Remember before the big orange box? Remember before the blue box? There was Channel Home Centers in the eastern US for the Do-It-Yourselfer !
I miss Channel's. They always had just the basic home improvement items and a few oddball items for older homes. When you went to Channel's for a drill, you got a drill, a Black & Decker Drill ! Not a combo Makita drill and armpit hair remover LOL. They sold what you need , not what you didn't need.
My wife went to work there just after Two Guys closed in 1981. She still has the namebadge she wore there too. I posted it below.
CHANNEL....... A WHOLE LOT MORE THAN A LUMBER STORE !
(http://aycu14.webshots.com/image/45893/2005849168174841527_rs.jpg) (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005849168174841527)
M&M
I remember this place. One opened up in the former Woolco in the Wampanoag Mall in East Providence RI. Of course it meant that mall access was cut off and that eventually spelled doom for the mall. There was another in Cranston that I believe was taken over by Somerville Lumber. I don't recall this chain being in business for very long.
Channel Home Centers was a Whippany, NJ company that actually started in 1908. They expanded big thru the 1950's and hit the peak in the mid 1970's. Their death blow was from the Big Orange Box Home Depot in the mid 1980's and by 1992 they were a memory. Thanks to the big O, we lost Rickles, Builders Square, Grossmans and others.
They might have gotten there late in your area Crawford, but no they were around a while
M&M