Home Depot and Lowe’s have dominated the home improvement and hardware retail sectors for decades, continuing to rise above hardware cooperatives True Value Hardware and Ace Hardware, and making life even harder for independent hardware retailers.

In recent years, Amazon has also surpassed True Value and Ace as the No. 3 destination for home improvement products.

Home Depot captured an average of 28% of the 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, the hardware cooperatives and independent retailers have had a difficult time competing and remaining in business.

Ace, True Value, and independent hardware stores are a convenient source for tools and other home improvement products for me, as I can quickly navigate a smaller store for my needs as opposed to much larger big-box stores.

And I find that the employees at the smaller stores near me have often worked at the stores for years and have a quick answer for my needs.

However, even long-time community hardware stores that have operated for over 50 years are struggling to stay open.

Independent hardware store C&H Hardware of Yakima, Wash., which operated for 65 years, had enough problems competing against the hardware and home improvement chain giants, but the store could not compete against lower online prices and shut down permanently in November 2025.

“This year has been tough because everybody’s buying online now,” C&H store owner Jay Fleck said before shutting his doors permanently. “You can get stuff online cheaper than you can come in and pay us.”

Fleck said business was good at C&H before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, but business deteriorated afterward.

“It was smooth until Covid hit,” Fleck said. “Of course, we were fortunate to have stayed open. A lot of other places had to shut down. So, we’ve done pretty good through Covid. And after that, it was kind of over. 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 final time in summer 2026 when its lease expires.

The Mountain View, Calif.,-based hardware store will permanently close, after suffering a loss of about half of its business since the Covid-19 pandemic subsided, longtime store owner Paul Zeitman told Mountain View Voice.

“Every year is worse than before. People are buying less and less,” Zeitman said.

Zeitman explained that the store’s monthly rent is reasonable but is no longer affordable.

The store owner said that Blossom True Value was allowed to remain open during the pandemic as an essential business and benefited from people buying hardware and home improvement goods to fix up their homes until the pandemic subsided.

More closings:

The retailer lost half its business as regular customers moved away, and e-commerce expanded further since the end of the pandemic, according to Mountain View Voice.

The store owner said Ace Hardware’s expansion and opening of new stores in the region also cut into the retailer’s business.

Zeitman said the final factor in the decision to close down was rising tariffs.

Much of Blossom True Value’s merchandise is imported from China, and has been affected by the Trump administration’s higher tariffs that have increased prices and cut into profits, while sales have also dropped, he said.

Retailer distress has been blamed on high rents and labor costs, online shopping, and competition from big-box retailers, according to Mountain View City Councilman John McAlister, who is also Blossom’s retail neighbor.

Home Depot and Lowe’s closest stores to Mountain View are in neighboring Sunnyvale, Calif.

• Home Depot, 28% of sales in 2025

• Lowe’s, 17% of sales in 2025

• Amazon, 11% of sales in 2025

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This story was originally published by TheStreet on Feb 18, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retail section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.