The Hechinger Company was an American chain of home-improvement centers 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 ...

, on the immediate outskirts of

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, from 1911 to 1999. It was also an online retailer owned by Home Decor Products from 2004 to 2009.

History

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 (colloquially VB) is the most populous city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in southeastern Virginia. It is the sixth-most populous city in the ...

-based Home Quarters Warehouse (HQ) for $66 million (~$ in ). 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., 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 ...

, 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, a hyperstore, a supercenter, a superstore, or a 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 ...

s to better compete with rivals

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 ...

. 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, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

-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, which it had purchased from

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 ...

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, 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 ...

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, Kohl ...

bought the Hechinger brand name and opened an

online retailer Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of t ...

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