Finneys have business dream come true

Owners of the Ace Hardware store in downtown Sidney, Jon and Pat Finney, moved to Sidney in March of 1990 with a dream of owning a retail outfit and settling down in a nice location to raise their family.

“We wanted to own a retail business and so we looked around and we chose Sidney because it had a lot of good qualities,” said Pat Finney.

The two owners moved here with their children from Oklahoma City, forgoing big cities or other opportunities of managing a business elsewhere.

“We chose Sidney Neb. -- we could have been any place but we chose Sidney. There were stores available on the East Coast, West Coast and in large communities but we felt that Sidney was a good fit for us,” she said.

Finney said that within the characteristics of a town they were looking for to call home the couple found Sidney exceptional due to its small hometown feel, excellent school system, good air quality, proximity to big cities, low crime rate and friendly people, among other factors.

The storeowner said that she is happy with their decision to move to the Nebraska city that they did.

Finney said that she and her husband had always been in the retail business and wanted to find a new outfit. They found that niche in an existing True Value store off of Main Ave. in Sidney.

The two changed wholesalers and converted from a True Value to Ace Hardware in March of last year.

The store is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

“We look for unique and different seasonal items, whether it be Christmas or lawn and garden,” said Finney.

The storeowner said that there has been many improvements and changes in the store’s face as well as its merchandise.

“Customers should have seen a change with our merchandise. Now we stock Craftsman tools being affiliated with Ace. We also expanded our plumbing and electrical selection and our paint department,” she said.

Finney said that during the store’s transition from True Value to Ace Hardware the owners gave the outside of the building a “facelift” so that the building would fit in with the rest of historic downtown Sidney.

The owners love being a part of a small-town business she said because the people are friendly and they can conform the store to fit the needs of their customers.

She said that even though the Ace wholesaling group may suggest what a store contains in its various departments, her and her husband are able to include what items they think the community needs.

“We like the community. We are here to make the community prosper and the community is our friends too,” Finney said. “We can expand to meet our customers needs and we try and stock what the customers are asking for.”

Finney said that small-town businesses work together to compliment each other and provide the community with the best quality of services they can.

“We don’t like to overlap with what you could call our ‘competitors’ per say. I’m not going to sell the same stuff that Accents sells because it isn’t beneficial for either of us. We want to compliment the other business because we are all working together,” she said.

Finney also said that there are some things that the small-town atmosphere can provide a community that big businesses can’t.

“I would say smaller businesses provide what big boxes don’t. We provide customer service and the one-on-one with the customer,” Finney said. “We know, we work and we live with our customer.”