RIO RANCHO — Those who have been in Rio Rancho the longest remember a time when Lowe’s and Home Depot were irrelevant.
One of the first hardware stores available to the then 20,000-strong town just getting its feet grounded was Rio Rancho True Value Hardware. The store got its beginnings in 1989 on the north side of Southern Boulevard. In 2000, it moved to its current location on the south side next to Dairy Queen.
Now the family-owned store has made some big changes, especially when it comes to the name, which is now just Rio Rancho Hardware. It was more than just a name change, however…