Article: Retail store performance: Financial health of most independents remains strong.

While hardware stores of all sizes continue to generate strong earnings, it is becoming harder for many smaller format stores to post profits. And this development continues to raise questions. Perhaps more importantly, what's the potential impact their closings could have on the home improvement retailing industry?

First, it should be noted that the majority of hardware stores remain profitable and many are posting record profits. While the typical store earned a return on investment of more than 5 percent, the top quartile of hardware stores posted a return on net worth of more than 20 percent last year.

If this is the case, what's the typical profile ...

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