If you grew up in a small town in the mid-to-late 1900s, chances are you probably bought candy or school supplies from a Ben Franklin store.

♪♪ With its signature red and white storefronts, the shops were once a staple of Main Street America.

The stores were famous for having a wide variety of merchandise.

Shoppers could purchase fabric, kitchen utensils, toys, stationary, and everything in between.

Named after Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, the company used his likeness in reference to his thrifty nature.

The first iteration of the chain was created in the late 1800s as a mail-order company called Butler Brothers.

By the 1920s, Butler Brothers had rebranded into Ben Franklin.

♪♪ The company operated under a franchise system where stores were independently owned.

At one point in the 1970s, there were an estimated 2,500 stores nationwide and more than 100 in Iowa.

♪♪ As larger craft stores and big box chains began to dominate America's retail landscape, many Ben Franklin stores found it difficult to compete and closed.

♪♪ The Ben Franklin Company eventually went bankrupt in 1996.

But a handful of stores managed to stay open for many years by operating independently from the parent company.

Yet, one by one, the remaining Ben Franklin's across the country continued to shut their doors, often times due to the owners retiring.

By 2023, there was only one Ben Franklin store left standing in Iowa.

♪♪ (doorbell rings) We're starting to get in our summer items, so our seeds and everything are coming in, and some of the decor items.

♪♪ Northwest Iowa natives Lori and Phil Warnke have owned the Ben Franklin in Sheldon since 1991.

The Warnke's are from Northwest Iowa and moved to the central part of the state for various jobs before coming back to Sheldon to take over the store they grew up going to.

Lori Warnke: I used to come here every Saturday with my mom and siblings and do our Saturday shopping and candy and school clothes and notebooks and pencils.

Yep, we grew up here.

Phil Warnke: We had four boys in our family so we didn't do a lot of shopping, it just wasn't worth the torment for our mother to put her through it.

But we came here and bought candy whenever we could.

We bought all our school supplies.

This part of the stores is the domestics and towels and blankets, sheets, those types of things.

The fabric department is the entire back corner.

And then the craft department runs all along here with beads, cross-stitch.

♪♪ We are not the type of store like a pharmacy or a grocery store where you have to buy food or you have to pick up medicines.

We're the type of store that sells things that are fun to buy, that they are hobbies or games or activities or things that you do for fun rather than things that you're required to have.

So, when you come in a store like ours there's a lot of surprises, where when you go into a chain store it's pretty predictable what you're going to get.

Games are all here, models kind of come through here.

♪♪ The competitive advantage of Ben Franklin stores is the ability to tailor merchandise to what the community wants.

And now, more than ever before, the store stocks a heavy dose of nostalgia.

♪♪ Lori Warnke: We might be something vintage, they see the Ben Franklin, they remember their childhood, they stop in, they visit with us, we've gotten letters, we've gotten old memorabilia from people.

♪♪ Lori Warnke: This was a buying guide for new store owners.

It's kind of a fun little book someone found when they were cleaning out.

Some other little cars that someone brought to us.

They were cleaning out grandpa's house and they thought that we would enjoy them.

♪♪ Hi there.

Hi there.

Are you finding everything?

I need a shower curtain, or a shower cap.

Do we have such things anymore?

Right over here.

All right!

You're going to be in style.

All right, not a Gigi shower cap -- Phil Warnke: It's really fun to watch especially the older people.

They get out of their cars and their faces light up and they're excited to come in and a lot of them take out their phones and take pictures and coming in our store reminds them of the store that they grew up with, that they got their first piece of candy with their allowances, they got their school supplies, all of those kind of things.

The younger people drive up and say, what's this?

What's a Ben Franklin?

But the people that are in their 40s or older, they grew up with Ben Franklins as a part of their community.

♪♪ It's worth mentioning that many five and dime stores that were once Ben Franklins continue to thrive, just not under the original name.

So, why do the Warnke's keep the Ben Franklin branding?

Phil Warnke: It's familiar to customers and it's been here for almost 100 years now.

It's pretty hard for us to change it.

And even if we did change it, it still would remain the old Ben Franklin store.

So, it's just a little bit of nostalgia for us too to keep that name as long as we can.

Cathy, please call the front.

Cathy, call the front.

♪♪ Phil Warnke: We wake up every morning and we're anxious to come to work and this has been a way of life for us for 33 years and we still find excitement in coming to work and meeting our customers and being a part of the store.

♪♪