On Tue, 6 Oct 2009 10:57:36 -0700, "DGDevin"
wrote:

We have a terrific family-owned hardware store nearby (talk about
endangered species)

We have one in Baltimore, too. Clark's Ace Harware in Ellicott City,
8 miles west of the beltway, but I live as far west as the beltway.
They have loads of stuff, and they repair window screens and do lots
of other things too.

I was impressed by how much they had, and I wanted to say so, so I
asked if the manager was around, and the floor clerk said "Mr. Clark
is over there." I think he is in his 70's and he comes to work every
day.

Sometimes their prices are as low as on-line, and they have loads of
stuff. I'm running out of PC-7 and HD and Lowes only sell little 4
oz. sizes. They have the two 4-oz cans I always buy, and two 8-oz
cans as well.

HD and Lowes didn't have a single square U-bolt. They had 11 sizes.
(to attach a window spanner to a ladder, for more stability.)

I wanted metal-clad 6 foot washing machine hoses and they had them,
two kinds, with bent end and straight end, and other lengths. HD only
had 4 foot long.

Other things they have had that HD doesn't sell.

I also needed a motion detector, light-detecting floodlight, and HD
had them, but Lowes only had the ones one level cheaper. I forget what
feature, that I needed, was missing. I ended up buying two of them at
a surplus/leftover store, Ollies, a brand I'd never heard of but it
was 15 dollars instead of 40, and includes a receiver for inside the
house that will buzz and/or turn on a lamp inside if the floodlight
goes on outside. We'll see if it works.


and several independent or chain home-improvement stores
other than HD, so I can usually stay out of there for months on end. They
could easily get my business just by staffing the place with people who give
a damn, but they seem to have little interest in making shopping there a
pleasant experience. Oddly enough there is a new HD across town that is
full of helpful employees, maybe the management of some stores is a little
smarter.