Throwback Thursday: Don Rickles, for Rickles
The Jan. 26, 1988 issue of National Home Center News, the forerunner of HBSDealer, laid out the decline and fall of Rickel Home Centers. The editors noted: "Even comedian Don Rickles gave Rickel nothing to smile about."
The article serves as great hardware industry history lesson. We pick it up here in the second paragraph:
"Rickel, which had been in Chapter 11 since Jan. 10, 1996, had fought valiantly to devise a survival strategy that evolved around turning its home centers into neighborhood outlets selling products fro small repair and improvement jobs.
"However, the comp[any, which had been cash-deficient for several years, could not generate enough interest among consumers, despite a 15-week, $2 million mulitmedia campaign in the spring that featured comedian Don Rickles.
"The 44-year-old company, which began as a plumbing dealer and has been a fixture in New jersey for decades, also was victimized by a seemingly endless series of events that mitigated against its success. Its parent, Supermarkets General, never got out from under debt from a $1.8 billion management leveraged buyout in 1987. From that time on, the retailer was saddled with inept senior management: In retrospect, the agreement to merge Rickel and Channel Home Centers in 1992 was undermined when Joe Nusim and his team -- who were running Channel -- were replaced by new owners and managers who spent most of the time either liquidating assets or spending money they didn't have to renovate stores left open."
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Tell us your memory of Rickels at [email protected].
The article serves as great hardware industry history lesson. We pick it up here in the second paragraph:
"Rickel, which had been in Chapter 11 since Jan. 10, 1996, had fought valiantly to devise a survival strategy that evolved around turning its home centers into neighborhood outlets selling products fro small repair and improvement jobs.
"However, the comp[any, which had been cash-deficient for several years, could not generate enough interest among consumers, despite a 15-week, $2 million mulitmedia campaign in the spring that featured comedian Don Rickles.
"The 44-year-old company, which began as a plumbing dealer and has been a fixture in New jersey for decades, also was victimized by a seemingly endless series of events that mitigated against its success. Its parent, Supermarkets General, never got out from under debt from a $1.8 billion management leveraged buyout in 1987. From that time on, the retailer was saddled with inept senior management: In retrospect, the agreement to merge Rickel and Channel Home Centers in 1992 was undermined when Joe Nusim and his team -- who were running Channel -- were replaced by new owners and managers who spent most of the time either liquidating assets or spending money they didn't have to renovate stores left open."
# # #
Tell us your memory of Rickels at [email protected].