Hardware stores: Ace is closest, and since they share a parking lot with my local megamart, I often have a coupon for them on the receipt, so they’re my first choice.
Lowes is next closest, and I’ve gotten better service from them in the past, so they’re my choice for something Ace doesn’t have, but is needed faster than Amazon delivery.
Home Depot is pretty far away, and their lot is a bitch to get into from my direction, and their service is horrible. A distant third.
Harbor freight is way off the beaten path - and while their stuff is cheeeeap much of it is either unreliable or not durable, so it’s normally just a nope.
Lowe’s is about a half mile from me, literally walking distance. Unless Lowe’s doesn’t have what I need, or I just happen to be near one of the other hardware stores while doing other shopping, I am going to Lowe’s.
Ace is closest, and locally owned so I try to give them my business for what I am pretty sure they have. Otherwise it’s Lowes. They’re a little more expensive, but I’ve heard they treat their employees better
That’s up to them, though; they’d be the same people if they picked somebody else. Ace doesn’t own them, they own themselves. But I do think a lot of the Ace and True Value stores are locally owned and run.
(We have a True Value around here, too. I forgot about that one; I don’t go there as often.)
Yup; Ace is a “retailer cooperatives” – effectively franchisors of the brand name, and distributors of branded merchandise to their stores. True Value used to be this way, too, though I believe it went into private ownership a few years back (and, overall, doesn’t seem to be doing as well as Ace is).
Most, if not all, of the stores are locally owned, as you note (though I’ve known a few cases where one owner held several Ace or True Value stores in an area).
There’s actually a True Value even closer to me than my Ace – it’s only about five blocks away. I’ve been in there a few times, but I’ve come to suspect that the owner just operates it to give himself something to do: their stock always looks old, the store looks cluttered, and they keep very limited hours (i.e., not open on evenings, closed on Sundays, etc.)
There’s a local independent hardware store in town. I think they are affiliated with Ace or Truvalue, but I’m not certain. If i think they’ll have what i need, i go there. They also do a decent job resharpening my kitchen knives.
If I’m looking for basic lumber or weird stuff the local place won’t have, i go to Home Depot.
If i want fancy lumber or a nice clamp or something, i go to the local Woodcraft.
We’ve got an indy lumberyard, too – I counted them as one of the hardware stores, because they also have a fair amount of hardware. They’ve got two branches, one in each of the villages I usually do errands in; they opened the second one after that village lost its hardware store, a decade or so ago.
I’m more likely to find weird or simply unusual items at my local independent hardware store than at Home Depot. It’s only a few blocks further away than HD. There is no Lowe’s terribly close by, and I’ve never heard of Harbor Freight.
Every time I’ve gone to HD for one specific item, I’ve been disappointed. Now, I just go to the independent one first.
I think HD is slightly closer than L’s, but we have a nearly-local chain (recently bought by out-of-staters) that is the go-to store. I have gone to the L place, but HD is out-of-bounds because I do not like the chain’s owner a-tall.
There is a nearby store that had it’s own name but was connected to Ace. It now has another name, and is still the same, part of a small chain. I love it because I am so ignorant on hardware and they have plenty of people to ask help of.
A small thing, but once, while I was teaching Sunday school I needed some of those wooden paint stirring paddles for a craft. I went to this store to buy some, and when they found out why I wanted them they just gave them to me. I’m a loyal customer.
I recall there was a brief attempt to put computer chips in soda machines that would adjust the price of a soda based on the temperature. The vending companies, of course, tried to present this as they were offering a discounted price when the weather was cold. But customers saw it as the company raising the prices when the weather got hot. There was an outcry and the pricing chips did not become the standard.
We used to have a really good independent hardware store nearby, but it burned down and the owners decided to retire. The one we still have is better than it used to be, but it doesn’t have a huge inventory.
Regarding the phone costs, here in Austria I’m on a plan that costs €3.90 (about $4) per month. It has a limited number of calling minutes, texts, and data, but I have never come remotely close to using them all. Back when I lived in Germany, like @pjd, I was on a pay-as-you-go plan where you could buy a certain amount of minutes/text/data for €19 (about $20). I don’t remember exactly how much I got for this, but it was generally good enough to last me a year.
I’m consistently horrified at how expensive cell phone service is in North America.
To answer my own household chore interference question: we had ferrets for 20 years, and every singe one went crazy whenever we changed the sheets, bouncing around the bed and generally doing their best to hinder the process. We found it charming but if we were in a hurry we’d have to throw them out of the room and close the door.
Most of our ferrets also loved to chase the mop when washing the floors. A few even bit it and held on as we pushed it around.
We had one or two very naughty ferrets who would attack the rubber gasket on the washing machine door as soon as it was opened. Three times in the last ten years we forgot to close them in another room before loading or unloading the washing machine and they managed to jump in and bite a chunk out of the gasket, causing the machine to leak and requiring us to replace the gasket.
Our last remaining ferret died a few months ago. Now all we have is a cat, who’s relatively well behaved except for jumping on the counter while we’re cooking.
My SO and I both have cell phones for $6.00/month. We get some minimal amount of data and phone minutes which we never come close to using up. Texting is unlimited, but we never text.
My go-to hardware store is a small independent about a mile from my house. For large purchases I use either Home Depot or Lowes depending on the price. Lowes has the better garden department, so I gravitate there, but both stores are only about eight or ten miles away and are catty-corner from each other at a major intersection.
We once had a dog that would bark at the vacuum cleaner, so we always let her outside when vacuuming. For our current dog, I picked 'watering the flowers(although it’s usually the vegetable garden). She loves to drink from the garden hose and will tap me on the leg when she wants a drink, so it’s mostly a very mild form of ‘interference’. But I have to admit that I have been startled a few times when my mind is wandering as I am watering and she approaches me unobserved and taps the back of my knee with her paw. At least I know that I can still jump
Heh, I was once heading for my connecting flight at some airport and I thought I had time for a quick beer. The service was slow and I was just about to leave, when my LARGE beer arrived.
The waitress gave me my beer and check then rushed off. There was a bright red lipstick print on the rim of the glass. I looked around for a server in vain. I turned the glass so the lip print faced away, chugged down my filthy beer, put down some cash, and ran for my flight.
