"lektric dan" wrote in message
...

The reason they were so cheap is that the two Ace stores in town are
selling everything off and packing up. One is already closed - all
inventory moved to the second store. Second store will be gone by the
end of the month. There's a Harbor Freight across the street, and a
Wal Mart down the block. The store across town had a Lowes, a Home
Depot, and a Wal Mart to compete with. We've done literally thousands
of dollars (maybe tens of thousands) in the past two years from the
research project I'm working on. I hate to see the folks go; they've
become friends. They always greet us by name when we come in, and
willing to help, even with special order items.

I was in the family-owned local hardware store today and the lady who runs
the paint counter (who hadn't seen me in weeks) asked how our renovated
bedroom looks with the paint she and my wife told me I liked, and when we're
going to bring in pictures. Can you imagine that happening at Hell Depot or
any similar place? Can you imagine anyone at HD caring whether you put the
paint on the wall or drank it with a beer chaser?

Every time we would come in, they would
fire up the popcorn machine and make us a fresh batch. I always left
with four or five small paper sacks of popcorn to bring back to the
ladies in the office or students.

Dang, our local place has a popcorn machine too. It must be something the
indy hardware shop association recommends.

I hate to see places like that close, but people want to save a few bucks by
shopping at the big-box store, and then they complain about all the jobs
moving overseas....