Westlake Ace Hardware reduces costs of enforcing Covid-19 capacity restrictions

Westlake Ace Hardware has over 5,000 stores around the world with the majority of those stores independently owned and operated by local entrepreneurs. Ace changed the retail landscape by allowing small hardware stores to compete effectively despite larger stores in their market. Westlake Ace Hardware, over time, became one of Ace’s largest franchisees and today is a good neighbor to the residents of Mountain View, California.

As a caring member of the Mountain View community, Westlake Ace takes care to ensure that Associates and customers are safe during the Covid-19 pandemic. Westlake Ace uses a single BlueZoo sensor to measure the occupancy of their 43,000 square-foot store and to prevent overcrowding.

Challenge

On weekdays Westlake Ace keeps customer limits between 30 and 40 customers, based on staffing.  On weekends, they generally raise customer limits to between 40 and 50. If the count spikes above the upper limit, Chris Guerriero, general manager, places staff at the door to restrict inbound flow in order to bring down the total number of customers. They are then able to re-establish a steady cadence of one-in, one-out. When the total number of customers hits the lower limit, staff leaves the door unattended.

Before BlueZoo, Guerriero would have to assign staff to track entries and exits of customers to manage overcrowding. This was expensive because that payroll thus spent didn’t serve customers or stock the shelves. And either the door counters were in place from opening to closing, or periodic counts of customers were necessary in addition to the entry-exit counts.  And these periodic checks were difficult and rarely accurate.

Solution/Result

By implementing a single BlueZoo sensor, Westlake Ace gained real-time visibility into store occupancy without requiring manual counting by staff. BlueZoo’s measurement technology allowed the team to establish customizable customer thresholds based on staffing levels and time of day. When occupancy approached or exceeded those limits, staff members received immediate alerts through both the BlueZoo mobile app and text notifications, enabling them to quickly manage inbound traffic and maintain a safe shopping environment.

The system also notified staff when occupancy levels returned below the defined threshold, allowing entrance personnel to return to more productive responsibilities inside the store. As a result, Westlake Ace improved staff optimization by only assigning employees to monitor entrances when necessary, reducing labor costs while maintaining accurate occupancy awareness and a safer experience for both customers and Associates during the Covid-19 pandemic.