Retail Relic: Benny’s Home & Auto Stores
While the name will be unfamiliar to anyone from outside Rhode Island, Southeastern Massachusetts, or Eastern Connecticut, Benny’s Home & Auto Stores–who continue to operate today–are a true living retail relic. Just look at this vintage-looking store! Nearly all of the Benny’s stores, even the ones of more recent vintage, seem to look like this. As an added bonus, check out their website, which sports some considerable 1996 HTML chic. These guys take retro retail fashion seriously. Oops, they actually built a new website!
Founded in 1924, Benny’s is a 30-store chain with stores in 3 states. Their format is decidedly unusual: they essentially round up the hardlines department of a standard Wal-Mart, and cut nearly all of the softlines. It’s a place where you can buy tools, sporting goods, automotive, toys, home decor, and lawn and garden, but you won’t find any clothing. Their stores vary in size, ranging from 20,000 or 30,000 square feet at the low end and up to about 60,000 or so square feet at the high end, and are located in shopping centers, standalone locations, and even downtowns. They’re the rare survivor from the 5-and-dime era who has managed to carve out a niche and outlast their bigger, better monied New England cousins like Ames, Bradlees, Rich’s, or Caldor.
I haven’t shopped at Benny’s in many years since I moved away from the area, but that the chain has become sort of a local treasure is no surprise. Rhode Island is a state that values its local retail, but after losing nearly all of the big names from Peerless to The Outlet to to Apex to Ann & Hope, Benny’s is the last major player standing. Benny’s is so adored as a survivor that you can buy a collectible model of an old, downtown-style store!
The location pictured is located on US44 on the Raynham/Taunton town line in Massachusetts, but they all look very similar to this one. Even stores of a more recent vintage have been given some of the classic treatment, so nearly all of their locations offer a trip down the memory lane of discount department store retail. The ad included below is their current (Aug 2006) Providence Journal advertising flyer, and I’ve included it to give an idea of the types of products Benny’s sells.
Prangeway: Here is the Benny’s location in Wakefield Westerly, Rhode Island, in August 2001.
Steven Swain
August 24th, 2006 at 11:27 pm
The vibe of this place seems very similar to the old Western Auto stores or Advance Auto Parts back when they didn’t specialize in auto parts. You almost never see stores like this anymore.
Thanks for posting this. I would have never guessed they had stores like this anymore.
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JP
August 25th, 2006 at 2:31 am
This almost exactly reminds me of Canadian Tire (www.canadiantire.ca), except that CT has auto service bays, and that their stores are somewhat larger and modern.
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Mike
August 28th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
It reminds me according to your description of canadian tire up here in canadia
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Mike
August 29th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
JP, not all canadian tire stores have service bays though!
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Liam
September 11th, 2006 at 6:53 pm
Some of the Benny’s stores actually do have auto bays. The store in Providence RI has a seperate stand alone Benny’s Auto center just a little ways down the road that does Tires, Mufflers, etc…
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Brian
January 9th, 2007 at 12:32 am
That last picture is the Westerly, RI store, not Wakefield. I know because I am the manager of Wakefield! Thought I’ve been going to the wrong place all this time! Thanks for the glowing review. We hope to be around for many more Wal-Mart butt-kicking years!
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Caldor
January 9th, 2007 at 12:38 am
Oh Brian, you’re right. As a native Rhode Islander, *I* wouldn’t have missed this, but Mr. Prangeway made this edit to the post after I made it.
Thanks for stopping by!
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prshack
May 16th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
The old Benny’s site are on links of of:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.hellobennys.com/
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prshack
May 16th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
oops, it didn’t hyperlink it all.
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andrew Razza
May 27th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
I think benny’s employees are too much like sales people at a car dealer every 5 min they ask you if u need any help. it gets on my nerves most of the time. i feel like if i need help I will ask for help. stop harassing me when i shop there
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Adam
October 4th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
I remember hating going to Benny’s as a kid (which was, admittedly, all of 20 or so years ago) because of the smell of tires (both auto and bikes) was overpowering. My family moved to Texas and about 3 years ago I moved back to RI, and I love Benny’s now–just like my dad used to.
The author is dead right about Rhode Islanders loving their local retail–plenty of people are still very upset over the loss of Ames, Almacs, Ann & Hope, and most recently Filene’s. I’m in this category too, I guess, and that’s one reason I try to get what I need at Benny’s before I go to Home Depot or one of the big box stores–it’s a local store that has what I need, good prices, and, yeah, awesome retro stores.
Andrew’s comment though, is well taken–sometimes the salespeople are a bit pushy, but I think it’s the clash of their training to get you what you need versus the standard Rhode Island mentality of every man for himself… Still, even if you think the staff can be a bit pushy, I prefer them over the Wal-Mart greeters…
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Marc
March 25th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Benny’s has always been a great store and I hope it stays around for a long time to come. I choose to support them when I can over HD or Lowe’s. You do actually find things there that the larger homecenters do not carry. I have encounted this on several occasions. I’ve personaaly been shopping there on and off for over 40yrs.
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Variety House
November 13th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Ah, Benny’s – great store with some good CT locations where I grew up. My grandfather derided it as a “junk shop”, but he was a loyalist of a local retail concern…funny how Benny’s is about as close to “local” as a chain is going to get now. Anyway, Benny’s was cool with me, they had EVERYTHING and for pretty fair prices.
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Jake
April 21st, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I think Benny’s is a great place to shop, when they have a sale they have a sale and you have to go,and even without a sale the prices are great. They have just about everything you are lookin for,and they are very helpful , the big stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s try to find a sale person, you be lucky if you could,and when you do find one,they dont know much more then you.So Rhode Islanders,local retails where loseing them left and right,wake up and smell the coffee, suport local business in Rhode Island what do you have to lose, only more stores you know which ones like Ann&Hope,Apex,Outlet, Perless, dont let Benny’s be another.
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