In the quiet suburb of Tenafly, New Jersey, shelves once brimming with tools and paint now stand half-empty, signaling the final countdown for a home-improvement mainstay that has gone toe-to-toe with big-box giants like Home Depot for generations. After more than 80 years serving do-it-yourselfers and professionals, Benjamin Brothers True Value Hardware will shut its doors for good on January 31, 2026, a closure that will cost local workers their jobs and leave the community without its closest full-service alternative to national chains.
A long-time Home Depot rival
Benjamin Brothers opened in the post–World War II boom as a lumber yard and evolved into a full-line hardware and home-improvement store by the early 1960s, ultimately flying the True Value banner while competing for the same customers and projects as nearby Home Depot and other national retailers. For decades, Tenafly residents chose Benjamin Brothers over the drive to big-box outlets when they needed everything from power tools and lumber to deck supplies and fasteners, making it a practical, day-to-day rival for home-improvement spending in the region.
Its aisles carried many of the same categories found at large chains—lumber, electrical and plumbing parts, seasonal goods, small appliances, and name-brand tools—allowing local homeowners and contractors to price-shop and source materials without leaving town. That positioning, along with the True Value buying network behind it, meant Benjamin Brothers was not just a neighborhood shop but a core competitor in the broader hardware and home-improvement market.
Retail pressures and a failed lifeline
The closure comes amid a wave of U.S. brick-and-mortar retrenchment, with research firm Coresight predicting roughly 15,000 store closures across the country in 2025—more than double the roughly 7,300 tallied the prior year—as consumers shift more spending online and big-box chains like Home Depot consolidate share. Independent hardware stores have been especially squeezed by rising rent, wages, and inventory costs, while trying to match the pricing and assortment of national players.
True Value itself, the national cooperative whose flag Benjamin Brothers operated under, filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware in October 2024 and moved to sell substantially all of its business operations to home-improvement rival Do it Best, another large member-owned cooperative. The planned sale was pitched as a way to preserve supply chains and bargaining power for thousands of independent stores, including Benjamin Brothers, but the Tenafly owners ultimately chose closure instead of attempting to ride out another restructuring cycle in a market increasingly dominated by e-commerce and big-box competitors.
Workers and community hit hard
For the staff of Benjamin Brothers, the shutdown is more than a change of signage; it means the end of stable jobs, familiar schedules, and long-standing customer relationships built over decades behind the counter. The store has confirmed its final day of operation in a Facebook post, and employees now face an uncertain job market in a sector where many of the remaining roles are concentrated in larger, more distant stores.
Community reaction underscores the human cost. Local outlets describe the hardware store as a “beloved” neighborhood gem and “touchstone” that residents have relied on since the 1940s, with social-media tributes recalling staff who knew customers by name and regularly advised them on repairs, renovations, and emergency fixes. Customers now must travel farther—to Home Depot and other big-box rivals that outlasted Benjamin Brothers—to replace the convenience and expertise they once found a few blocks away, a shift that simultaneously highlights how national chains won the competitive battle and how painful that victory feels for workers and neighbors losing their hometown rival
Sources:
“Tenafly NJ hardware store Benjamin Brothers to close.” NorthJersey.com, 23 Dec 2025.
“True Value Company Announces Sale Agreement with Do it Best.” PR Newswire, 14 Oct 2024.
”Do it Best Successfully Completes Purchase of True Value.” GlobeNewswire, 22 Nov 2024.
”Coresight Predicts Store Closures will Spike to 15,000 This Year.” Retail TouchPoints, 22 Jan 2025.