Loomis Ace Hardware owner celebrates 1-year anniversary, gives to schools

For eight years, south Auburn resident Greg Brening worked in private equity, wearing a suit and tie and traveling about 150,000 miles a year throughout the country. In March 2020, Brening sat at his counter making a list of supplies he needed to start a garden on the side of his house. He decided to visit Ace Hardware in Auburn, instead of a big-box store such as Home Depot. At that moment, Brening turned to his wife and said, "I'm going to open a hardware store." "Yeah, sure," she replied. On Nov. 10 that year, Brening opened Loomis Ace Hardware for business. After contacting Ace corporate that March about starting a store where the old Law Brothers Hardware used to be, everything came together quickly. "I was thinking really two things," Brening said. "One is to make a living, and the other was really to serve the community that I grew up in and that my kids went to." Ace gives its stores a six-month sales goal and the Loomis store tripled its first day goal by the end of the day, Brening said. Ace also recognized Brening's store as a "Pinnacle" dealer, the highest level of achievement meaning that it met very high operating and customer service standards. In June, Loomis Ace Hardware expanded into a second building across the street to hold its barbeques and other accessories such as seasonings, rubs, spatulas and cleaners. Brening maintained some features from the old pharmacy that used to occupy the building, including a bar with stools and a retro soda machine. Loomis Ace Hardware lab manager Tami Osborn said she regularly visited the store as a customer until she was offered a job there in April. "I love the community and I love the people, I love our customers, I love the people that we work with," Osborn said. "We're kind of a family and Greg makes it fun because he's very passionate about what he does." In November, Brening donated a $30,540 check to Loomis area schools and community from Loomis Ace Hardware's first year earnings as a sponsor of the MandaRUN. A founding member of the Loomis Basin Education Foundation, Brening saw how education and community events struggled for money and wanted to give a portion of his sales to the cause. The donation will go toward expanding Loomis area schools' use of technology and providing performing arts opportunities such as drama and art, according to Loomis Unified School District Superintendent Gordon Medd.. "Greg Brening has always been a partner of our district and now even more than in the past," Medd said. Loomis Ace Hardware employs many Del Oro and Rocklin high school students, Brening said. His father and son also work at the store. Brening graduated from Del Oro High School in 1987 and four of his children have attended the school. He said his wife is also a PE teacher at the school and was just promoted to athletic director. Brening used to coach basketball programs and started the Loomis Lady Eagles junior basketball program before he started his corporate job and had to travel. "I was traveling the world and all that stuff that you do and all the airplanes and back and forth; what's it for? There's no real community because it's just corporate America," Brening said. "This was really inspiring because I could come, I could dress like this and clothes that I like to, not suit and tie, and then I could give back to the institution that helped my family and my kids."