory that's my biggest concern and I also kind of somewhat manage our managers and that sort of stuff. Okay, but you never really know what day is going to bring, because it's always something you know I may be working, or maybe working the register or answering the phones or just whatever has to do.

Stefanie Couch:

And you have three stores.

Dalton Meny:

So are you kind?

Stefanie Couch:

of going back and forth between the stores.

Dalton Meny:

Yeah, my desk is at once on there most of the time, but I do go back and forth Very cool Never know what's going to happen during a day.

Stefanie Couch:

All right. Do you have a favorite area in the store, like a favorite aisle, a favorite section? What do you like to do in the store?

Dalton Meny:

Honestly, plumbing has grown on me a lot. I don't I think I'm very good at plumbing, but I can like piece stuff together. I like doing that. Like people say, I need this size, that size, you have to piece it together. It's kind of fun to figure it out.

Stefanie Couch:

I used to do that when I was little. So my dad had a hardware store in Georgia, yeah, and I started working there when I was very young. But when I was maybe like 12 or 13, you know, people would come in and they would say, hey, trying to go from CPVC to PVC, and we're trying to do this, and I would go back to aisle 13. I had no idea what I was doing no clue, and neither did they. So they follow the young girl to aisle 13. And it was like a puzzle, yeah, and I think that's what I liked about it too. Electrical scared me because, like, if electrical goes wrong, you're getting shocked, but if plumbing goes wrong, something might leak, it could still be bad, but it's not. It's lower stakes, right, so it's not as bad. I love that. What about your day-to-day with your customers, are you?

Dalton Meny:

are you having a lot of homeowners come in contractors? How does your business look? It's a lot of homeowners. We do have some business, a lot of that and then we do a lot with farmers in our area, so kind of a mixed bag.

Stefanie Couch:

So tell me about the farm and ranch part of the business.

Dalton Meny:

So in our area we have a lot of, you know, regular farmers, lots of chicken and turkey farmers, so we kind of cater to them at our one store and provide some strange things that you wouldn't expect a harvester to sell.

Stefanie Couch:

You know what I'm going to ask next Tell me about the strange things.

Dalton Meny:

We sell a lot of fly killer and that sort of stuff. I sell it in these big 40 gallon buckets and these big liquids and 55 gallon drums.

Stefanie Couch:

Do you sell animals too? No, okay, no live animals, just fly killer. I love it. Okay, what's the weirdest thing you've ever sold?

Dalton Meny:

Our one customer. We kind of like agreement we purchase things for they come to us, we buy it, you know, and we don don't. We have a special deal with them and they'll come in with the strangest things sometimes, like I think last week I get to order tv for them. They like I want this tv order formula. Okay, I mean like just whatever they want we get. That's really cool. It's kind of a unique relationship we have with them.

Stefanie Couch:

But I love that. So what do you think makes a great business? As far as that, you're talking about doing things that are kind of out of the norm, you know, making it happen for people. What does that mean to you to be a great business like that?

Dalton Meny:

I think that means to just be flexible. You have to do what your customer needs. You can't be too rigid in what you think your business is. You have to adapt and kind of mold it to what your customer needs it to be.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, I love that, and you're working on a lot of operations and technical and inventory projects. What is your goal when you start something like that? How do you decide what's important? Because there's a million things we could all do in our business right and I know at a hardware store there's so many things you could optimize or you could do. How do you decide what to work on next?

Dalton Meny:

I guess whatever is bothering me the most. I can be selfish a little bit, but I know I notice things that I know is going to be better, so I'm going to look for a way to fix it, because that's how I kind of do it.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, so when you start a technical project, is it just you that's kind of working on it? Yeah, just me Okay. So what are some of the things do you use ai?

Dalton Meny:

no, not ai okay but just regular programming okay, like python, that sort of stuff okay, so what are you doing, like, what's a project?

Stefanie Couch:

tell me about a project you're working on right now, or what I've been working on is with um inventory transfers.

Dalton Meny:

Okay, so before I came on, we had two stores that ran pretty separate. So the third, we started trying to make them all more cohesive with each other and part of that we started transferable inventory and it's not there's. There was no good way to do that. It was like, oh, I need this, I need this. So I built a program. It takes data from our pos, reads all of it and then it will decide okay, this store needs free from this one or this I start using like minimums and your 12 month sales and how much you sell. You know that sort of stuff.

Stefanie Couch:

So Okay, and has that been a success?

Dalton Meny:

Yeah, I use it every week, so that's awesome.

Stefanie Couch:

I love it. I bet your people are glad to have a system instead of just pure chaos, right? Yes, all right. Well, let's talk about pricing. Pricing and processes are a huge deal in every small business, but especially in one that has three stores.

Dalton Meny:

Yes.

Stefanie Couch:

How do you keep your systems and your pricing together and what have you done to optimize that?

Dalton Meny:

So before I came on there was no pricing system. It was kind of a free-for-all. My dad wasn't charged, he had his own system, you can say. But we've kind of switched, just regulatory value suggested, which for the most part I agree with. There's a few things, but every week I'll throw out our POS and I will go through the changes and order price stickers and I have reports I've made that can compare prices, that are discrepancies between each store so we can keep them mostly in line, cause it's hard cause all our stores are pretty close. We're about 12, 15 miles apart, so can't have a customer going from one store and paying $3 and then going to the other one and paying $5.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, that's actually a really big point that I think a lot of people miss is congruency like that, especially if something's online it's one price and in the store is another. Things like that it can really irritate people and it can cause their customer experience to think you're cheating them or something. Do you guys have e-commerce?

Dalton Meny:

Yes.

Stefanie Couch:

So how does that work for you?

Dalton Meny:

It's not a huge thing. It's there. I love it for it to grow, but it's hard. Yeah, you know you have to have a customer base for it. Maybe our customer base is a little more old school yeah, the old school rule guy.

Stefanie Couch:

The guy buying the 40 gallons of Fly Killer probably didn't buy it in a while I guess no, they're not, they're calling to order it you know, oh, I love it. Well, your stores are deeply rooted in community and I'm sure that you spend a lot of time doing things. Why do you think small town leadership and these small businesses? They're such a big part of a smaller town. Why is it so important?

Dalton Meny:

It's so important to give back and be involved in your community because you're the local business. We're not Home Depot, we're not a Lowe's, we're here, we live here, we work here. So you need to make yourself seen and appreciated. Give your time to the back community because you're the difference between the big box store.

Stefanie Couch:

I love it. What are some of the things you do at Minis?

Dalton Meny:

We love to do sponsorships and a lot of little leagues, softballs, that sort of stuff. Yeah, we try to focus more on schools, that sort of stuff. You know, local fests and events yeah, those are big things.

Stefanie Couch:

I'm sure people, I'm sure you have a lot of kids that come into your store. Oh yeah, lot of kids that come into your store. Oh yeah, they still love to go. I mean, obviously I grew up in a hardware store but I love to go to other people's hardware stores, like when I visited places or we went on vacation. It was always fun because they a lot of them have really cool stuff for kids. Yeah, do you guys have a section like that?

Dalton Meny:

Not really. We have popcorn like to come in. It's pretty good. One of our employees, her grandson, comes in. He loves one of the magnets and playing with those little round discs yeah, that's his favorite.

Stefanie Couch:

The popcorn machine is a good idea. I would like that, and I'm not a kid. Yeah Well, I want to go back to the history of the company. So 1881. Yes, a long time. Tell me a little bit about how the store started. What was it like in 1881?

Dalton Meny:

So it started in Hopstot, indiana, by August Schultheis he's my great-great-grandfather, okay, and his parents were immigrants from Germany and he opened this general store and they sold every. You know, hides and tin and hardware. They sold dynamite, it was. It was everything, yeah. And then his son-in-law, Victor Meny, bought it from him in the thirties, I think, okay. And then my grandpa and his siblings took over. There were 12 siblings, wow. And then. And then they were five, him and four of their siblings, so they were the owners and they really expanded. They added a grocery, they added a appliance business, a propane business, like heating and air. It was a huge conglomerate. In the eighties they built like a 40,000 square foot whole building had everything under Wow. And they opened a hardware store in Jasper Okay, that's where we're at now. And then my grandpa and his siblings retired. My parents bought the store we have now, and then my parents have expanded from there.

Stefanie Couch:

That's very cool. And being a fifth generation store owner, what does that mean to you?

Dalton Meny:

It means a lot of legacy, a lot of weight in your shoulders. Store owner. What does that mean to you? It means a lot of legacy, a lot of weight in your shoulders. You want that you don't be the generation to ruin it. But you know, it's good to see what's come before you and what has worked well. But also it's good to kind of change and take a new direction.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, you know you feel like you get pushback or more support as far as, like the changing of the guard, because there's some things that have been done a long time this way, right yeah, you'd be careful with it.

Dalton Meny:

You can't be too yeah it has to be gradual and, yeah, my dad's more opposed to change, so well, and that's the thing with.

Stefanie Couch:

I think all younger generations want to shake things up and want to put your mark on it, but hopefully, being that you're in the technology realm, they maybe let you kind of do yeah, they don't know how to code, so it it's like what are they gonna?

Dalton Meny:

do about it. Yeah, they don't question that part. They don't know how it works.

Stefanie Couch:

I love it. Well, what advice would you give to someone who's stepping into a leadership role in a family business? Maybe they aren't sure what to do or maybe they're coming into this industry new. What would you tell them? Because you weren't planning on coming back?

Dalton Meny:

No, Keep your mind open. You can't come in with a big attitude and change everything all at once. You have to pick your battles definitely, and you have to get everyone on board with you, because if you're not a cohesive team, it's not going to work. So work with your team, change things, but don't be against them too much.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, you gotta be collaborative. Yeah, All right. Last question for you what excites you the most about your future in the industry and about some of the things that are happening right now that you see around you?

Dalton Meny:

Well, definitely, in this true value, do the best merger. I think there's a lot of good things that can come out of that. I don't know what future is gonna bring products. I think it's gonna be really good for us.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, that's great Then technology.

Dalton Meny:

You know that's always changing. It's interesting to see how that can change over the next few years. You never really know.

Stefanie Couch:

No, I mean with AI. I think it'll be. It's changing every week.

Dalton Meny:

Yeah.

Stefanie Couch:

You know it's kind of crazy and I think it's gonna come into the industry pretty quickly because it's coming into everything. Maybe be a little longer in our industry than others.

Dalton Meny:

We're always a little behind everyone. Yeah, for sure.

Stefanie Couch:

I think right now some companies are 20 to 30 years behind, but I don't think that it'll be that way forever, because, just because of the nature of how quick AI is moving, I think so. I love it. Well, thank you so much for joining me on the Grit Blueprint. I really appreciate it and I'm excited to hopefully get to Indy and see in Indiana your amazing family hardware stores and maybe buy some dynamite I don't know, Do you still have that?

Dalton Meny:

No, we don't.

Stefanie Couch:

Okay, Well, that's very disappointing, but I still want to come see you. Thank you so much for joining me on the Grit Blueprint. Thank you, that's it for this episode of the Grit Blueprint podcast. For more tools, training and industry content, make sure to subscribe here and follow me on LinkedIn and other social media platforms To find out more about how Grit Blueprint can help you grow your business. Check us out at our website, gritblueprintcom.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Stefanie Couch

Host