Menard's home improvement stores form a chain that are spread all over the United States. This privately held chain was founded in 1962 with its headquarters located in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. There are at least 205 stores spread in the ten states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Also, Menard's home improvement is a company that is believed to be third largest home center chain in the United States trailing behind Home Depot and Lowe's.

A History

The history of Menard's home improvement stores dates back to 1959 when John Menard, Jr. started to build post-frame building in order to pay his way through college. Later in that year he found the need to hire extra crews as well as to purchase more equipment to stay abreast with growing demand.

In 1962, he purchased land in Eau Claire, Wisconsin to build an office as well as a shop and thus was founded Menard's. In late 2006, Menard's moved into an eleventh state with a store in Saint Joseph, Missouri, and added two more distribution centers. Its main competitor is Lowe's and Home Depot, which are just ahead of it in terms of sales.

Of late, Menard's has plans to build a store as well as separate lumber shed that totals approximately 260,000 square feet that will be used to build a mega-Menard's home improvement center. This new center would be located south of their present retail store and the separate lumber shed would be built nearby on the parking lot.

The expansion plans that Menard's is proposing follows six years after the competition built their own store nearby. There has been some extensive research been done on how homeowners in a few states such as Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin rate the Menard's home improvement. These studies would like to know how strong the Menard's home improvement store image is among consumers, what its ratings are, and what the demographic breakdowns of Menard's home improvement shoppers are.

Menard's home improvement stores are perhaps the largest surviving regional home center chain and they have survived the competition, which often had to leave the business. Menard's home improvement stores are strong in the Midwest due to their strength among a variety of different consumers because of their extensive supplies. It is this strength which gives them a competitive edge in the home improvement industry.