Builders Emporium was a chain of home improvement stores based in Irvine, California, United States.
At the time of its closing in 1993, it had 82 stores in Southern California and an additional 15 in Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas; 4,300 employees in total.
[1] The chain had a fictional human character, "Pops" Larsen that, in brochures and other media, was portrayed as helping customers with do-it-yourself tasks such as hanging a door.
Carter built Builders Emporium into a leading self-serve retail operation and the largest hardware store in the United States, selling it in 1956, to acquire controlling interest in Republic Pictures just a few years later.
In the following month, Vornado sold 12 Builders Emporium home improvement centers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Wickes.