Ben Franklin Store To Close; Online, Box Store Competition ‘Crushed’ Business

CHATHAM – Once, Ben Franklin stores were a staple of small-town America, the sort of old fashioned variety store where shoppers could find everything from Christmas ornaments to kitchen gadgets. They were anchors on countless Main Streets, often the only place in town to buy necessities and sometimes also serving as a community hub.

 But times change. Chatham’s Ben Franklin store — apparently the last in Massachusetts and perhaps one of just two remaining in New England — will close this summer, the victim of competition from online outlets like Amazon and big box stores like Ocean State Job Lot.

 “We’d rather keep the place open forever,” said Patrick Doherty, who has operated the store along with his mother Barbara Henderson for the past 23 years.

 “We’ve been struggling for a while,” Henderson added, noting that the opening of the Job Lot store in 2002, as well as competition from nearby Dollar Stores and Amazon, “crushed” the store’s business.

 “This place is just not sustainable,” she said.

Henderson’s late husband Ernest bought the store in 2002. He had worked for the Ben Franklin corporation and operated other Ben Franklin stores in Massachusetts. Henderson and Doherty took over the business when Ernest passed away unexpectedly just months after buying the shop.

The Ben Franklin store, often referred to as just the “Five and Dime,” has been a fixture on Chatham’s Main Street for more than six decades. Frank and Bessie Brewin had operated a “Chatham Five and Dime” elsewhere on Main Street for a number of years before moving to 631 Main St. and converting the business to a Ben Franklin franchise in 1959. For a while the store operated in half of the building, with an electronic shop next door. Eventually Ben Franklin took over the entire space. In 1965, Lauretta and John Gore bought the business and ran it until selling the store to Ernest Henderson. The building is still owned by the Brewin’s daughter Betty Magnusson. It was built in 1930 and originally housed an A&P market; the company’s logo can still be found on the apron outside the door on the right side of the building.

While business remains good during the summer, when tourists often stop in for souvenirs and to browse the shelves, the big drop-off has come in the off-season.

 “When we first bought this store, winter was bad,” Henderson said, “but nothing like now.” 

Many of the staples that folks used to pick up at Ben Franklin can be easily ordered online to be delivered right to the front door, and even demand for craft supplies and fabrics has fallen off. The distributors of many of the items they used to carry have gone out of business, Henderson said, and with a lot of the toys and souvenir items that continue to attract business are made in China, it’s uncertain whether they would remain affordable or even available given the tariffs the Trump administration has imposed.

 “We couldn’t even find a distributor for jewelry,” she noted.

They do continue to have loyal customers, and often talk to people who fondly recall the shop from their childhood. They maintain relationships with many of their past employees; at one point there was a staff of nine year-round and 15 in the summer, but that has dropped to just a handful of summer staff.

 “It was so much fun working with them,” Henderson said of the local teens and young adults who worked at the store over the years. “They’re like family to us.”

The Ben Franklin’s lease runs out at the end of July. Currently everything in stock is on sale, and if the shelves empty out the shop may close sooner, Henderson said, who lives in Yarmouth. She may look for a part-time job, and Doherty said he’s been looking for a new full-time position.

 “I don’t really want to get a real job,” he commented. “I wish we could keep this open, but it’s just not really feasible.”