The Hechinger Company was an American chain of

home-improvement center A home improvement center, home improvement store, or home center is a retail store that combines the functions of a hardware store with those of a lumber yard. Major North American home-improvement center chains include Home Depot, Lowe's, Men ...

s headquartered in

Landover, Maryland Landover is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 25,998. Landover is contained between Sheriff Road and Central Avenue to the so ...

, on the immediate outskirts of Washington, D.C., from 1911 to 1999. It was also an online retailer owned by Home Decor Products from 2004 to 2009.

History

Hechinger Store Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 1999

Sidney L. Hechinger had initially established himself in the wrecking and salvage business in 1911, and in 1919 opened his first hardware store in Southwest Washington, D.C. Sidney Hechinger focused his hardware business exclusively on retail customers in 1924, eschewing contractors and builders. His decision foresaw the rise of the home improvement industry before the sector even had a name. The five-store company reorganized in 1953, with Sidney's son John and son-in-law Richard England becoming partners in the company, which was divided into a retail hardware business and a wholesale building supplies company, the latter being called Richard England Associates. John also served as the first appointed City Council chairman of Washington, D.C. In 1972, John Hechinger, Sr. and brother-in-law Richard England took the ten-store company public with an offering of 400,000 shares. John Hechinger, Jr. became the third generation of Hechingers to head the company when he was named president of the 54-store chain in 1986. Later that year, Hechinger Co. announced plans to reincorporate in Delaware, which was approved in a January 1987 shareholders' meeting. Hechinger had grown to a 69-store chain by the time it made its December 1987 offer to acquire the six stores of

Virginia Beach, Virginia Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...

-based

Home Quarters Warehouse Home Quarters Warehouse (HQ) was an American chain of " big-box" home improvement stores, originally based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In 1984, the chemical manufacturing company W.R. Grace & Co. announced its intentions to enter the home impr ...

(HQ) for $66 million. HQ had been founded in 1984 by W.R. Grace & Co. in the mold of big-box stores such as

Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the largest home improvement re ...

, and operated as a separate division of Hechinger Co. In the 1980s, it underwent a massive expansion of both HQ and the Hechinger Co. divisions, opening

big-box store A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The te ...

s to better compete with rivals

and

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. (), often shortened to Lowe's, is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States and Canada. A ...

. In January 1995, Hechinger announced it would close or reformat 22 of its 131 stores, including closing all 14 of the Home Quarters Warehouse stores in North and South Carolina. In August of that year, Hechinger Co. consolidated HQ with Hechinger in a further restructuring. Searching for a niche, Hechinger management in 1997 launched new, smaller concept stores such as Better Spaces in Albany, New York in February and Wye River Hardware & Home in Wheaton and Rockville in August. In July 1997,

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

-based investors Leonard Green & Partners announced plans to buy Hechinger Co. for $3 per share, or about $127 million, intending to merge Hechinger with

Builders Square Builders Square was a big-box home improvement retailer headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. A subsidiary of Kmart, its format was quite similar to The Home Depot, Menards, and Lowe's with floor space of about , and inventories in excess of 35, ...

, which it had purchased from

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

for $10 million. However, when Hechinger posted a second quarter loss of $40.6 million in August, Leonard Green cut their offer price, and ultimately purchased Hechinger Company for $2.375 per share, or about $100.2 million, in September 1997. After several rounds of store closings, the Hechinger Company filed for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...

protection on June 11, 1999, but the reorganization failed. Later that year, in September 1999, Hechinger's assets were liquidated, including its 117 remaining stores. In 2004,

Home Décor Products Home Décor Products, Inc. was a large online retailer of home improvement and furnishings, headquartered in Edison, New Jersey. It claimed to stock more than 450,000 home products from more than 800 luxury brands including TOTO, Lenox, Kohler, ...

bought the Hechinger brand name and opened an online retailer the following year,Kelly, John,
A Familiar Brand, Reborn in Pixels
, ''The Washington Post'', March 28, 2006 which sold the same products as the former brand. On February 5, 2009, it was announced that the site would shut down and Hechinger would no longer sell tools. The site closed shortly thereafter.

References

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History

References

Further reading