I have an older home, so I spend a lot of time in small, old-time hardware stores. They are the kinds of places where the employees have seen it all and done it all. They weren't flipping burgers last week and trying to get a job in a pizza parlor next week.
I went back to my home town of Cape Girardeau last month and was happy to see that Suedekum hardware was still in business, although it had been rebranded as Meyer Supply, after the family that founded it a century ago (it's still the same family).
If you want to treat, take a look at these pictures:
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They still use rolling ladders to get to the high shelves. Nails pounded in the floor spell out distances for measuring rope and chain.Nice folks. Glad to see they are still around. Two of the five customers who came into the store while I was there started out by saying, "Lowes sent me....."