Ace Hardware Closures Hit 10 Stores in 2026 as Giants Squeeze Market

Ten Ace Hardware stores across nine states will close in 2026, even as the retailer-owned cooperative reports record growth and same-store sales up 1.1%.

The closures span Massachusetts, Florida, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Mississippi, Tennessee, California, Colorado, Texas and Illinois. Because Ace operates as a retailer-owned cooperative — not a franchise — each of its nearly 5,300 locations across all 50 states is independently owned and operated. That means the shutdowns stem from individual circumstances, not a single corporate decision.

"Every Ace store is sized and stocked to best cater to the neighborhood that they serve," Ace Hardware owner-operator Jeff Smith told Inc. "The stores have the flexibility to order from many sources, which helps to be more efficient, and keep up with customers' ever-changing needs."

What's driving the closures?

The causes vary sharply from store to store. Woodside Ace Hardware in Winthrop, Massachusetts, shut its doors in August after 94 years in business. Owner Lauren Murphy, who took over the store from Paul Levy when he retired in 2021, had reportedly been struggling with health issues.

Other operators ran out of cash. Two locations have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in recent months:

• D&D Venture Group, operator of Chase Ace Hardware in Northern California
• Woodcrest Ace Hardware in Riverside, California

Neither filing cited a specific reason. But the pressure tracks a broader industry shift: Home Depot, Lowe's and Amazon now control roughly 56% to 57% of the home improvement market, according to Numerator's home improvement tracker, squeezing independent operators and cooperatives alike.

What do the second-quarter numbers show?

The picture at the top of the cooperative is mixed. Ace's second-quarter 2026 results showed same-store sales up 1.1%, even as transactions among reporting U.S. stores fell 1.9%.

Christina Lindley, founder and CEO of VPRG Consulting, told Inc. that Ace's shared resources — purchasing, distribution, marketing, training and technology — spare owners from building that infrastructure themselves. She pointed to the Instacart partnership as a template for how national scale can support local stores.

"A neighborhood business can reach customers through a platform they already use without building its own marketplace," she said.

Lindley cautioned, however, against equating store openings with demand. Staffing, inventory, cash reserves and succession planning all rest on the individual operator. Expansion is a positive sign, she said, but getting customers to keep coming back matters just as much.

Which Ace Hardware locations are closing in 2026?

Inc. confirmed the following closures:

• Massachusetts: 65 Main Street, Winthrop, MA 02152
• Florida: 202 Central Avenue NW, Jasper, FL 32052; 105 Suwannee Avenue NW, Branford, FL 32008
• Pennsylvania: 631 Philadelphia Street, Indiana, PA 15701
• Minnesota: 212-214 Chestnut Street, Virginia, MN 55792
• Mississippi: 118 Highway 12 W, Suite 10, Starkville, MS 39759
• Tennessee: 5143 Quince Road, Memphis, TN 38117
• California: 201 W Bonita Avenue, San Dimas, CA 91773
• Colorado: 155 E Main Street, Aguilar, CO 81020
• Texas: 3044 Old Denton Road, Carrollton, TX 75007
• Illinois: 20 E Quincy Street, Westmont, IL 60559

Ace Hardware did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With big-box rivals and Amazon holding more than half the home improvement market, the closures underscore a structural reality for the cooperative model: shared purchasing power and delivery partnerships can lower costs, but they cannot absorb the succession gaps, health shocks and thin cash reserves that come with single-owner operations.