Rickel

This article is about the home improvement chain. For the Frisbee term, see Ultimate Terms

Rickel (also known as Rickel Brothers in its early years and Rickel Home Centers in later years) was a home improvement store chain, but also featured diverse items such as discount clothing, electronics, and patio furniture.

Overview

The origins of the company date back to 1948 when brothers Al, Mort, and Bob Rickel founded a heating contracting business in Newark, NJ. An anecdotal story says the brothers purchased a warehouse full of plumbing supplies for 'next to nothing', but didn't know anything about the plumbing business so they weren't sure exactly what they had purchased. A friend of a friend contacted a local plumber, Bill Ryan, of Summit (NJ) who inventoried the stock, sorted and priced it. Realizing it would take years to sell the product at wholesale to local plumbers in the area, the brothers hit on the idea of selling direct to the public at retail. And, if they hired Ryan, he could explain to the customers what they needed to do to repair their own toilets, sinks and drains and make sure the correct parts were sold. Throughout his 35-odd years working for the Rickels, Ryan was warmly referred to as "employee number 1".

In 1953, the brothers opened their first retail store in Union, NJ that sold direct to the public and became one of the earliest "Do It Yourself" plumbing, heating, electrical and hardware retailers in the United States. The Rickels expanded to other towns and by the early 60's had opened stores in Succasunna, Paramus and East Brunswick (all in NJ) as well as moving to a larger store in Union. During the 1960's and 70's Rickels (as it was called locally) growth continued, adding more stores in Menlo Park (Sept. '66) and Wayne (July '67) NJ. Over the next few years the company began expanding into nearby New York and Pennsylvania as well as opening additional stores in NJ. During this period, Rickel also built a corporate office and primary distribution center in South Plainfield, NJ.

Rickel was purchased by Supermarkets General Corp. (SGC), the parent company of Pathmark in 1969. In 1975, the Rickel division of SGC recorded $80M in sales and was the dominant home improvement retailer in the region. The subsequent decade was a time of continued expansion as the Rickel chain grew to 30-odd stores by the mid-eighties. In 1987, the Dart Group made a hostile takeover bid to acquire SGC. In a move to avoid the takeover, management took the company private by engineering a $2.1 billion leveraged buyout. Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Inc. received 55 percent of the shares, Equitable Life Assurance received 30 percent and SGC management retained ten percent. The company's debt grew to $1.6 billion by early 1990, half of it in junk bonds, primarily as a result of the buy out. Servicing the debt became SGC's primary objective and largest problem.

In 1989, Home Depot began opening locations in NJ, often in close proximity to Rickel stores. It was the beginning of the end. By 1994 it became apparent that Rickel in its present form would not be able to withstand the Home Depot onslaught and SGC was not in a financial position to fund the division with improvements needed to keep pace. SGC sold the Rickel Division to an investment group based in New York. The company was merged with Channel Home Centers, a competing home improvement chain. Most of the Channel stores converted to Rickel, except in areas where a Channel and a Rickel were in close proximity to each other- in which case the Channel stores were closed. At its peak, Rickel had 49 stores in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Unable to compete with the 'big box' stores, Rickel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and began to close its stores in 1996. Management at Rickel attempted to change its image from that of a direct competitor with Home Depot to that of a smaller neighborhood hardware store. The makeover didn't work and after a 44 year run, Rickel shut down all of its remaining stores and went out of business in October, 1997.

Al Rickel one of the three original brothers died on January 15, 2008 residing in Inglemoor nursing home in Livingston New Jersey aged 90

Former locations

Connecticut

• Orange,Connecticut: Store remained vacant for a couple of years until a new strip mall was built
• Manchester,Connecticut: Store remained vacant after closing; demolished in 2006. BJ's Wholesale Club built in its former location in 2007.
• Norwalk,Connecticut: Later Nobody Beats The Wiz, Now Best Buy

Delaware

• Newark, Delaware: In College Square Shopping Center, at the eastern end

New Jersey

• Bergenfield, New Jersey: Now a Staples.
• Bloomfield, New Jersey: Now a Staples.
• Brick, New Jersey Now a Best Buy/Bed Bath and Beyond.
• Clifton, New Jersey: A former Channel store, was divided after closing and is now occupied by a Drug Fair and a Dollar Tree.
• East Brunswick, New Jersey Was adjacent to a PathMark Supermarket. A Home Depot "concept store" known as Villager's Hardware opened in that location, and was later rebranded as a Home Depot.
• Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey After closing, store became Office Depot, later this store was split and became Big Lots and the now defunct Cox Floors To Go
• Hazlet, New Jersey Was vacant for a while. Now Staples.
• Howell, New Jersey Became a Staples and Children's Clothing Store
• Jersey City, New Jersey: Now National Wholesale Liquidators.
• Lawnside, New Jersey
• Menlo Park, New Jersey Store was torn down, now a Target Greatland store.
• Paramus, NJ: (Route 17) Now a Pearl Paint store and a clothing store
• Park Ridge, NJ: former Channel- now a Staples store
• Parsippany, NJ:(Route 46) at the Parsippany Arlington Plaza. Is now a Staples store, located next to The Home Depot. (The Home Depot was once Bradlees Department Store.)
• Pompton Plains, New Jersey: A former Channel store, was vacant for several years, now occupied by HomeGoods and TJ Maxx
• Toms River, New Jersey: Originally located near US Route 9 and the Garden State Parkway, the first location (a Rickel "HOM" Center) closed and was replaced by a Home Depot. The Toms River Rickel then relocated to a Channel on NJ Route 37 east. It closed shortly after and was converted to a Stop N Shop.
• Totowa, New Jersey: Formerly the Ice World Arena (famous for having a few nationally televised boxing cards held at it), was changed to an Aisle 3 clothing store, is now a Forman Mills clothing store and a Value Warehouse mattress retailer.
• Vineland, New Jersey Still sits vacant, will soon be torn down to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter
• Wayne, New Jersey: One of the last Rickels to close, this store lay vacant for several years until eventually being torn down and rebuilt as a Stop & Shop supermarket.
• West Orange, New Jersey: Essex Green Shopping Center, Prospect Avenue. After this location closed it became a ShopRite Supermarket then was torn down after ShopRite moved to a new modern building. A TGI Friday's now sits on location.

New York

• Bronx, New York: At Bay Plaza Shopping Center. Later became Levitz Furniture, Applebee's, and =other smaller satellite stores.
• East Meadow, New York: Now a Marshalls.
• Holbrook, New York: At the SunVet Mall. Now a Toys "R" Us.
• Johnson City, New York: Now a Gander Mountain.
• Levittown, New York: Now a Lord and Taylor clearance center.
• Middletown, NY: RT 211 East Now a furniture store and an Aldi grocery store
• Selden, New York: Middle Country Rd. and CR-83, now a T.J. Maxx
• Spring Valley, New York: Was part of a strip mall on Route 59, and has since had several new occupants.
• Staten Island, NY: Located on Forest Avenue, replaced a Pathmark

Pennsylvania

• Broomall, Pennsylvania: Currently a Popeye's Chicken
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Located in the Mayfair section of the city, closed sometime in the late 90's eventually becoming home to a National Wholesale Liquidators.
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Located in the Port Richmond section of the city, the site remained vacant since the stores' closing until 2005, becoming home to a National Wholesale Liquidators.
• Pottstown, Pennsylvania: This store has long closed and remains abandoned. Located on North Charlotte Street.
• Upper Dublin, Pennsylvania: Upper Dublin Shopping Center, Welsh Rd. Gone through several transactions, today a video store.
• Warminster, Pennsylvania: Warminster Shopping Center, York Rd. and Street Rd. Afterwards a Staples which has since moved, now abandoned.
• Whitehall, Pennsylvania: Whitehall Square Shopping Center. Vacant for a brief period, then became occupied by its current tenant, Sports Authority

Trivia

• Some of Rickel's slogans included "Do it better with Rickel" and "Bringing it all closer to home," the latter of which came after the merger with Channel.
• Bob Vila was a spokesman for the company at one time.

See also

• List of defunct store chains of the United States