The Local Hardware Store

[Notgrownup]

We have a few good stores around here, couple of ACE, a DO IT BEST (Lester’s ) and The Big Blue Store. They carry between then just about anything you can think of.

 

[zimman]

I am fortunate to have a local Fastenal store nearby. For the more traditional hardware store experience, the original Ace Hardware in downtown Placerville with its wood floors is hard to beat.
Although when I visit my local Ace Hardware, its like walking into Cheers... everyone knows my name. Not sure if that is a good thing or not!

We have one too but it's not open to the public. Crazy.
Zim

 

[jd_1138]

We have quite a few of those types of hardware stores close to me. I was in one last week looking for a nut for a wheel on my dolly. There was one also in the town I live in that got bought out. After it was sold it laid off all the folks who knew about hardware. Then they hired a bunch of younger guys that looked liked they were just out of high school.

I went in one day and I knew I was going to be in trouble there when I heard a couple of them talking about how they were going to leave and make the big bucks somewhere else. When one of the young geniuses came over I asked something like where they had the wingnuts. He looked at me like I was speaking some ancient Tibetan language created by female aliens from some distant planet that were going through some kind of existential crisis. After that I never went back to that one.

In my area they are still around but you do have to look for a good one. Most of the time they are Ace connected stores. That one reason when I set up our shop I made it look like an old store. I really miss the old mom and pop places, there use to be a lot of hardware ,car parts, lumberyards and similar. Sadly most are gone and we are stuck with big box stores that manage to be many times larger and has less of what I really need than the smaller mom and pop stores had.

Yep it's sad to lose a quality hardware store. There was a small local one that still had its original hardwood floors from 1890s. Over the years it had been an Ace, True Value and finally a Do-It affiliated. It had stock from all 3 chains in among the name brands.

Entire row (small though) of USA made quality hand tools. The manager was an older gentleman who knew tons about electrical, plumbing and carpentry. He helped me out a lot over the years when I was a young home dweller needing to fix or repair stuff. He had a 486 CPU desktop PC and an Okidata dot matrix printer to print out receipts. His inventory system must've worked great. He was never out of something I needed.

Sadly it's gone.

 

[reader2580]

There is a local hardware store called Beisswenger's. They were in a 1900's era building with multiple floors. They opened in 1930. They had everything, but you had to ask an employee to find most items because the place was not well organized. Dealing with power equipment was a pain as power equipment was in the basement. They moved into a brand new store built in the parking lot in 1988. I wasn't really old enough to have gone to the old store much.

I remember buying stuff for the church there and they let me charge it to the church account without any special permission from the church. The city did a big redevelopment in the early 2000s and bought the property. A new store opened in 2005 about two blocks from the old location. The store ran into financial trouble a few years ago. The owner was almost retirement age so he sold the store to someone who converted it to an Ace hardware store as the new owners own other Ace hardware stores.

 

[lowbucktruck]

Vintage Hardware Store / story:
More than a few years back, I was on a road trip up north to my hometown in Oregon. That town has shrunk; the True Value hardware store (family-owned) was still there and open, the Coast-to-Coast hardware store was long closed up (building still there). In that True Value I browsed a bit and found an OG pair of 10WR Vise Grip pliers (the original Petersen Vise Grips). The package was a little dusty, those pliers had been hanging there for some time.
I bought them on the spot, paid cash with a big grin.

 

[Burl]

I'm 73 years old, so yes I do remember the traditional old hardware stores. I grew up in a small town but there were a couple ones, even before the Ace stores, etc. Now even the Ace stores are gone, people just didn't support them, though they had very good products and prices. The big box stores finally won out.

 

[Death Row Dave]

One on the many little things that make America beautiful is still around . Great news to me . Thank you for sharing made my day

 

[ecotec]

These are my favorite kind of stores… where every trip is a treasure hunt. They have been disappearing fast around here (Detroit metro area).

We still have a few places to look around in, but they are often disappointing. The day everything has a SKU number, and all the products are just like every other store, is the day that they are not fun anymore.

I always wanted to go to one of those tools stores in Japan that are jam packed with high end tools.

 

[milkovich]

Behold the "Death Star" of small town hardware stores. The folks who work inside must work on commission or something because they actually try to help you and the only place I've ever had as good of service is Lee Valley (the pinnacle of tool buying). I live down the street from a Menard's (the least worst big box) but Hartville Hardware is a 25 minute drive and when you need a REAL tool that day, it's worth the drive. The other notable thing is they have a flea market on Saturdays I've bought some insane vintage tools at, and they have a "market" full of vendors that sell everything from grass fed beef to antiques. I've never gotten out of the complex in less than 3 hours and for less than a few Benjamin Franklins, but where else are you going to buy an M18 hedge trimmer, East Indian Rosewood turning blanks, custom cut steaks, and a bucket of rusty Petersen vise grips? Admittedly, the vibe isn't "cozy old store" anymore, but I'm old enough to remember the original building across the road from this complex, which very much was a "cozy" building that had been added on to and on to for decades before I was born.

 

[Jmellc]

My small hometown had a locally owned Western Auto. They had a good selection of most hardware, also sold housewares, bikes, model planes and tools. Sold rifles, shotguns and ammunition for a long time. Sold a few fishing rods and other gear. I loved shopping there. They had a good catalog and could order anything not in the store. I got a pup tent from them as a child and still have a backpack from there, a hand brace and toolbox. They did well for years until WA corporate became too hard to deal with. They switched to True Value for several years before finally closing.

I moved to Durham, NC in 1981. They had 6 family owned hardware stores, a True Value among them. It was in a poor shopping center but apparently catered to a lot of trades people. They had lots of professional quality tools of all types. The last store closed about a year or so ago, after 99 years. It had more and better hardware that some supply houses. I tried to make these stores my first stops when I could.

RIP Pope's True Value, MEH Hardware, Forehand's Hardware, Durham Hardware, Baird Hardware and Public Hardware.

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

Looks like a cool place, thank you for sharing - it’s great to get a glimpse into such a place!

I don’t remember us having such a big, one-stop-shop type independent hardware store. We’ve had multiple small ones and just like the car parts store they have almost all vanished. The few that are left have different focusses/ key/core range of products that you need to know about so you end up in the right one if you’re looking for something specific, like Festool off the shelf or speciality hardware. The spread is real, so you gotta be aware of what your time is worth to yourself. I love wading through these places that are left, but then it’s a “joyride“ as most of the trips make zero economical sense.

I’ve written about this on my thread, we’re even now set to most likely losing our only, really local, “big box store” Nov. 1st. This says a lot about how hard it is to run such places in general, the independent places are a lot smaller & more focussed - with accounts for B2B sales and all that and that is what keeps them afloat at the end of the day. If you have to go to the ”big box store” you’ll chose the ”best”, and that was never our local one - and the ”best” a few towns over is still less fuss & driving than some of the independent speciality ones … So unless it’s a “joyride” or really special need, I know where I’m going.

City layouts, routing, zoning change and gentrification plays a part as well. There was a cool independent one in the big city we favor, but it got ridiculous trying to park even remotely close to it because of all the “change‘ around it. So the only time I would go there is when I knew my better half would be taking her time at a store or multiple stores she likes in that greater area and not necessarily ”need” me to stick around, so I would then set off on foot to go there, but again “joyride” it was. … Needless to say it didn’t survive, although it used to be one of those “institutions” back in the day that you thought would be there forever.

All that said, for everything I’m not getting from suppliers, I really like the ”big box store” a few towns over and it serves me perfectly well, especially in regard to “common” hardware by piece or by weight - all self-service, just pull a baggie, fill and print a label at the scale.

As much as I flee into nostalgia, reminisce about times past and enjoy the warm fuzzy feeling it gives me, I’m living now and it is what it is. Projects must get done.

This is a independent supplier/ hardware store & steel stockist I use often when ordering, because of a personal contact, you can virtually tour the store: https://www.dorner-gmbh.de/virtueller-rundgang Gems like this are rare!

Few screen captures:












Kind regards,
Olli

 

[NUTTSGT]

Behold the "Death Star" of small town hardware stores. The folks who work inside must work on commission or something because they actually try to help you and the only place I've ever had as good of service is Lee Valley (the pinnacle of tool buying). I live down the street from a Menard's (the least worst big box) but Hartville Hardware is a 25 minute drive and when you need a REAL tool that day, it's worth the drive. The other notable thing is they have a flea market on Saturdays I've bought some insane vintage tools at, and they have a "market" full of vendors that sell everything from grass fed beef to antiques. I've never gotten out of the complex in less than 3 hours and for less than a few Benjamin Franklins, but where else are you going to buy an M18 hedge trimmer, East Indian Rosewood turning blanks, custom cut steaks, and a bucket of rusty Petersen vise grips? Admittedly, the vibe isn't "cozy old store" anymore, but I'm old enough to remember the original building across the road from this complex, which very much was a "cozy" building that had been added on to and on to for decades before I was born.

I found them online when searching John Deere stuff...nice to hear first hand that it's gping to he going on the bucket list.

 

[Higgins]

Hardware sales in Bellingham is the king of independent hardware stores. Walking in there is like walking through the McMaster catalog. Need any bolt thread you an imagine it’s in stock and you can buy it by the piece. They also cater to local loggers and oil refineries so need a 3” spanned wrench or a 5” socket they got it. 4’ monkey wrench yep. 1” wire rope and in house crimping yep. It’s almost 4 city blocks of retail space squared and that not counting their warehouse storage.
The photo above is just one of like 4 hardware isles alone.

I'm in love! Wish there was an equivalent type store near us in KY / IN. Id be willing to drive several hours to find what im looking for!

 

[HogDude]

Weeping Water, NE I had the same experience. My parents moved to an acreage there when I was in my mid twenties. Visited the hardware store with my Dad. Crazy looking place. Flooring was 2x8 boards. Shelves stacked high and bins everywhere. Service? Yeah, in spades. My dad bought a water heater. Guy asked, "you live up past the gun club on the right"? Yep. Guy said they'd deliver it tomorrow. My dad asked about paying. The guy said he'd put it on his account. My dad said he didn't have one. Guy said now you do. Probably cost a little more and worth every penny.

 

[lolaetype]

This is a small town, under 30,000 people. We have a Lowes, TSC, Atwood's Farm and Ranch and Leonard's Ace Hardware. The standard comment around town was if Leonard's didn't have it, you probably didn't need it. Just digging through their stock was an adventure. Some sections reminded me of the TV show American Pickers. And The bird feed usually had bugs and moths in it.

You wanted deck screws? They had bins of them, and you grabbed what you wanted and put it in a plastic or paper bag and they weighed it at the register.

Everything had a price sticker on it. If something was priced at $1,99, likely as not you could find the same thing with an older-cheaper price sticker on it. After w while there was a sign on the front door saying basically the sticker price wouldn't be honored, they would charge you the price their check out register said was correct.

Then they remodeled. Prices increased. . . seemingly a lot. The place seemed sterile and sanitized. The bins of deck screws were replaced by boxes that cost about double what they cost when you bought from the bulk bins. On the plus side you can find what you need easier and don't have that nagging worry about your tetanus shot being up to date. Oh, and their bird feed still has bugs and moths in it.

 

[Temaweaver]

I live in central PA. Here we have Paul B. Hardware. If you're from the area....you know.

 

[pima67]

More of a home center but who remembers Pay'nPak., Ernst, Handy Andy?

 

[Tman]

Sadly, both hardware stores in my little home town are long gone. I remember as a kid going to the Coast to Coast hardware store where they had one of those multi drawer metal cabinets full of bearings, chain master links, and other maintenance bits for bicycles. Since my life revolved around keeping my junky bike on the road, they were a life saver.

My dad closed the last Coast to Coast Warehouse in Brooking SD. True Value/True serve killed that company. Now neither are left.