"WW" wrote in
news

"lektric dan" wrote in message
.
..
Just scored a set of 4 "Two Cherries" chisels at the local Ace
Hardware. I didn't know anything about them but thought the price -
about $40 - was cheap enough for the risk. Googled them when I got
home and found out this was a pretty good deal.

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. At
other "big box" stores, we just get blank looks - *when* you can find
someone. They've had a lot of stuff we needed: everything from nuts
and bolts, to pumps, paint, electrical hardware, and on and on. I
guess we helped put them in the red. 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. I understand you have
to keep your business model cutting edge to stay in business, but I
really hate to see them shut down. Anyone interested in a good
business investment?


In our small town we have an Ace hardware that has been here for at
least 30 years.Excellent stock and great employees with knoledge. Also
a Home Depot that came in town about 5 years ago. Also very nice
helpfull employees. Both of these stores have lumber also. A couple
weeks ago a TruValue has opened. Large store huge stock. All these
stores have local employees so maybe that why service is so good. WW

Our Home Depot is excellent as well. One person I hadn't seen in months
recognized me and asked how the ice rink turned out. I bought the wood
for it there two winters ago.

The local Ace is excellent. I rented a pressure washer last week, and
the owner was concerned about me getting my project done, allowing me to
return the pressure washer after hours. (Just so long as I had it back
before 10:00AM the next day, when it was scheduled to go out again.)

Puckdropper
--
Never teach your apprentice everything you know.