44 Business View Magazine - October 2016
ShoppersChoice.com
An online-shopping pioneer tells his story
ShoppersChoice.com is an online retailer of outdoor
home and entertainment products including barbeque
grills, grill accessories, gas logs and fireplaces, patio
furniture, and other home, kitchen, and outdoor appli-
ances, furniture, and accessories. The company was
originally founded by Mike Hackley in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana in 1998. A far-seeing entrepreneur who,
early on, perceived the possibilities of online shop-
ping, Hackley narrates the saga of how a small brick
and mortar store became one of the world’s leading
websites for outdoor cooking and leisure products. It’s
a great story:
“I was in the military for ten years. I worked part-time
for my father-in-law installing gas grills. Back then, they
had the old gas grills that were on a post, so I had to in-
stall the copper lines, hook them up to the gas meter,
concrete them in, crank ‘em up, and get ‘em started.
After I got out of the military, I moved on to the hotel
business for a couple of years. I was moving back from
Des Moines, Iowa where I was managing a hotel, and
was on the way back to Louisiana to manage another
