Comments on: Retail Relic: Benny’s Home & Auto Stores

By: Ted Seyal

Ted Seyal — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:26:30 +0000

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By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:40:41 +0000

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.

By: Variety House

Variety House — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:11:25 +0000

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.

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:38:59 +0000

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.

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 03:29:53 +0000

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…

By: andrew Razza

andrew Razza — Mon, 28 May 2007 02:35:37 +0000

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

By: prshack

prshack — Wed, 16 May 2007 20:26:53 +0000

oops, it didn’t hyperlink it all.

By: prshack

prshack — Wed, 16 May 2007 20:26:14 +0000

The old Benny’s site are on links of of:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.hellobennys.com/

By: Caldor

Caldor — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:38:11 +0000

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!

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:32:07 +0000

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!