BOWLING GREEN — Floyd Craft's career as a businessman has been a series of perfect paradoxes.

Mr. Craft, who owns Ben's in downtown Bowling Green, has spent more than six decades in the same industry, yet changed constantly and always seen value in the next new thing.

In the era of the big box store crowding out locally owned shops, he was the small retailer still thriving.

Through the sometimes rugged terrain of franchising, Ben's is still kicking 25 years after the wholesaler for which it was originally named, Ben Franklin, went into bankruptcy.

Online shopping forever changed life for brick-and-mortar stores, yet here is Ben's, celebrating its 45th anniversary this month, a mainstay on S. Main Street just like it has been since the late 1970s.

It would be hard to find someone with more knowledge and experience in retail than Mr. Craft, who is now 84. But for all of his business acumen, Mr. Craft’s biggest asset has been his willingness to be a chameleon, never afraid to adapt to the times or rapidly moving markets.

"You have to — you'd be out of business if you didn't change," Mr. Craft said. "The market's changed. The people have changed. And sometimes, you change without actually knowing you're changing."

After Mr. Craft's previous employer, W.T. Grant, filed for bankruptcy in 1976, he called Ben Franklin’s the next day and moved quickly. He opened the store in the location of what was a Woolworth's along with his wife, Charlotte, and the couple brought their three young girls to Bowling Green, a town he targeted in large part because he had liked it on his travels and it had a university.

As a regional manager at Grant's, Mr. Craft spent weeks at a time on the road and the family moved frequently. His youngest daughter, Amy Craft Ahrens, had lived in five places by her ninth birthday.

Yet what none of them knew at the time was that downtown BG quickly would become an indispensable part of their lives.

"After the first two or three years here, I remember asking my mom, 'When are we moving?'" Ms. Craft Ahrens said. "We just always moved and it seemed weird we weren't moving anymore."

That Ben’s is still intact with the same ownership some 45 years later is no accident. The uniqueness of Ben's — a truly local retailer who has more than held its own in the world of Dollar General, Hobby Lobby, and Wal-Mart — lies within how many times it has reinvented itself.

In the late 70s, it was a five and dime that sold items like curtains and draperies, jewelry, and clothing.

Over time, the store has constantly evolved. Mr. Craft saw quickly that Ben Franklin's model of supplying wholesale was fine for stores in small towns, but it would not work for him and Bowling Green. Whereas stores with no local competition could buy an item for 50 cents and sell it for a dollar, there was competition in his market.

But Mr. Craft had two distinct advantages: Two decades of experience with suppliers, particularly in the Midwest, and the freedom to use them.

"I was paying [Ben Franklin] what some of the locals were selling it for, so there was no margin," Mr. Craft said. "Fortunately, I had the background, and the franchise was such that I could buy from anybody. That was a huge advantage to me because I knew suppliers.

“That's the only way we've survived." 

Asked what he remembers about the early years, Mr. Craft joked that he has very clear memories about going from a job that paid well to one that didn’t.

Despite some early lean years, however, failure was not an option for Mr. Craft. The business eventually became profitable, fully paid off its loans in the mid-1980s, and has never turned back.

What it is today speaks to both Mr. Craft's willingness to adapt and the wide range of products it offers. The store has everything from a candy shop in front to baseball cards in the back, custom framing, party supplies, a UPS shipping location, and, in recent years, a large selection of toys that have become an integral part of the business.

Ms. Craft Ahrens said her father, even now, is still on top of trends, still finding new items for the store, and still excited to do so.

Ben's expansion went further into BG than just its original storefront. Mr. Craft saw the need for a hardware store and opened a True Value (now Ace) along with numerous other investments in downtown BG. The Busy Thimble is an extension of Ben’s with quilting and fabric supplies, while Ms. Craft Ahrens operates For Keeps, a gift shop.

Kelly Wicks, who owns Grounds for Thought, a coffee shop and bookstore next door to Ben's, recalled Mr. Craft helping the Wicks family start their business in the late 1980s, and said virtually everyone in downtown BG has been aided by Mr. Craft at some point.

Mr. Wicks said he has seen up close as Mr. Craft continually adapted and believed in Bowling Green.

"He's an active part of the downtown community, and he's always working hard to continue to promote and change his business for the better," Mr. Wicks said. "He's never, in 45 years, rested on his laurels for any of his businesses.

"He's not only done a great job with his business, but he continues to invest and actively make downtown Bowling Green a better place."

Longevity has long since become a compliment for Ben's.

Some of the store's early employees are grandparents, and it's fair to say that most of the young families with children that pass through today don't know what a five and dime was.

That their business has survived 45 years is largely due to Bowling Green, in which many local businesses — not just theirs — have decades-long relationships with its downtown.

"This community in general really understands how important it is to support the small, local businesses in your community," Ms. Craft Ahrens said. "I've often said that if you don't have a thriving downtown, you quickly become a suburb of some other place."

This week, Ben's will celebrate with a series of 45 percent off promotions, $45 gift-card drawings for paying customers, and by giving away free balloons to children.

Even as his 85th birthday approaches later this year, Mr. Craft has no intention of retiring.

When people ask if he's thinking about finally calling it quits, Mr. Craft always has the same answer.

"Well, I tell them, 'What would I do?'" Mr. Craft said with a wide grin. "I enjoy people and I'm working only because I still enjoy what I do.

"It's still fun for me."

First Published April 17, 2021, 12:12 p.m.