Builders Square was founded as a big-box home improvement

Home improvement

Home improvement, home renovation or remodeling is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home.-Types of home improvement:...

 retailer headquartered in San Antonio, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. A subsidiary of Kmart

Sears Holdings Corporation

Sears Holdings Corporation is a retail conglomerate formed in 2005 by the merger of Sears, Roebuck and Co., of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, with Kmart Holdings Corporation, of Troy, Michigan...

, its format was quite similar to Home Depot, Menards

Menards

Menards is a chain of home improvement stores in the Midwestern United States.The privately held company headquartered in Eau Claire, Wisconsin has 262 stores in 13 states: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, North Dakota, and...

 and Lowe's

Lowe's

Lowe's Companies, Inc. is a U.S.-based chain of retail home improvement and appliance stores. Founded in 1946 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, the chain now serves more than 14 million customers a week in its 1,710 stores in the United States and 20 in Canada. Expansion into Canada began in...

 with floor space of about 100000 square feet (9,290.3 m²). Builder's Square.com, Inc. has its headquarters in Edison, New Jersey

Edison, New Jersey

Edison Township is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey. What is now Edison Township was originally incorporated as Raritan Township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1870, from portions of both Piscataway Township and Woodbridge Township...

. After the beginning of 1997, a Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 buyout specialist moved the Builders Square operations out of San Antonio.

Beginnings

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

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

) investment by its parent company, and high-profile sponsorships that included the Alamo Bowl

Alamo Bowl

The Alamo Bowl is a major American college football bowl game played annually since 1993 in the 65,000-seat Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. It matches the second choice team from the Pacific-12 Conference and the third choice team from the Big 12 Conference.Traditionally, the Alamo Bowl has been...

 and spokespeople such as NASCAR

NASCAR

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...

 driver Darrell Waltrip

Darrell Waltrip

Darrell Lee Waltrip is a 3-time NASCAR Cup Series champion , 3-time runner-up , winner of the 1989 Daytona 500 and 5-time winner of the prestigeous Coca-Cola 600 ,...

 and Tim Allen

Tim Allen

Tim Allen is an American comedian, actor, voice-over artist, and entertainer, known for his role in the sitcom Home Improvement...

 the chain was not able to achieve a satisfactory profit.

Hechinger and Bankruptcy

In 1997, Kmart

Kmart

Kmart, sometimes styled as "K-Mart," is a chain of discount department stores. The chain acquired Sears in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation. The company was founded in 1962 and is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and...

 sold the Builders Square chain (162 stores) to Leonard Green & Partners

Leonard Green & Partners

Leonard Green & Partners is a private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyout transactions, particularly of middle market companies. As of 2010, the firm had with approximately $9 billion in assets under management....

 (Hechinger

Hechinger

Hechinger, mistakenly called Hechinger's by many customers was a chain of home improvement retail stores headquartered in Landover, Maryland outside Washington, D.C., and an online retailer owned by Home Decor Products.John Hechinger, Sr...

) for $10 million. The parent company filed for bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

 in 1999, followed by the closure of several stores and the sale of others to The Home Depot

The Home Depot

The Home Depot is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services.The Home Depot operates 2,248 big-box format stores across the United States , Canada , Mexico and China, with a 12-store chain...

. 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.

Return

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

Home Décor Products

Home Décor Products, Inc. was a large online retailer of home improvement and furnishings, headquartered in Edison, NJ. It claimed to carry over 450,000 home products from over 800 luxury brands including TOTO, Lenox, Kohler, and Jacuzzi.-Business Portfolio:...

. The company is headquartered in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, and manages a product catalog of over 5 million items. Builders Square also owns and operates two blogs — The Square Deal and Builders Share.

External links

• Builders Square official Website
• Builders Share DIY blog
• The Square Deal home shopping blog