Sneed’s Ace Hardware has been David Shaw’s home away from home for 40 years. The lifelong Lafayette County resident has worked in the local institution of a store since high school, where he started out unloading trucks and stocking shelves.

“It was just an afterschool job that has grown to become so much more,” David said. “It’s where my wife Susan and I spend most of our time. It’s where we have built friendships with customers and neighbors. It’s where we serve the community.”

That longtime commitment to the store is why David and Susan Shaw are excited about the store’s next chapter: changing the name of the store from Sneed’s Ace Hardware to Shaw Ace Hardware.

“It’s not a major change,” said Susan. “We will still have all of the same products. All of the people the community has come to know and love will still be working here. The only thing that is changing is the name on the building.”

In a way, the name change is a full-circle moment for David. That’s because, when the store originally opened on the Square in 1951, David’s grandfather Parham Shaw was one of the co-founders.

“It was originally called Shaw and Sneed Hardware,” said David. “My grandfather started it with his friend Payne Sneed. It eventually became an Ace Hardware store in 1963.”

A couple of years before David’s grandfather passed away in 1967, he sold his part of the store to Payne and the name was changed to Sneed’s. David has been involved with the store since 1975.

He first worked there in high school and then joined the business full- time as an accountant after graduating from the University of Mississippi. Eventually, after working alongside Payne and Payne’s son Harry, David became a partner in the business in 1998 and then he and Susan purchased it outright when Harry was ready to retire in 2017. Susan joined the Sneed’s Hardware staff in 2008 as the accountant after teaching at Oxford Middle School for 12 years.

“I learned so much working with both Payne and Harry,” said David. “Over the years, we were able to build the store into the go-to place for everything from home projects to yard work to major maintenance and construction efforts. We have customers who have been coming here for generations now, and I am so grateful to be a part of that.”