| Type | Originally, home improvement retailer Currently, online retailer |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1984 (as retail store) 2006 (as online retailer) |
| Headquarters | Original company in San Antonio, Texas Current company in Edison, New Jersey |
| Products | Home Improvement, Home and Garden |
| Website | http://www.builderssquare.com |
Builders Square was founded as a big-box home improvement retailer headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.[1] A subsidiary of Kmart, its format was quite similar to Home Depot, Menards and Lowe's with floor space of about 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2). Builder's Square.com, Inc. has its headquarters in Edison, New Jersey.[2] After the beginning of 1997, a Los Angeles buyout specialist moved the Builders Square operations out of San Antonio.[3]
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The company opened its first store in 1984. In the 1990s, the chain operated 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. Despite a $700 million (USD) investment by its parent company, and high-profile sponsorships that included the Alamo Bowl and spokespeople such as NASCAR driver Darrell Waltrip and Tim Allen the chain was not able to achieve a satisfactory profit.
In 1997, Kmart sold the Builders Square chain (162 stores) to Leonard Green & Partners (Hechinger) for $10 million. The parent company filed for bankruptcy in 1999, followed by the closure of several stores and the sale of others to The Home Depot. The remaining stores were converted to the Home Quarters banner, which also closed when Hechinger/HQ closed. 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.
Builders Square re-emerged in 2006 as an online shopping comparison site focused exclusively on the home and garden market, by parent company Home Decor Products. The company is headquartered in New York City, and manages a product catalog of over 5 million items. Builders Square also owns and operates two blogs — The Square Deal and Builders Share.