Chris Cunningham’s True Value America Delivers Hometown Service
Chris Cunningham’s interest in business was shaped early during the years he spent living with his grandfather, James H. McGee—the first Black mayor of Dayton, Ohio. Cunningham watched how McGee treated people in his community and made sure their needs were met, instilling in him a lifelong belief that business and service could go hand in hand.
A decade after graduating from Florida A&M, Cunningham chased that belief head-on. He started with seasonal tax-preparation offices and eventually launched Dry 24 Water Restoration, a company that tackled water, fire and mold damage. The restoration company thrived on urgency—calls at 3 a.m. often meant crews on-site before dawn. That discipline shaped Cunningham’s approach to entrepreneurship: Meet the need, solve the problem and earn the trust.
By 2023, Dry 24 Water Restoration was thriving, and Cunningham began looking for a new opportunity—one that could anchor his business portfolio while serving a part of Tampa he felt was often overlooked.
Not Just a Store—The Whole Block
When the third-generation owner of Shell’s Feed & Garden Supply decided to retire, he put a rare piece of Tampa real estate on the market: a full 1.9-acre city block on North Nebraska Avenue. The property included a storefront, a warehouse, two outbuildings and a furniture shop—all on one parcel.
“It was a diamond in the rough,” Cunningham says. “The store hadn’t been updated in decades, and as soon as I walked in, I could sense and feel the past years of it being a feed store. I almost walked away because of the significant capital improvements needed, but the store had great bones.”
The size of the opportunity was too big to ignore. Owning the entire block would let him transform not just a store but the surrounding space. He purchased the property in late 2023 for $1.6 million. What began as a promising real estate deal soon became the base for a hardware store designed to serve the neighborhood in ways the big boxes couldn’t.
Service Experience Turns into Retail Opportunity
When buying cleaning supplies, Cunningham’s restoration business spent heavily at national chains—often without much assistance. “We’d walk in wearing company shirts and still had to chase somebody down the aisle,” he says.
Frustrated by poor service, he started researching franchise options and saw that hardware stores consistently ranked high in Entrepreneur magazine’s Franchise 500 list. Owning a store offered both a strategic extension of his restoration work and a way to do retail differently: Own the real estate, tailor the mix and serve customers better. His vision was a modern, full-line hardware store with traces of the feed-store tradition and multiple profit centers to attract everyone from contractors to pet owners.
He also liked the idea that, unlike many industries, hardware was still often a family-run business.
True Value Shaped Store in 3D
After shopping around for distributors, Cunningham turned to True Value, where he found flexibility and support for his ambitious plans.
The co-op’s design team created a 3D layout that reimagined the outdated feed store into a retail space featuring 72 linear feet of Stihl and EGO power equipment, 20,000 SKUs and a dedicated janitorial aisle informed by his restoration experience.
In an unusual twist, True Value America’s website launched before the store itself, generating online sales early while renovations were still underway. With online income even before the doors had opened, Cunningham funded a $250,000 remodel—repolishing concrete, adding a veneer stone façade, repainting the building and installing sliding-glass doors.
Today, he estimates that more than 20 percent of the store’s revenue comes from e-commerce.
Growth Plans, Grounded in Creativity
Cunningham’s block is only half built out. Architectural drawings are underway for five townhomes on a secondary lot, and the warehouse behind the store will soon stock lumber and sheet goods for contractors. For True Value America, he has equally ambitious plans. He’s looking to double his commercial business by serving hospitals, schools and apartment developers—customers who need fast access to salt pallets, smoke detectors and janitorial supplies.
“I spend two mornings a week shaking hands and asking [potential customers] what they can’t find elsewhere,” he says.
Inside the store, the next reset includes Milwaukee’s MX FUEL system and an expanded pet-food section that honors the legacy of Shell’s Feed & Garden Supply. Cunningham calls the store “urban rural”—a place with small-town service in the heart of a growing city. His approach remains grounded: Serve current customers while preparing for the next wave.
“There’s nothing more creative than owning your own store,” he says.
Continue Reading in the July/August 2025 issue.
