The Neighborhood Hardware Store and the Fight for Independent Ownership

When you walk into your neighborhood hardware store, you're thinking about a leaky faucet, not one of the most fascinating ownership stories in American business. In this special narrative episode of Ethical Exits, Hannah is joined by Matthew Epperson of the Georgia Center for Employee Ownership, who brings her a real acquisition story she's never heard and unpacks it with her in real time.

It follows True Value Hardware from a scrappy cooperative of independent retailers through big-box competition, a private equity deal, bankruptcy, and an unexpected ending that raises big questions about the future of business ownership.