I like the Ace hardware store way way better than the lows or home depot. You can actually get help You don't wait in line like the big box stores A special order is pretty easy The product quality seems better
McQuades in Westerly RI is my Ace store, good folks.
A lot of Chinese crap is much better than American crap. And Americans make plenty of crap lately.
And a lot of the stuff with famous US brand names is now China-made crap too -- but double or more the price at local stores (maybe including Ace) compared to Lowe's and HD.
Perce
That's why I chuckle everytime these threads come around bashing Walmart , Homedepot and Lowes ...But they get that warm fuzzy feeling like they are doing something important by throwing money away in small so called mom&pops , so to them I guess it's worth it..LOL...
Sigh! Sounds like Gerald's in Westchester (LA area, on Lincoln Blvd en route to LAX). Staffed by Olde Tymers who knew everything, could find everything, and gave what (remember!) personal service. Never found out why they closed; I hope it was just due to retirement or something reasonable, but I miss the hell out of them. Not that near me, but well worth the trip.
clipped
The backroom at ACE has one of everything, and the guys out front provide complete verbal instructions.
One of the towns in this area fought off, at least temporarily, building a WalDump on a pristine, riverfront site. Wal probably could much better afford the legal expenses, but this was a dedicated group of people - just ordinary local folks, not an enviro. group. We also lost a large mobile home park - nice, well-kept retiree homes - to a chain that might be Wal. I won't shop Wal if it's the last store on the planet. Folks can keep shopping at Wal and wondering WTF happened to their jobs.............
clipped
Sounds like my sewing machine guy ...... I asked him how long he had been repairing sewing machines and he said "all my life". He looks about 70, but his wife looks older. He knows all, has all the parts, and teaches a couple of younger guys. One of the younger ones, though, answered a question pops couldn't answer. I bought a case for my daughter's new/old Singer machine from him - he originally quoted $70, which is more case than needed. Got it later for half that. The second time I asked, he came down more that what I had been prepared to pay, so I pitched in the difference. My Singer is going on 40 years old and does everything I will ever want to do with a sewing machine, including sew boat covers. The handle on my sew. mach. case rusted and broke - he had another, along with the goofy spring clip that holds it on. Another engineering marvel.
One of these days, a couple of handy guys are going to get tired of this nonsense and start repairing good stuff. Americans have gotten too freaking lazy...hope we can never again afford to pitch a "new" TV and go out and buy another.
It ain't "throwing money away" if I leave feeling friendly rather than homicidal and I actually got what I came for.
nate
Well i guess if you don't know what you are doing it's worth it to have a store tutor.
And, in your first example, the purists can live in the riverfront park because they can't afford anything else.
If you look at the cities that do not have a Walmart (Chicago, New York, Boston, D.C., San Francisco, Baltimore, Boston, etc.), I think you'll discover the pattern (Houston has 17 Walmarts, Las Vegas has 14).
Jobs? Last year a Walmart opened across the street from Chicago. The store had THIRTEEN THOUSAND applicants for 300+ jobs and 70% of the applicants had Chicago ZIP codes! Most studies show Walmart creates more jobs than are lost - and the jobs are of equal or better employe value.
Sure, some mom and pop stores will suffer, but complaining about that is equivalent to lamenting the demise of the buggy-whip industry because eveybody's buying the new-fangled automobile.
Myself, I'd LOVE to be able to open a store in the same parking lot as a Walmart - use them as an anchor store: Ice cream shop, bookstore, sandwich shop, auto parts, wedding chapel, whatever.
Sorry, I don't buy that. It may be true when looking *only* at retail jobs gained at Wal-Mart vs. retail jobs lost at their competitors. But Wal-Mart sells very little American-manufactured goods. Their insistence on price-cutting has been a significant force in driving manufacturing overseas, and thus contributed to the loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. To be sure, Wal-Mart is not the only retailer responsible for this -- Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, and Sears, among others, share in the blame. But to say that they create more jobs than are lost, when they serve mostly as conduits for marketing to Americans goods that are manufactured by non-Americans -- goods that used to be made in America, by Americans -- just doesn't hold water.
I live in a small town of about 20,000. They only hire the prettiest girls from 18-24. The asst. manager looks like an ex beauty queen, big hair, boob job, and all. More like a dancer. But I digress.
A trip to Ace goes something like this for this sixty year old. I go in. I immediately look to see where Dave and Bob are so that can avoid them and get waited on by one of the bouncy bubbly (but very knowledgeable) young ladies. WE usually have to search a while, all the time, I'm teaching them about what it is I'm looking for, mainly so next time they will know, and can help others in the future. I Well, not mainly, but I digress. I always ask to see things on lower shelves and where they have to bend over. The whole trip could be done faster if I'd just go get what I want, or get Dave or Bob, as they know every little hiding place there. But when I leave, I definitely leave with a better attitude, my parts, and a little ego massage. The girls now even call me by name.
I have no idea where they find so many really cute chicks in that small town and why they don't have many males in the same job. My best trips are when big hair waits on me. She's at least six feet tall, and thirtyish. Hubba hubba. She's hot!
Steve
If you go to our local Wal Mart you will soon realize that is a local situation and not corporate policy. Most of the ladies on the registers look like my grandmother and I'm 63.
These weren't "purists", they were people who live in the community and value the resource that WalMart was ready to ruin. It is a gorgeous site, not just land that nobody else wanted.
Which "pattern"? Open land? Chicago has miles of waterfront parks, the result of folks long, long ago who knew the value of open spaces. You can ride a horse close to downtown Chicago, drive for miles with a view of the park and the water, hold an outdoor rally for a million people, have a picnic and visit a great museum, hop on a bus or train to go home. BTDT.
Cool, work at Walmart and spend in Chicago. Works for me :o) And the wages, no doubt, add tremendously to the economy....well, if the employee's two other jobs are counted. FWIW, the Miami PD had how many thousands of applicants for one of the worst jobs in the country. Avg. length of employment is about 2 yrs, I believe.
So, a one-owner (and repair) shop sells small appliances, TV's, stereos. He can't run it alone, so he hires a couple of skilled people to learn the repair end and give him some time off. His employees draw loyal customers, not just shoppers for the cheapest deal...and adds to the value of the original purchase by having a place to service it.
When companies ship jobs out of the country ... yesterday it was one of the computer mfg's, I think ... who do they think is going to be left with a wage that can buy their product in the US? I keep asking myself.
SOL...Walmart sells the sandwiches, ice cream, books, auto parts. Mebbe a wedding chapel...Walmart can do the photography. Hot dog cart or a massage parlor might work. Or is WalMart doing massages?
Some of us could only hope to know everything. No convenient Ace here but I do appreciate the knowledgeable folks at the real supply house. I might walk in requesting something and they might ask what I am doing and suggest a better/newer method or suggest a much less expensive renewal kit that I didn't even know existed.
clipped
...and those of us who learn by doing have a great place to start.
So, has either of you read Deep Economy by Bill McKibbin?
Jeez- and I thought my social life was pathetic....
-- aem sends...
On 2/22/2009 5:03 AM snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net spake thus:
Amen to that. I have never set foot in a Walmart and never intend to.
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