Family owned in Cedar Falls since 1962 · Two stores · One service bench
Cedar Falls, Iowa · family owned since 1962
Two stores, eight departments, one service bench with the prices on the wall. Bring the bolt, the paint chip, or the thing that broke. The third generation of Holloways will take it from there.
1962
the year Earl unlocked the door
3
generations behind the counter
8
departments, sold by the piece
$2.75
a house key, cut while you watch
The honest comparison
The store on the highway is good at some things, and we'll say exactly which ones, because you'd find out anyway. Pick what you're shopping for and see the whole ledger, wins and losses both.
You're painting a room, matching twenty-year-old trim, or fixing a bad Saturday decision.
Holloway
Grace has run the paint counter for 23 years and painted plenty of rooms herself. She'll tell you when the $9 roller is fine, when it isn't, and why your north wall needs a different sheen.
The big box
Some paint-desk folks are genuinely good. Whether one is free, or even on shift, when you show up is the coin flip.
Holloway
Free computer match from a quarter-sized chip, quart samples tinted while you wait, and we'll shake your old can back to life at no charge (or tell you it's past saving).
The big box
Their match machines are honestly good too. The line at the desk on a Saturday is the difference.
Holloway
Mis-tinted, or just wrong once it dried? Bring it back. We'll re-tint it, swap it, or make it right, no receipt archaeology.
The big box
Custom-tinted paint is generally final sale. Read the sign by the mixer.
Holloway
Our gallon runs a dollar or two more, and the shelf price is the price: no member app, no promo calendar to decode.
The big box
The base gallon is often cheaper, especially on holiday-weekend promos. That's real money on a whole-house job.
Holloway
Leftover-paint drop-off for the county recycle day, and we tint the set paint for the high-school musical free every spring.
The big box
A corporate grant program exists, with an online application and a quarterly review cycle.
Where the big box honestly wins
Painting every ceiling in a new build? Their contractor desk beats us on five-gallon volume pricing, genuinely. Take that deal, and come back to us for the color match on the one tricky hallway.
One room, the right color, first try. That's what we're for.
You need a tool, or you think you do. Sam spent eight years as a finish carpenter, so start there.
Holloway
The people at our tool wall have used the tools for a living. Sam will talk you out of a $300 saw a borrowed one would cover, and he does it most weeks.
The big box
Forty feet of gleaming aisle, with help mostly for finding it, not choosing it.
Holloway
A real sharpening bench: circular blades $9, chains $12, hand saws $8. Free battery testing before you assume the drill is dead.
The big box
No sharpening bench, but the tool-rental desk at the bigger stores is genuinely useful for once-a-decade machines.
Holloway
Bring it back and tell us what happened. If it failed doing what we said it would do, that's on us.
The big box
Ninety days with a receipt, and the restocking mood varies by shift.
Holloway
Our everyday price is the price. When their combo-kit promo genuinely beats us, we'll say so out loud. Ask us.
The big box
Black-Friday combo kits and pro-brand deals we simply can't touch. If you know exactly what you want, that deal is real.
Holloway
Partners with the Cedar Falls Tool Library since 2019, so you can borrow before you buy. Monthly Repair Café to keep old tools working.
The big box
Workshops at some locations, on the corporate calendar.
Where the big box honestly wins
The widest wall of pro tool brands under one roof, and holiday combo-kit pricing nobody can match. The big box wins that, no argument. Buy it there without guilt, and bring it to our bench when it needs sharpening.
We'd rather lend you a tool or sharpen your old one than sell you the wrong new one.
You have one mystery bolt, a stripped screw, or a hinge from 1974. This is our home turf.
Holloway
Hand the bolt across the counter. Thread matched, grade checked, twin found: about a minute, and the matching is free.
The big box
A wall of boxed assortments and a gauge chart on a chain. You're the thread-matching department.
Holloway
Everything by the piece since 1962. Four washers is a 40-cent sale and we're glad to have it. Keys cut while you watch, $2.75.
The big box
Boxes of fifty when you need two. The other forty-eight live in your junk drawer forever.
Holloway
Wrong bolt? Fish it out of your pocket and swap it. No bag, no receipt, no speech.
The big box
Opened fastener boxes get complicated at the service desk.
Holloway
Per piece, our unit price is higher, no pretending otherwise. But you buy four, not fifty, so the job usually costs less in the end.
The big box
Bulk boxes win on per-screw math. For a whole deck's worth, that math is loud.
Holloway
The odd-parts drawer: discontinued latches, casters, and storm-door parts we keep because somebody's 1970s door still needs them.
The big box
If it's not in the planogram, it's not in the store.
Where the big box honestly wins
Decking screws by the five-pound box? Their bulk price per screw beats ours, full stop. Buy the box out on the highway, and bring the one weird bolt to us.
Four washers, the right thread, forty cents. In and out in five minutes.
Something drips, wobbles, sticks, or died. You want it fixed, not replaced.
Holloway
Describe the drip. Photos are welcome; the part itself is better. Most people leave with a $3 washer and instructions, not a $120 faucet.
The big box
Staff can rarely leave the aisle to troubleshoot, and the aisle's answer is usually a new faucet.
Holloway
A real bench with prices on the wall: screens re-screened from $18, locks re-keyed $12, lamps rewired $18, blades sharpened from $8.
The big box
Mostly a referral to an installation partner, scheduled through a call center.
Holloway
If our fix didn't fix it, bring it back. We'll redo it or refund the part. The bench stands behind its work.
The big box
Install and service claims route through the third party that did the work.
Holloway
Bench prices are posted on the wall, and you get an estimate before we touch anything. No surprises at pickup.
The big box
Project quotes come from the contractor network, and comparing them is your homework.
Holloway
The Repair Café, third Sunday monthly at Riverside: free, communal, and we'll teach you the fix so you own it next time.
The big box
Kids' workshop kits some Saturdays, which are genuinely nice, to be fair.
Where the big box honestly wins
A full kitchen remodel with financing, design software, and an install crew? That machine exists out on the highway, and it works. We're for everything smaller than a remodel, which is most of life.
Most repairs are twenty dollars and ten minutes of honest talk.
Eight departments
PAINT
Paint & Stain
Grace has matched forty years of faded siding. Bring a chip the size of a quarter.
Aisles 1 and 2 · Main Street
TOOLS
Hand & Power Tools
Staffed by people who've used them for a living, and who will talk you out of the wrong one.
Aisle 3 · both stores
FASTENERS
Fasteners & Odd Parts
Sold by the piece since 1962. Bring the bolt and we'll match the thread for free.
Aisle 4 · Main Street
PLUMBING
Plumbing
Fittings by the piece, faucet parts they stopped making, and sympathy for first-timers.
Aisle 5 · both stores
ELECTRICAL
Electrical & Lighting
Wire by the foot, the weird bulbs, and a lamp bench that's saved a hundred heirlooms.
Aisle 6 · both stores
THE YARD
Lawn & Garden
Seed, feed, and the sharpest mower blades in the county. Manny sees to it.
The yard · Riverside
HOUSEWARES
Housewares & Home Goods
Cast iron, canning jars, and the mousetrap that actually works.
Aisle 7 · Main Street
SCREENS
Windows, Doors & Screens
The bench Earl built in 1962 still re-screens two hundred windows a summer.
Aisle 8 & the back bench · Main Street
The service bench
Diane put the bench prices up where everyone can see them, and they've stayed there. You get an estimate before we touch anything, and if our fix didn't fix it, bring it back.
The full bench list, by departmentOff the bench wall
Ask for them by name
Seven of us across two stores, most with a trade behind them. Ask the right person and the answer usually takes a minute.
Word around town
“Walked in with a hinge off a 1974 storm door. Walked out with its twin from the odd-parts drawer, four dollars later. I'd budgeted a whole Saturday for this.”
Rita M. Overman Park neighborhood
“Sam talked me out of a $260 sander and sent me to the tool library to borrow one. That's why every screw, bulb, and paint can I buy for the next decade is bought here.”
Dave P. First-time home owner, Riverside
“They sharpened my grandfather's hand plane and wouldn't take payment until I'd tried it on a piece of scrap right there at the bench. It whispered through the wood.”
June K. Brings the Hammers to games since 1981
Fictional neighbors, invented for this sample site. But this is the kind of thing a real bench earns.
On the calendar
DIY workshop
Saturday, November 14, 2026 · 9:00 to 10:30 am
Nail pops, doorknob craters, and the anchor hole from the shelf that didn't work out. Ninety minutes, and you'll never fear a wall again.
Details & sign-upCommunity repair café
Third Sunday of every month · 1:00 to 4:00 pm
Bring the wobbly chair, the dead lamp, the torn screen, the bike that clicks. We fix it together, and you leave knowing how it works.
Details & sign-upCan't make it? The guides don't have hours:
How to patch a window screen Fix a wobbly chair for goodNot on the shelf?
Holloway gift cards never expire, carry no fees, and work at both stores, the service bench included. Yes, you can gift someone a sharpening.
The whole pitch
The bolt, the chip of paint, the photo of the drip. Whatever you've got, bring it. Sixty-four years in, the answer is usually ten minutes and a few dollars away.
Main Street
214 Main Street · Downtown Cedar Falls
Riverside
1080 River Road · Riverside, Cedar Falls