Central Wisconsin News

Snowblowers are expected to be in high demand this year, according to a Wisconsin Rapids hardware store manager.

Domonic Flammini, general manager of Ace Hardware, 2350 8th St S in Wisconsin Rapids, told Central Wisconsin News that he hopes snow blower supply can keep up.

Flammini said that currently, Ace Hardware is able to meet demand. His store has a variety of Toro and Stihl snowblowers in stock now.

“There are different makes and models throughout he whole line. We can get a machine to someone right now. Either what they want, or very close to what they want,”  Flammini said, adding that his the two-store chain (he also owns an Ace in Tomah) can tap into Ace Hardware’s larger nationwide inventory.

And snowblower brands manufactured in North America — like Toro and Stihl, carried by Ace Hardware, which offers free assembly and delivery of snowblowers from their Wisconsin Rapids store — are seeing fewer issues.

But Flammini said that circumstances will change when snow starts falling. If you haven't bought a snowblower before the powder starts to pile up later this month, he said, you may be on the end of a wait list well into summer 2022.

“Come the big snow storm the end of this month or January who knows? I might not have anything left. They go pretty quick when that happens,” he said. “I don’t think it matters if it is me or the biggest retailer in the country, we are just all at the mercy of when the stuff crosses the ocean and gets put on the trucks."

Founded in 1973, Ace Hardware Wisconsin Rapids is independently-owned by Mike and Carla Flammini of Nekoosa. It has been in his family since 1975, originally owned by Mike's parents, Frank and Carol Flammini, who re-located their family to Adams County from Burlington to operate it. They expanded to the store's current location in 2001.

The store part of the Ace Hardware cooperative, founded in 1924 and now with more than 4,600 member stores in 50 states and 70 countries.