Benny's Home and Auto Stores, Groton, CT
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| © Romulo R via Yelp |
GROTON, CONN
65 PLAZA COURT
CLOSED SEPTEMBER 2017
The Benny’s Home and Auto Stores brand was a chain of
hardware stores that dominated the New England hardware store market ever since
the first Benny’s opened its doors in November 1924 in Providence, Rhode
Island.
39 years later, in 1963, Benny’s Groton location
opened its doors, quickly becoming the chain’s flagship store.
As it stands, the Groton Benny’s is located in the
Groton Shopping Plaza, alongside a strip of small, independent barber shops,
electronic stores, and other locally owned shops.
Benny’s thrived in an era where
other brick-and-mortar stores such as Wal-Mart was present, likely a
combination of the chain’s notoriety for carrying hard-to-find items alongside
its regional charm.
Upon Benny’s opening in the former half of the 1900s,
it very much so resembled the Kmart stores of the time. They were home/auto
discount stores offering a variety of goods in many departments. While Benny’s
enjoyed success upon opening, an ever-changing national retail landscape took a
toll on the company. While companies like Kmart evolved to the ‘one-stop
shopping’ ideology of the 80s and 90s with their Big K and Super K variety of
stores, Benny’s never did and ultimately halted their growth as a company. Owner
Arnold Bromberg said in an interview with WTNH News of Connecticut how he
desired to keep Benny’s a family business, and that’s why the chain never chose
to expand outside of southern New England, a decision that sadly doomed the
chain.
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| The Benny's store in 2017 © Google |
The most recent wave of financial struggles came about
with the rise of internet shopping, which Benny’s never developed. They remained
firmly a brick-and-mortar chain of stores while online shopping services such
as Amazon began to carry significantly larger inventories at much cheaper
prices. Benny’s just has never been able to keep up to the growth of online
shopping.
This can be evidenced in their website,
which at most had a welcome page, some historical of the store (many of which
are posted on this page), and this strange ad titled “Mother’s Day Struggles”.
Lastly, these struggles came at a time where the
Bromberg family, who owns the chain, announced in early 2017 they would be
retiring from Benny’s. After announcing their retirement, the Brombergs sold
off 29 of its 31 locations to Carpionato Group, which plans to redevelop the
stores into various restaurants, stores, and other retail slots. Benny’s leased
the property on two locations, which explains why the Carpionato Group only got
29 of the 31 Benny’s stores.
Upon announcement that the Bromberg family would close
all of their stores, they released the following statement about their decision:
Many of you may have already heard the news: Benny’s, after 93 years in business, plans to close all retail locations by the end of 2017 as our ownership family has decided to retire. In a short period of time, the retail landscape has changed dramatically – especially for “brick and mortar” businesses. The decision to retire was strongly influenced by this changing face of retailing.
We will miss our employees who have been such a big part of what has made Benny’s successful for so many decades. And of course, we’ll miss our many loyal customers who have supported us over the years. We have never tired, in all of those 93 years, of hearing the stories of a child’s first bike bought at Benny’s or “if Benny’s doesn’t have it, you don’t need it.”
Facebook is a place where fans of Benny’s have and will continue to celebrate their favorite store. Over the coming months, we will share old pictures, commercials and other memories. Please feel free to share your own with us.
-Benny’s “your favorite store”
The last Benny’s location to close was the Greenville,
RI location on Salem Pike. This location still opens sporadically to sell of
the leftover shelving equipment from other stores.
As it stands today, the Benny’s store in Groton
remains vacant. All signage for the former store has been removed, and the
store remains empty.
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| The vacant store as of Jan 2018. All images hereafter are © BrandHistoryUSA |
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| Taking a peek inside the empty store |
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| Inside the entrance vestibule |
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| The markings on the floor are still present from the check-out counters and the shelving units |
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| Some signage on the 'boarded up' doors |
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| Let me take this moment to point out they typo on the sign, saying "It has been out pleasure..." |
Well, that pretty much sums up the history of the Groton Benny's. It truly was a local icon, retaining its 50s-esque design all the way through its closing in 2017. Stay tuned for more articles documenting other former Benny's in the near future!
Until next time,
Until next time,
This was one unique location for Benny's.
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