Here’s something that surprises most people: Ace Hardware has more US locations than Home Depot. More than Lowe’s. More than both of them combined, actually, once you do the math.
| Retailer | US Stores |
|---|---|
| Ace Hardware | 4,832 |
| Tractor Supply | 2,426 |
| Home Depot | 2,022 |
| Lowe’s | 1,762 |
Based on our dataset of 12,936 verified store listings as of March 2026, Home Depot (2,022 stores) and Lowe’s (1,762 stores) add up to 3,784. Ace has 4,832. The gap is over a thousand stores.
How Is That Possible?
The franchise model. Every Ace store is independently owned and operated under the Ace brand. That means a small town of 5,000 people can have an Ace, because someone local decided to open one. A town that size would never get a Home Depot — the economics don’t work for a 100,000 sq ft box store.
This gives Ace an advantage that the big boxes literally can’t replicate.
Where You Really See It
Their advantage is seen in rural and northern states. In South Dakota, Ace has 50 stores. Home Depot has one. Lowe’s has three. That means Ace accounts for 79% of hardware retail in the state.
It’s a similar story across the northern tier:
- Montana: 56 Ace stores vs 6 Home Depot and 5 Lowe’s (72% of the market)
- Vermont: 35 Ace stores, with only 5 HD and Lowe’s locations combined (69%)
- Wisconsin: 158 Ace stores — more than every other hardware chain put together (68%)
- Wyoming: 31 Ace stores (66%)
- Minnesota: 131 Ace stores (66%)
These aren’t edge cases. There are entire regions of the country where Ace is the hardware store.
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Browse datasets →They Hold Their Own in Big States Too
You might think Ace is just a rural thing, but they actually have a massive presence in major states:
- California: 384 Ace stores — more than any state, and individually more than Home Depot (233) or Lowe’s (112) there
- Florida: 302 stores
- Texas: 281 stores
- Illinois: 205 stores — 56% of all hardware stores in the state
So What?
If you’re looking at the hardware retail landscape and only thinking about Home Depot and Lowe’s, you’re missing the biggest player by store count. For anyone doing competitive analysis, franchise territory planning, or trying to understand market coverage in smaller communities, Ace’s footprint is the one that fills in the gaps.
The full Ace Hardware dataset with all 4,832 locations is on our data page.