Since Naples entrepreneur Don Wynn launched Sunshine Hardware in downtown Naples in 1958, the local family business has grown into a network of stores built around a variety of quality goods serviced by a friendly staff.  

Those aspects are apparent with the Wynn family’s launch this month of its 12th hardware store. The latest one celebrated its opening Saturday, April 22, in Founders Square on the southeast corner of Immokalee Road and Collier Boulevard in Collier County. Sunshine Ace Hardware is the first business and the anchor of The Plaza at Founders Square, a retail strip at 8850 Founders Square Drive in the center of the mixed-use development on that busy corner.  

“Collier County’s residential and commercial growth is heading east of I-75, and we look forward to welcoming all the contractors, business owners and homeowners who no longer have to drive into town to buy a can of paint, tools or a new grill,” said Sunshine Ace Hardware President Michael Wynn, grandson of the late Don Wynn.  

The new hardware store is the fifth in Collier County for the Wynns, which also have stores in downtown Naples, East Naples, Golden Gate and Marco Island. “It’s the 12th hardware store overall,” Wynn said. “We have 13 locations, which includes our dedicated commercial paint store.”   

In addition to the Benjamin Moore paint store on U.S. 41 in downtown Naples and the other stores in Collier, the company also has hardware stores in Lee, Charlotte and Pinellas counties. The Wynn family has had stores in the Naples area for 75 of Collier County’s 100 years. Wynn’s Market began as Sunshine Super Market in 1948 where Yabba Island Grill is today on Fifth Avenue South and what then was the corner of Seventh Avenue South.  

“The family history in Florida goes back to the 1880s in Bradford County, just outside of Gainesville, then Plant City and then to Naples in 1938,” Wynn said “Just down by the City Dock, they bought a little inn and grocery store. Grandfather came back from World War II, bought the business with a GI loan of $2,000, and then we located in the mid-’40s to Fifth Avenue.”  

In 1953, 50 feet east of the original market on Fifth Avenue, founder Don Wynn built a second market, doubling its size with a parking lot between the stores.  

“That original location for the grocery store on Fifth Avenue was rented out to a Western Auto parts store,” Michael Wynn said. “He later bought out that owner of the Western Auto parts store and then ended up turning it into Sunshine Hardware, and that’s where Sunshine Hardware was born originally on Fifth Avenue.”  

The original hardware store moved adjacent to Wynn’s Market near the NCH hospital on U.S. 41 in 1964. “That was also when we originally joined the Ace buying cooperative,” Wynn said.Ace Hardware Corp. is the largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative, which provides buying power and cohesive marketing. Its longtime jingle, “Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man,” was modified in the late ‘80s, replacing “man” with “folks,” which proves to be more accurate even on the local level.  

The new Founders Square store is led by a woman. Store Manager Maide Mendez is leading efforts to hire full- and part-time jobs at the new store. Mendez has served as assistant store manager for the Sunshine Ace store in Bonita Springs since 2021. She also has experience as an assistant manager and store manager for hardware stores in South Florida.  

The new 20,455-square-foot Sunshine Ace store features commercial paint, grilling and fishing departments, as well as a wide selection of power and hand tools, hardware, lawn and garden supplies, plumbing fixtures, outdoor living accessories, gifts and supplies for do-it-yourselfers. Built by PBS Contractors of Naples, the store’s design includes a drive-thru window for commercial and residential customers picking up online orders, a first for the Naples-based company.   

“During the pandemic, many loyal Sunshine Ace customers discovered the ease of online ordering and curbside pickup,” Wynn said. “Although our friendly associates are happy to see familiar faces and strike up a conversation inside the store, ‘convenience shopping’ has become very popular. It’s online shopping, but you don’t have to wait a few days or weeks for delivery. You just swing by the store on your way home from work or dinner.”   

Wynn feels Sunshine Ace is different from big-box hardware stores in many other ways, but especially sets itself apart when it comes to personalized service. “People always say that people are the difference, and it sounds cliché, but that really is the case with our locations,” he said. “And we work very hard with a very purposeful culture with specific core values and systems to perpetuate that and it all centers around my grandfather’s philosophy, which was you take care of your people, they’ll take care of the customers and the business will take care of itself. And so, we put our people first before our customers because we believe that if they are treated right, if they are happy, and they are given the resources and training, they will provide the best overall experience to our customers. So that’s No. 1.” The Founders Square store eventually may be a contender for the Wynn family’s top store, which now is a toss-up between its largest locations in Golden Gate and Bonita Springs. “We absolutely think that is going to be one of our top-performing stores long term,” Wynn said. “But we also recognize the growing need out in east Collier and may be looking to make sure we’re prepared to serve that growing area with additional locations in the future similar to what Publix has done.”  

So, Wynn already has plans for future locations of Sunshine Ace Hardware.  

“My challenge is I’m in the process of finalizing a couple of leases,” he said. “At least one more location is coming to Collier County in the next 12 to 18 months and another location that will be opened in a nearby northern county hopefully in the next 24 months. And we should be ready to announce those, I’m hoping, in the next couple of weeks. They’re both very close.”