Builders Square was a big-box

home improvement The concept of home improvement, home renovation or remodeling is the process of renovating, making improvements or making additions to one's home. Home improvement can consist of projects that upgrade an existing home interior (such as electr ...

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesal ...

headquartered in

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

. A subsidiary of

Kmart Kmart ( ), formerly legally registered as Kmart Corporation, now operated by Transformco, is a department-store chain and online retailer in the United States and Territories of the United States, its territories. It operates four remaining Kma ...

, its format was quite similar to

The Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., often referred to as Home Depot, is an American multinational corporation, multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportat ...

, Menards, and

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. ( ) 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. As of October 28, 2022, Lowe's and i ...

with floor space of about , and inventories in excess of 35,000 different items. In 1997, a

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leveraged buyout specialist acquired Builders Square and merged it with Hechinger but the new combined company failed to thrive and all remaining stores ceased business operations by the end of 1999. Home Decor Products revived the Builders Square brand name in the mid-2000s as builderssquare.com, a

comparison shopping website A comparison shopping website, sometimes called a price comparison website, price analysis tool, comparison shopping agent, shopbot, aggregator or comparison shopping engine, is a vertical search engine that shoppers use to filter and compare pr ...

for home and garden products. It was headquartered in

Edison, New Jersey Edison is a Township (New Jersey), township located in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated in Central Jersey, Central New Jersey within the core of the state's Raritan River, Raritan Valley r ...

. The website was abandoned in 2009.

History

Beginnings

The company was founded in February 1970 as Home Centers of America by Frank Denny, an executive who had recently been president of the home center subsidiary of W. R. Grace and Company. Somewhat unusually for the time, Home Centers of America was funded from the beginning as a public stock company. The company opened its first store in San Antonio soon after and eventually operated nine stores, all in Texas, and all operating as Home Pro Warehouse. Home Centers of America was sold to

in July 1984 for $88.2 million (~$ in ) (

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

). The company and all stores were renamed Builders Square after acquisition, with Denny continuing as Builders Square company president for several years and overseeing company expansion. During the 1980s, Builders Square was a player in the fast-growing do-it-yourself consumer market, which included competitors National Lumber, Home Depot, HomeClub, Builders Emporium, Ole's, Angels, and others. By 1997, the chain operated 162 stores in Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Puerto Rico. However, despite a $700 million investment by its parent company, high-profile sponsorships that included the Alamo Bowl, and celebrity spokespeople such as

Al Michaels Alan Richard Michaels (born November 12, 1944) is an American television play-by-play sportscaster for '' Thursday Night Football'' on Amazon Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on network sports television sin ...

, Darrell Waltrip and

Tim Allen Timothy Alan Dick (born June 13, 1953), known professionally as Tim Allen, is an American actor and comedian. He is known for playing Tim "The Toolman" Taylor on the ABC sitcom ''Home Improvement'' (1991–1999) for which he won a Golden Gl ...

, the chain was not able to maintain profitability.

Hechinger and bankruptcy

In 1997, Kmart and Leonard Green & Partners agreed to merge Hechinger and Builders Square as the third-largest home improvement retail chain in the United States. Store closures were underway in early 1999; for example, in February the company announced the closure of 16 stores in the Chicago area. Hechinger 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, w ...

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 deb ...

reorganization in June 1999. The reorganization effort resulted in closure of a large number of stores and the sale of others to

. All remaining Builders Square stores were converted to the Home Quarters brand. However, the reorganization plan was not successful and Hechinger filed for

Chapter 7 Chapter Seven refers to a seventh Chapter (books), chapter in a book. Chapter Seven, Chapter 7, or Chapter VII may also refer to: Albums * Chapter Seven (album), ''Chapter Seven'' (album), a 2013 album by Damien Leith. * Chapter VII (album), ''Ch ...

liquidation in September 1999. The six locations in Puerto Rico were bought out by Empresas Masso (Masso Enterprises), a local chain of home improvement stores, which in turn sold the stores to The Home Depot in 2000.

Return

Builders Square re-emerged in 2006 as an online shopping comparison site focused exclusively on the home and garden market after the parent company, Home Decor Products, purchased rights to the Builders Square name. Home Decor Products filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in April 2009 and ceased operations, but former executives purchased all assets as a new virtual company, HomeClick LLC. They dropped the Builders Square brand and the now-dead builderssquare.com website.

References

{{Sears Holdings Online retailers of the United States Retail companies established in 1970 Retail companies disestablished in 1999 Retail companies established in 2006 Internet properties established in 2006 Retail companies disestablished in 2009 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1999 Companies that filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1999 Companies that filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2009 Companies that have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Defunct retail companies of the United States Re-established companies Companies based in San Antonio Companies based in Middlesex County, New Jersey Edison, New Jersey 1970 establishments in Texas Home improvement retailers of the United States Kmart