A Rhode Island retail fixture will be no more by the end of 2017.
Benny’s stores will cease operations at all locations in Rhode Island Connecticut and Massachusetts by the end of 2017, the company announced via press release today.
Citing the desire of the Bromberg family ownership to retire from the operation of the retail chain, the company will begin winding down operation at their 31 locations and distribution center effective immediately.
The family-owned company has been operating for 93 years. Benny’s operates 12 stores in Massachusetts, and 5 stores in Connecticut and 14 stores in Rhode Island, including one location on Aquidneck Island in Middletown, according to the company website.
The disposition of the company’s real estate holdings – Benny’s owns the land and structures for nearly all of the store locations throughout the region – is still being determined. The company has been fielding offers on those real estate holdings and any relevant developments will be announced at the appropriate time, according to the news release.
“As proud owners of Benny’s this is an emotional time for us,” said Arnold Bromberg. “Benny’s has been something the Bromberg family has invested enormous amounts of capital, time and energy in for nearly a century in this region. We take great pride in what our retail stores have meant to our employees and many loyal customers for so long. But it is simply time. Our current ownership is all at the age where we would like to retire from the business and spend more time with our families, and we have collectively judged that the always competititve retail landscape has shifted in a way that makes it almost impossible for small, family-owned chains like ours to reasonably compete moving forward. We’ll miss our employees, who have been such a big part of what has made Benny’s successful for so many decades. So many of them are well-known to our customers and are literally part of the Benny’s DNA,” said Bromberg.