Hood's Home Centers, Foley, Mobile, and Beyond!

If you’ve driven down Highway 59 through Loxley, Robertsdale, and Foley on the way to the beach, you’ve probably seen Hood’s Home Center. It’s hard to miss the giant colorful rooster guarding the various building supplies, hardscape, and yard swings that front the highway. It looks chaotic but I promise, it’s by design.

I sat down with Mike Hood and his daughters, Meredith and Anna, in the Foley store’s upstairs office overlooking the main showroom to learn how Hood’s evolved. Mike’s brother-in-law, Chris, was working in the other office with the door open, so he could hear and fill in the gaps as the conversation flowed.

I love this kind of behind-the-scenes look at successful family businesses. In this case, I quickly learned that there are nine Hood’s Home Centers, all family-owned. Six are in Missouri in and around the St. Louis area, two are in Alabama in Foley and Tilman’s Corner in Mobile, and one is in Gulfport, Mississippi.

It all started when Mike’s grandfather returned from WWII and an Army buddy from Texas suggested he come to meet his sister. His grandfather said, “Why not,” and made the drive from Iowa to Texas. He ended up marrying a different sister, and they made plans to move to New York to start a junkyard, something Mike’s grandfather was familiar with because his family had several junkyards in Iowa.

The couple made it as far as St. Louis when his new wife said, “This is as far North as I’m going.” So they started a junkyard and named it Ruins of America. To attract customers, it had an old junk car high on top of the junkyard. It worked! Mike’s father, who was shot in the Korean War, worked there and began buying Army surplus goods which led to selling automotive tools.

Mike tells me, “We became a building supply company when a salesman wanted to sell us masonite paneling. Everybody paneled everything back then. We then began carrying an array of surplus building supplies that we sold at a deep discount.” The store became Hood’s Discount Home Center for years until they began offering custom-ordered cabinets and doing kitchen designs. 

Mike discovered the Gulf Coast after driving down to New Orleans, and then across the Gulf Coast on his honeymoon. He says he didn’t even know Alabama had a coast. “We made our way to Perdido Key after taking the ferry from Dauphin Island to  Ft. Morgan. I loved it and we bought property on the water in Josephine. They purchased the old Foley Tractor building on Hwy 59 and the rest, as they say, is history."

“Customers always ask, “How did this all start, and why do you sell all this stuff? Chris was the first to come to Foley in 1990 because he was ready for a change from corporate life. He sold salvage building materials at first, like ceramic tile, paneling, Formica countertops, and other things. Honestly, I wasn’t sure it was a good business decision,” says Mike. 

Mike and his wife, Phyllis have three children, Michael John, Meredith, and Anna. Michael John runs the stores in St. Louis while Meredith and Anna help Mike and Chris run things on the Gulf Coast. They tell me that when they started carrying nice kitchen cabinets, the focus switched from discounted salvage goods to more upscale building products, finished goods like countertops and flooring, as well as home decor items.

“We changed the look of the store and dropped “Discount” from our name,” says. Meredith. “We always have some close-out things that sell well, but you have to find what the customer wants.” “If you wait long enough, people will buy it,” says Mike. “We found out if you rearrange stuff, it sells better, so we are constantly moving things around.”

Hoods is an eclectic place for sure. Linda does a little interior design consulting work for kitchen redos and such, and Hood’s is usually her first stop to scout out what will work well for her clients. I tag along occasionally because a stop at Hood’s is always fun and interesting. Plus, they have a couple of friendly Golden Retrievers as greeters.

I ask Mike about the eye-catching crazy yard statues sitting along the highway or on the big, long front porch of the store... “It definitely gets people in the door.” He tells the story of a guy named Ned who pulled up with a pickup truck full of fiberglass giraffes and elephants. “I told him, “I don’t know about that,” but he convinced me and we sold them for years. It’s the curiosity factor that draws them in.

Anna, who recently graduated from Colorado State University, says that the concrete elephants painted gray with crimson sweaters put all three kids through college, including Meredith and Michael John at Auburn. “Alabama fans bought them for years for $120 apiece, and people ask for them all the time.”

Since they moved into selling more upscale offerings, the customer base has changed. They have more women shopping than men these days. That didn’t used to be the case. “The boss is the woman of the house,” says Mike. Meredith says they switched the Men’s and Women’s restrooms around and fixed it up to better accommodate female customers.

Hood’s offers custom door design and fabricated countertops. They have in-house designers who work on a CAD system to show customers what is available for cabinets, countertops, doors, floors, and other design items. “We have good relationships with area contractors and can recommend several for installations if needed,” says Mike.

“Our biggest selling items are flooring, doors, cabinets, countertops, and landscaping hardscape.,” Meredith tells me. “The pandemic doubled our business,” says Mike. “People stayed home and watched home decorating shows, and would come buy things to fix up their homes. We were considered an essential business, so we were allowed to stay open.”

Mike, one of five kids, went straight into the business after high school and started his own business when he was just 25 years old. He is quick to say, “None of this would have happened if I hadn’t gotten sober a long time ago.” Anna tells me she is considering moving back West, much to her dad’s chagrin. “I think it’s important in a family business to spend some time working for someone else,” she says while looking at her dad.  

The family lives in Fairhope, and the kids attended McGill Toolen High School. Meredith says she loved going to McGill before heading off to Auburn where she earned a degree in Marketing. Anna earned her degree in Graphic Arts. The future looks bright at Hood’s because it seems to be in good hands. 

As we wrap up our conversation, we talk about how things have grown and changed since they first arrived over 30 years ago. Mike said, “Before, we were just a hardware and home building supply store. The Tanger Outlet Mall was just opening when we started. Chris and I could drive to a restaurant in Gulf Shores and be back at work within an hour. The only place to eat around here was the bowling alley.”

“The growth has been crazy. The way we grew was by investing in our employees. Ninety percent of our employees started here when they were in high school and a few are running stores now In our other locations.”

“Our Home Decor department grew as people invested and were setting up condos on the beach for rental,” says Meredith. As we were walking through the main store, I asked Mike about some vintage 1940s-era Kitty Cars on a shelf above the showroom floor.  He tells me that one day he came across them, stopped, and bought the entire collection. 

That’s just how things work at Hood’s. They have an eye for the eclectic. Since purchasing the original building, they’ve added two more buildings and new product lines like furniture, and dining room sets. You can still find all manner of hardware, fasteners, boxes of screws, and nails.

These days, the family still enjoys their place on the water in Josephine near Pirates Cove. Mike enjoys being on the water but doesn’t chase the fish as hard as he once did. After all, it was his love of boating that got him here in the first place. I get that.

Stop by Hood’s Home Center the next time you have a project in mind. Let your curiosity get the best of you!