Re: Ticked at Rockler

[Scott Ekman]

Dear Kevin,

I'm excited that you went to visit our new store in Pittsburgh, but am sorry we aren't open yet. We made a mistake on our website - that store page was not supposed to be active yet. Please accept my apologies for wasting your time.

I hope you enjoy the store when it's open. If you sign up for the store's e-mail notification list (

) the store manager will send you an e-mail as soon as it is open.

Scott Ekman Rockler Internet Director

I found their Pittsburgh store on their web site, and drove to the listed > address because I didn't want to wait for mail order. I couldn't find the > store where they said it should be, so I called the order line. They don't > open 'til late April! The dang web site could at least mention that they > ain't open, yet! > > Kevin

[Kevin Singleton]

Scott,

Thanks for your response. I signed up, and I'm anxiously awaiting the opening of the new store.

Congrats on the growth of your company, despite the state of the economy.

Kevin

[Han]

[e-mail] (Scott Ekman) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Dear Scott:

I sure hope you are going to open a new store on Rt 17 in Paramus, NJ soon. Not that I hate to go visit my son in Cambridge, MA, but it really is too far if I just need a few things from the Rockler store on Massachusetts Ave.

FYI, I heard that the Gateway store on Rt 17 in Paramus, NJ may be closing. It is a great location!

(Note: this is really April 2, it's no April fools joke!)

[Dan Valleskey]

Now I'm impressed. Rockler cruises the wreck. As if I needed another excuse to spend all my money there.

-Dan V.

[nospambob]

[Kevin Singleton]

I addition to that, I placed an order via their online catalog on Saturday, and received everything ordered (including a couple of obscure hardware items) on the Friday following, all for the nominal shipping cost of $8.99, which would have remained the same had I ordered almost $40 more in merchandise, and which included a box more than 4 feet long. The only reason I'll go to the store, which is a long way off, through very heavy traffic, is to fondle ...err, handle the products before purchasing.

This is not my first order from Rockler, but it is another example of the very satisfactory service I've received every time I've had the pleasure to do business with them. Since I moved to Pennsylvania, I've been diligently seeking replacements for all the stores I frequented in Dallas, and it's comforting to know that I'll soon have a Rockler store nearby. It's one less change I'll have to endure up here in Yankeeland.

Now, where to buy maple, and how come there's no good chili?

[Kevin Singleton]

I'm a mile and a half away from the Beaver Valley Mall, home to the infamous Chi Chi's of Hepatitis A fame. I've yet to find quality home-cooked Mexican food, but there are some very interesting attempts at bringing the cuisine to Pennsylvania, and I'm sure it won't be long before we have a large enough Latino population to force the grocery stores to commit more than a few shelf feet to chile peppers and masa. I haven't made it to New England, yet, but I'm really looking forward to it. Pennsylvania is a big change in lifestyle, for me, and, so far, every day is a new adventure, whether it's hunting for chili without beans, or finding out what you have to go through to buy a decent over-under 12 gauge.

What's a chicken lobster? Let me guess: it tastes just like ...!!!

[nospambob]

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Chicken lobsters are the small ones, barely legal to catch.

I'm originally from PA and moved to CT about 23 years ago. It was a change in cuisine and I learned to make a lot of things that I took for granted before. In or town you could not buy a decent loaf of crusty bread or roll, deli sandwiches were not like from any Philadelphia or New York deli I ever went to. Here they do have a good white chowder and you can get good Fish & Chips anywhere. Since I'm near the state line, Rhode Island chowder is readily available also. Ed [e-mail]

[Kevin Singleton]

I guess I've never seen a lobster larger than about 2 lbs. I need to get up to where they catch the little beggars, and have a few!

[Kevin Singleton]

We're starving for Mexican food, chili without beans, and chicken-fried steak. There's lots of Italian food, though, and the hoagies. There are some small towns that have more pizza shops than houses, and almost everywhere serves liquor. That's a big change from Texas, where some parts of town are "dry", and you have to have a membership to buy liquor by the drink.

What's Rhode Island chowder? I've never heard of that.

[nospambob]

On one of the trips to Bahston a fellow went with me that we referred to as "The gentle giant" which was an apt description. About as broad as he was tall, from Hawiian Islands and weighed probably better that

300#. >I guess I've never seen a lobster larger than about 2 lbs. I need to get up