Home Depot and Lowe’s have dominated the home improvement and hardware retail sectors for decades, edging out hardware co-ops True Value Hardware and Ace Hardware, and making life more difficult for independent hardware retailers.
In recent years, Amazon has even surpassed True Value and Ace as the No. 3 destination for home improvement products.
Home Depot captured an average of 28% of home improvement market sales in 2025, while Lowe’s followed with 17% of the market, and Amazon had about 11% of sales, according to the Numerator Home Improvement Tracker, which was updated on Feb. 4.
With Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Amazon holding a combined 56% of the market’s sales last year, hardware co-ops and independent retailers have found it difficult to compete and stay in business.
Ace, True Value, and Independent hardware stores are a convenient source for me for tools and other home improvement products, as I can quickly navigate a small store for my needs, unlike many large big-box stores.
And I find that the staff at the small shops near me often have worked in the shops for years and have a quick answer to my needs.
However, even community hardware stores that have been operating for more than 50 years are struggling to stay open.
Yakima, Wash. The independent hardware store C&H Hardware, which had been in operation for 65 years, had enough problems competing with the hardware and home improvement chain giants, but the store could not compete with lower online prices and closed permanently in November 2025.
“It’s been a tough year because everyone is buying online now,” C&H store owner Jay Fleck said before closing his doors permanently. “You can get stuff online cheaper than you can come in and pay us.”
Fleck said business at C&H was good before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, but business has deteriorated since.
“It was smooth sailing until Covid hit,” Fleck said. “Of course, we were lucky to stay open. A lot of other places had to close. So, we’ve done pretty well through Covid. And after that, it kind of ended. It’s been a downhill slide ever since.”
And now, 53-year-old Home Depot rival Blossom True Value Hardware will close its doors for the last time in the summer of 2026 when its lease expires.
A Mountain View, Calif.-based hardware store will close for good after suffering a loss of nearly half of its business since the Covid-19 pandemic subsided, longtime store owner Paul Zetman told the Mountain View Voice.
“Every year is worse than the last. People are buying less and less,” Zeitman said.
Zeitman explained that the store’s monthly rent is reasonable but no longer affordable.
The store owner said Blossom True Value was allowed to stay open as an essential business during the pandemic and benefited from people buying hardware and home improvement items to fix up their homes until the pandemic subsided.
Additional closures:
According to the Mountain View Voice, the retailer lost half of its business as regular customers drifted away, and expanded further after the end of the e-commerce pandemic.
The store owner said Ace Hardware’s expansion and opening of new stores in the area also cut into the retailer’s business.
Zeitman said the final factor in the decision to close was rising tariffs.
Much of Blossom True Value’s goods are imported from China, and the Trump administration’s high tariffs have driven up prices and cut into profits, while sales have also declined, he said.
The retailer’s woes have been blamed on high rent and labor costs, online shopping, and competition from big-box retailers, according to Mountain View City Councilman John McAllister, who is also Blossom’s retail neighbor.
The closest stores to Home Depot and Lowe’s in Mountain View are in neighboring Sunnyvale, California.
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Home Depot, 28% of sales in 2025
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Lowe’s, 17% of sales by 2025
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Amazon, 11% of sales in 2025
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This story was originally published by TheStreet on February 18, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retail section. Add TheStreet as a preferred source by clicking here.
