Where is your favorite hardware store?

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

The best staff in these stores - at least Home Depot but I think the others are similar - are semi-retired trades people who actually know their department, because it sells what they work with. I have run across people like this a few times.

Although rare, I have to be fair and add that I too have found a few knowledgebase associates and really appreciate this.

Now, if you could just find help when you need it.....

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

Now, if you could just find help when you need it.....

That is a problem, and it is largely the result of the insane retail hours that stores operate to attract consumers. Those great old hardware stores were not open over 12 hours a day, seven days a week - if they were, you wouldn't be able to find anyone to help you there, either.

[gbaglo]

If you do find somebody to help, you'll discover that the item is only available online, not in store.
Home Depot wasn't interested in answering my question, just in maintaining their 'social network'.

[PGDriver]

Originally Posted by escape artist

Hi: StarvingHyena... We in St. Thomas On. are fortunate to have the number one rated Home Hardware Building Center in Canada. It's huge and while you may not find everything there, if you don't you won't find it anywhere!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

Hey Alf just visiting one of your other favourite stores in Waterton.

[wetzk]

Originally Posted by PGDriver

Hey Alf just visiting one of your other favourite stores in Waterton.
Attachment 33790

Is that licorice icecream?
If so I gotta somehow visit there one day.

[PGDriver]

Originally Posted by wetzk

Is that licorice icecream?
If so I gotta somehow visit there one day.

Yup the best licorice ice cream around, but you have to go to Welchs in Waterton.

[gbaglo]

Now you've done it. Got me wondering why licorice is black. Asked Google and haven't found the answer, just lots of health warnings.
C'mon Brian B-P. Answer me this.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by StarvingHyena

Question for Ron in BC, with your sailing experience, I wonder if you ever got out to that marine hardware place in Sooke. I was never able to get there but understand it had an amazing collection of old marine brass … as in three barns full. Have no idea what happened to it.


Tom

No, never did see it. Usually my stops in Sooke were just for the night after sailing down from Barkley Sound. We had a place in N. Van. for years that was the same. You couldn't get within 3' of the walls because of the old marine hardware. Some of it I swear was from the clipper ship era. Fun to look at. When they moved they took a bit with them to use as decoration. Don't know what happened to the rest. Not much of a market for hardware from yesteryear.

Ah Sooke. The folks that have 4x4's "just in case" remind me in a similar way how glad I was to have GPS and radar around Sooke. That fog, couldn't see the bow, and all those fish boats and marine traffic.

Ron

[gbaglo]

I was on the bridge of one of BC's newest ferries coming out of Swartz Bay ( doing a story ) and the captain swore that some pleasure boaters turn on GPS and set a course, and then go below to mix martinis. He said he'd had numerous close encounters where there was nobody visible at the wheel.

[wetzk]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

Now you've done it. Got me wondering why licorice is black. Asked Google and haven't found the answer, just lots of health warnings.
C'mon Brian B-P. Answer me this.

I give up, I tried multiple search terms and apparently it is that color as that's the color people think looks like licorice.

Did you know if you eat to much it not only could mess with your heart apparently it can make your poop bright green. I found that as I was searching.


Edit: I do not care if it made my poop paisley even , I love the taste of the stuff. Licorice ice cream sounds good too

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by wetzk

Did you know if you eat to much it not only could mess with your heart apparently it can make your poop bright green.

That would be the anise oil.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

Home Depot wasn't interested in answering my question, just in maintaining their 'social network'.

Probably true, but to be fair to them the question appeared to be rhetorical, as a criticism. Asking "are buffing pads and other accessories available for this polisher" might have resulted in an answer.

Originally Posted by gbaglo

Now you've done it. Got me wondering why licorice is black...

Argggh... now I have to know, too.

Originally Posted by wetzk

... apparently it is that color as that's the color people think looks like licorice.

I think this is common - if there was a practical reason for a material to have a particular colour originally, and that reason is no longer valid, the colour continues just because it is expected. For instance, cola drinks are dark... only because they have colouring, not having anything to do with cola flavour. While pure licorice root is apparently black (perhaps due to the flavonoid content), current licorice products don't actually use much of that, and the black colour seems to be used now to identify products as licorice-flavoured.

[Mike Lewis]

Law's Hardware in Glen Burnie, MD was a place like Tom described: ancient parts covered in dust from sitting in a bin for fifty years, but stuff you couldn't find elsewhere. I think the business was still going as of 2012 when I moved away.

Halls Hardware in my hometown of Milton, Florida is pretty good as well. I remember it from when I was a child. It's still in business and seems able to compete with the Lowes and Home Depot that opened a few miles to the west.

[Fox hunt]

I feel the same way about book stores i always love the old style book stores. the new ones have all the same stuff nothing surprising and old.

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

Probably true, but to be fair to them the question appeared to be rhetorical, as a criticism. Asking "are buffing pads and other accessories available for this polisher" might have resulted in an answer.

It was a criticism, but when I click on Question, I expect an answer, or at least an attempt to answer. From their response, they seem to think that being "published" on a Home Depot website is some sort of triumph. That's fine, but they could have provided an answer. I did another search for pads and came up with nothing.
Getting a more expensive, but better polisher at Canadian Tire. It's interesting that CT often publishes highly critical reviews of the products it sells. They don't censor.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

It was a criticism, but when I click on Question, I expect an answer, or at least an attempt to answer. From their response, they seem to think that being "published" on a Home Depot website is some sort of triumph. That's fine, but they could have provided an answer. I did another search for pads and came up with nothing.
Getting a more expensive, but better polisher at Canadian Tire. It's interesting that CT often publishes highly critical reviews of the products it sells. They don't censor.

With your query you would have been better off to send it to them direct, instead of on the product page. I think most stores want those questions to be specific to the product and not to question their seemingly inadequate practices. I have never had a review deleted at Home Depot or anywhere in fact. Lots of stuff at the BORG gets very poor reviews.

[Viajante]

Tie.
The hardware store of all hardware stores was Seven Corners in downtown Saint Paul. They could outfit 3M.

Small store was Mercord in Prescott WI. Walk in the door wilth a part from anything and the owner knew what you needed.

[gbaglo]

So, I went into Chat at Home Depot site and asked about pads for a Ryobi corded polisher ( cheap, just $29 ).

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

So, I went into Chat at Home Depot site and asked about pads for a Ryobi corded polisher ( cheap, just $29 ).

Well, that wasn't very helpful of them...

This is another reason for the decline of all types of stores: if you have to order stuff from somewhere anyway, why not just skip the local retailer entirely.

[dfandrews]

In Ventura County, we've lost a couple of those great old hardware stores that had just what you're needin'. But, one is still here: it's a historical landmark. Fulkerson Hardware in Somis, CA is over 100 years old; the present building is almost 100 years old, and, especially if you're a local farmer, you'll find what you're looking for there.
https://www.conejovalleyguide.com/we...andmark-no-128