Ace Hardware Customer Experience Survey

This Sweepstakes Promotion extends through May 31, 2012 pursuant to the terms and conditions listed below. Please check back soon for the detailed monthly schedule for the Monthly Sweepstakes Drawings for the months of February, March, April and May.

ACE HARDWARE® CUSTOMER SURVEY SWEEPSTAKES PROMOTION OFFICIAL RULES

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN.
A PURCHASE OR PAYMENT WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING.

OPEN ONLY TO PERMANENT LEGAL RESIDENTS OF THE FIFTY (50) UNITED STATES AND DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA WHO ARE 18 YEARS OLD OR THE AGE OF MAJORITY IN THEIR STATE OF RESIDENCE, WHICHEVER IS GREATER, AND WHO ARE LOCATED IN THE UNITED STATES. RESIDENTS OF PUERTO RICO ARE INELIGIBLE TO ENTER OR WIN.

1. BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE SWEEPSTAKES:

The "ACE Hardware® Customer Survey Sweepstakes Promotion" (the "Promotion") starts on or about 2/1/12 at 12:00:00 a.m. Eastern Time ("ET") (Midnight) and ends 5/31/12 at 11:59:59 p.m., ET. ("Promotion Period") The Promotion consists of four (4) separate monthly sweepstakes drawings ("Monthly Sweepstakes Drawings"). The important dates for each Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing are as listed in Rule 4 below. Individuals may enter a Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing by either following the instructions to enter a special code ("Code") they may have received on an Ace Hardware store cash register receipt at a participating Ace Hardware store and to answer survey questions about their Ace Hardware shopping experiences or by submitting a mail-in entry as described in Rule 3 below. Entries from one Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing will not roll over to a succeeding Monthly Sweepstake Drawing. A Code may not be used more than once, regardless of email address or phone number submitted. Limit: One (1) Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing Prize per person or household throughout the Promotion Period.

2. ELIGIBILITY:

Open only to permanent legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, who are 18 years of age or the age of majority in their state of residence, whichever is greater, as of the date of entry. The following persons are not eligible to participate: (A) Employees, officers, directors and independent contractors of: (i) ACE Hardware Corporation ("Sponsor"), (ii) Sponsor's retailer affiliates (including shareholders and other owners therein), (iii) Sponsor's advertising, public relations, and promotion agencies (including, without limitation, Mercury Promotions & Fulfillment, Inc. ["Administrator" or "Mercury"], Interviewing Service of America, and Market Force Information, and all other individuals and entities associated with the creation, administration or fulfillment of the Promotion, and the respective parent companies, affiliates, agents, and/or subsidiaries of each of the foregoing entities; and (B) The immediate family members (defined as parents, children, spouses, siblings, whether biological, adoptive, step or in-law) of each of the aforementioned and members of each of their households. Residents of Puerto Rico are not eligible to enter or win.

3. HOW TO ENTER

There are two (2) ways to enter: (A) VIA CASH REGISTER RECEIPT CODE: If you purchase a product at a participating Ace Hardware store during the Promotion Period, you may receive a cash register receipt that contains a special Code, a website address, i.e. www.acecustomerinsights.com ("Website"), and a toll-free phone number at the bottom of the receipt. Either visit the Website or call the toll-free number and follow the directions to enter your Code. After entering your Code, you will be presented with several survey questions for you to complete regarding your Ace shopping experience. After you have answered all of the questions, you will receive an entry into the then current Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing. Your Code may only be used once throughout the Promotion Period. (B) ENTRY WITHOUT A CASH REGISTER RECEIPT CODE: If you do not have a cash register receipt, you may enter by legibly hand-printing your name, complete street address (no P.O. Boxes allowed), telephone number, valid email address and date of birth on a 3"x5" piece of paper and mailing it in a properly stamped #10 envelope to: ACE Hardware Customer Survey Sweepstakes Promotion, 35610 Mound Road, Dept. 2007, Sterling Heights, MI 48310-4725 in accordance with the Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing dates listed in Rule 4 below. You may submit as many mail-in entries as you wish; but, each mail-in entry must be mailed in its own properly stamped outer envelope. No mechanically reproduced mail-in entries are allowed. Sponsor is not responsible for illegible, late, lost, misdirected, damaged, postage-due or non-delivered entries. Mail-in requests not in total compliance with the requirements of this Rule will not be processed and you will not receive an entry. Entries received in one (1) Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing will not be carried forward to any following Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing. Entries become the property of Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned.

4. MONTHLY SWEEPSTAKES DRAWINGS (4)/ IMPORTANT DATES/ODDS OF WINNING:

There will be four (4) separate Monthly Sweepstakes Drawings throughout the Promotion Period. The important dates for each Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing are as listed in the table below. Entries received in one Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing will not be carried forward into subsequent Monthly Sweepstakes Drawings. The Administrator's decisions will be final and binding in all matters pertaining to the selection of potential Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing Winners. Odds of winning a Prize in a specific Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing depend upon the total number of all eligible entries received for that Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing, regardless of the method of entry.

Periodic Drawing Period	Start Date (as of 12:00 A.M. ET that day)	On-line/Telephone Entries - End/Receipt Date as of 11:59:59 P.M., ET	Mail-in Entries - End/Postmark Date	Mail-in Entries - Receipt Date:	Approx. Drawing Date	Approx. Notification Date
Periodic Drawing #1	2/1/12	2/29/12	2/29/12	3/7/12	3/9/12	3/12/12
Periodic Drawing #2	3/1/12	3/31/12	3/31/12	4/9/12	4/11/12	4/12/12
Periodic Drawing #3	4/1/12	4/30/12	4/30/12	5/7/12	5/9/12	5/10/12
Periodic Drawing #4	5/1/12	5/31/12	5/31/12	6/7/12	6/8/12	6/11/12

5. PRIZES:

Each winner of a Monthly Sweepstakes Drawing ("Winner") will receive a check in the amount of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) ("Prize"). Each potential Winner will be notified by phone or email on or about the dates listed above and must comply with the provisions of these Official Rules in order to qualify to receive a Prize. Prior to the receipt of the Prize, each potential Winner will be required to sign and return a notarized Affidavit of Eligibility/Compliance (including, without limitation, providing his/her respective Social Security Number as required by I.R.S.) and a Liability/Publicity Release, as allowed by state law, by the return date specified in the prize notification letter. Each Winner will receive a Form 1099 in the amount of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000), as required by law. Sponsor may, in its sole discretion, disqualify and select an alternate potential Winner if: (a) a potential Winner fails to respond to notification within the time specified by Sponsor; (b) the return of notification or prize as undeliverable; (c) a potential Winner's fails to provide Sponsor with satisfactory proof of age, identity and residency; (d) a potential Winner's fails to execute and return an Affidavit of Eligibility/Compliance (including, without limitation, providing his/her respective Social Security Number) and a Liability/Publicity Release, as allowed by law, by the return date specified by Sponsor, regardless of the cause of such failure; or (e) any other non-compliance with these Official Rules. Additionally, prior to the award of a Prize, Sponsor reserves the right to require a potential Winner to submit to a confidential background check to confirm eligibility as a condition of awarding the Prize to help ensure that the use of any such person in advertising or publicity for the Promotion will not bring Sponsor into public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule or reflect unfavorably on the Promotion as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion. All federal, state and local taxes are solely the individual responsibility of each Winner. All Prizes will be awarded provided there are a sufficient number of eligible entries; however, Sponsor will make no more than five (5) attempts to award the Prize. If after five (5) such good faith attempts, Sponsor is unable to award the Prize; the Prize will not be awarded.

6. LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY/RELEASE/INTERNET:

Sponsor, Interviewing Service of America, Market Force Information, Mercury and their respective officers, directors, employees, agents and independent contractors ("Sponsor & Others") and Sponsor's retailer affiliates (including shareholders and other owners therein) shall not be responsible for any change in any entrant's mailing address, email address, and/or telephone numbers following entry. Nor are Sponsor & Others responsible for any illegible, lost, late, incomplete, stolen, misdirected, damaged, postage due, or undeliverable, email, or postal mail; or for any computer, telephone, satellite, cable, network, electronic or Internet hardware or software malfunctions, failures, connections, or availability, or garbled, corrupt or jumbled transmissions, service provider/Internet/web site/use net accessibility, availability, or traffic congestion, or any technical error, or unauthorized human intervention, or the incorrect or inaccurate capture of registration information, or the failure to capture, or loss of, any such information. Sponsor & Others are not responsible for any typographical or factual errors, whether caused by any web site users, tampering, hacking, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Promotion and assume no responsibility for any omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, technical or factual error, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to any web site(s). Additionally, Sponsor & Others bear no liability for acts of force majeure or other acts which interfere with the intended proper administration, operation and fulfillment of this Promotion. Sponsor & Others are not responsible for any injury or damage, whether personal or property, to participants or to any person's computer related to or resulting from participating in this Promotion. If, for any reason, the Promotion is not capable of running as planned, Sponsor reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Promotion and/or proceed with the Promotion in a manner deemed fair and appropriate by Sponsor, including the selection of potential Winners from among eligible entries received prior to said cancellation, termination, modification or suspension. In the event of a dispute as to the identity of a Winner based on an email address, the winning entry will be declared made by the authorized account holder of the email address submitted at time of entry. "Authorized account holder" is defined as the natural person who is assigned to an email address by an Internet access provider, on-line service provider or other organization (e.g., business, educational institution, etc.) that is responsible for assigning email addresses for the domain associated with the submitted email address. In the event of a dispute as to the identity of a Winner based on a telephone number, the winning entry will be declared made by the individual in whose name the telephone is registered. Sponsor reserves the right, to disqualify any individual found, in its sole opinion, to be tampering or attempting to tamper with the operation of the Promotion; to be acting in violation of these Official Rules; to be acting with the intent to disrupt the normal operation of this Promotion; or to be otherwise acting in an unsportsmanlike manner. Any use of robotic, automatic, macro, programmed, third party or like methods to participate in the Promotion will void any attempted participation effected by such methods and the disqualification of the individual utilizing the same. CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE THE WEBSITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE PROMOTION IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS. SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, THE SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES OR OTHER REMEDIES FROM ANY SUCH PERSON (S) RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTEMPT TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

7. RELEASE/PUBLICITY RIGHTS:

By participating in the Promotion, each entrant agrees, and by accepting a Prize, each Winner agrees, to release and hold harmless Sponsor & Others from any and all liability, loss or damage incurred in connection with entrant's participation in the Promotion and/or the award, receipt, acceptance, possession or use/misuse of any Prize. By accepting a Prize, the Winner (i) agrees to Sponsor's use for advertising or publicity purposes of his/her name and address (city & state), photograph, videotape and/or likeness and to the use of statements made by or attributed to him/her relating to the Promotion (including the Survey portion), Sponsor, Sponsor's products, and/or Sponsor's retailers and (ii) grants to Sponsor any and all rights to said use world-wide in all forms of media now known or hereinafter devised for promotion, trade, commercial, advertising and publicity purposes, in perpetuity, without further compensation or notice, unless prohibited by law.

8. PRIVACY POLICY:

Any personally identifiable information collected during an entrant's participation in the Promotion will be collected by Sponsor and/or its agents and used by Sponsor in accordance with Sponsor's Privacy Policy as such is stated at www.aceconsumerinsights.com.

9. GENERAL:

By participating in this Promotion, entrants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor, which are final and binding in all respects. The Promotion is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. Issues concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the State of Michigan. Except where prohibited, all disputes arising out of or connected with this Promotion will be resolved individually, and without resort to class action, exclusively by binding arbitration, in Lansing, Michigan, subject to the rules of the American Arbitration Association. Should there be a conflict between the laws of the State of Michigan and any other laws, the conflict will be resolved in favor of the laws of the State of Michigan. Except where prohibited, all judgments or awards shall be limited to actual incurred out-of-pocket expenses associated with participation in the Promotion and shall not include any indirect, punitive, incidental and/or consequential damages. Void in Puerto Rico and wherever prohibited by law.

10. WINNERS LIST:

For Winners List, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: ACE Hardware Customer Survey Sweepstakes Promotion, 35610 Mound Road, Dept. 2007, Sterling Heights, MI 48310-4725.

11. SPONSOR:

ACE Hardware Corporation, 2200 Kensington Court, Oak Brook, IL 60523.

12. ADMINISTRATOR:

Mercury Promotions & Fulfillment Inc., 35610 Mound Road, Sterling Heights, MI 48310.