# Incredibly common products which the store clerk never heard of **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 23, 2021, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225 "2021-09-23T21:29:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/81 "2021-09-25T03:06:26Z")
If they didn’t know what a cotter pin was, it would probably because Home Depot and their ilk are hiring clueless kids for many of the clerical jobs. I would think that anyone who knows what a wheel and an axle is would know what a cotter pin is. I must admit though that I have never heard the term “grass whip” before, and looking at the pictures I don’t suppose I’ve ever seen one, either. Well, except for the ones that look like the picture below. Over here we call that “a hockey stick”. 😃 [![](https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-q04rvvh6we/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/290/680/60801z12__99991.1481149188.jpg?c=2) ](https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-q04rvvh6we/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/290/680/60801z12__99991.1481149188.jpg?c=2) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/82 "2021-09-25T03:20:33Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I’m guessing it wasn’t the [Original 1966 TV show](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0649265/?ref_=ttep_ep1) with the team led by an _impossibly young_ Steven Hill with glamorous Barbara Bain and Martin Landau (husband and wife off -screen). Oh yes, Mr Briggs, it was! My mission, which I chose to accept, was to procure all seven seasons (which I since have). I also have the revival series from the 80s. And all the movies. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/83 "2021-09-25T03:23:58Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I would think that anyone who knows what a wheel and an axle is would know what a cotter pin is. Not so. I’ve walked the earth a half-century without coming across “cotter pin” until this thread. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/84 "2021-09-25T03:25:23Z")
I had never heard of it, either, but, looking it up, they seem quite common that someone who works at a hardware store should know what it is. I remember having difficulty finding a “basin wrench” at the Home Depot. I had to find one of the older employees to let me know where it was. The kids had no idea what I was on about. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/85 "2021-09-25T03:30:14Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I had never heard of it, either, but, looking it up, they seem quite common that someone who works at a hardware store should know what it is. Despite my general cluelessness about tools while I was working in my dad’s hardware store, I did, in fact, know what cotter pins were, thanks to tinkering around with my wagon and my bicycle as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/86 "2021-09-25T03:40:57Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Not so. I’ve walked the earth a half-century without coming across “cotter pin” until this thread. Do you just not recognize the name, or have you really never [seen one](https://images.app.goo.gl/g1h9rM8Nxy1PJYCGA) before? ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/87 "2021-09-25T03:44:48Z")
I’ll[quote=“pulykamell, post:54, topic:951225, full:true”] I’ve seen those, but I’ve never heard the term “grass whip,” either. I don’t work at a hardware/gardening store, though. No idea if that’s the name they’re known as around here or if there’s another term. [/quote] I had never heard the term “grass whip” before now but I guessed right. I’ve always called it a “whipper snipper”. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/88 "2021-09-25T03:50:49Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > If they didn’t know what a cotter pin was, it would probably because Home Depot and their ilk are hiring clueless kids for many of the clerical jobs. I would think that anyone who knows what a wheel and an axle is would know what a cotter pin is. Either that, or they never built soapbox cars. We all did, when I was a kid. These weren’t the sleek streamlined racers that compete in championship races, but rather whatever we could slap together using whatever boards and other materials we could find. Often, steering was achieved by a cord running between the right and left sides of the front axle, and operated much like a horse’s reins; and propulsion was a friend pushing the car. Pretty rudimentary things, but we had a lot of fun making them and “driving” them on our quiet residential street. Anyway, cotter pins kept the wheels on the axles. The local hardware store stocked them, and knew about them to the point where if one of us kids walked in, the clerk would ask, “Cotter pins, right?” If today’s kids aren’t building anything like we did any more, and haven’t for a couple of generations, then I’m not surprised that there are young people who don’t know what cotter pins are, working at places that should know what cotter pins are, and which places do indeed have them somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/89 "2021-09-25T03:52:48Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > > [@bordelond](#): > > > > Not so. I’ve walked the earth a half-century without coming across “cotter pin” until this thread. > > Do you just not recognize the name, or have you really never [seen one](https://images.app.goo.gl/g1h9rM8Nxy1PJYCGA) before? Seen plenty of them on various rotary devices, but never knew the specific name for them. There also seems to be a specific type of cotter pin used in hairdressing. My mom had plenty of those in the house growing up, but we never called them cotter pins. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/90 "2021-09-25T03:57:27Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > There also seems to be a specific type of cotter pin used in hairdressing. My mom had plenty of those in the house growing up, but we never called them cotter pins. I suspect those were bobby pins, which were very commonly used in women’s hairstyles a few decades ago: [![](https://www.tngworldwide.com/media/catalog/product/4/4/446207.1.jpg?optimize=medium&bg-color=255,255,255&fit=bounds&height=500&width=500&canvas=500:500) ](https://www.tngworldwide.com/media/catalog/product/4/4/446207.1.jpg?optimize=medium&bg-color=255,255,255&fit=bounds&height=500&width=500&canvas=500:500) ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/91 "2021-09-25T04:19:11Z")
I suspect that’s why some types of cotter pins are called “hairpin” types, also I think called “spring” types. The most common type is straight, with both prongs going through the hole, and the longer one is then bent to hold the pin in place. The “hairpin” type is installed as per the picture below. It’s so called I guess because it sort of looks like a bobby pin. [![](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/3114jJNfsUL.jpg) ](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/3114jJNfsUL.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/92 "2021-09-25T04:21:31Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > [@bordelond](#): > > > > There also seems to be a specific type of cotter pin used in hairdressing. My mom had plenty of those in the house growing up, but we never called them cotter pins. > > I suspect those were bobby pins, which were very commonly used in women’s hairstyles a few decades ago: Bobby pins were around (and by that name), too … but I was thinking of these: [![](https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/34ab4146-1a50-43a6-8df0-64e073364a95_1.be7434e79181d0060b10f3924f169a80.jpeg) ](https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/34ab4146-1a50-43a6-8df0-64e073364a95_1.be7434e79181d0060b10f3924f169a80.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/93 "2021-09-25T04:31:28Z")
Well, that’s a new one on me! They’re not cotter pins, though. From what I can tell those were “hot roller clips” (still being sold, apparently) used to secure hair styling rollers. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/94 "2021-09-25T04:43:06Z")
I once agreed to to document my TV viewing for Nielson, probably late 90s. They’d call me every Monday night to get an update on what I had watched the previous week. One time, I had simply noted “channel surfing” for a 30 minute window when nothing good was on. “You were watching surfing?” “No, I was channel surfing. I was flipping between channels trying to find something to watch.” “I’ve never heard of that.” I had to explain the concept of CHANNEL SURFING to someone who worked for Nielson… O.o ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/95 "2021-09-25T04:44:59Z")
I was rather taken aback last month that the young woman stocking at the supermarket had never heard of apple butter. More surprising, she was right. I couldn’t find any in that store. Though her suggestion to look next to the regular butter was not all that helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/96 "2021-09-25T04:56:41Z")
This didn’t happen to me, it happened to my dad. My dad had moved to [Sidney, Montana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney,_Montana) to work for a little while. Sidney is not exactly a cosmopolitan center. Sidney has six thousand people and no Walmart. Not that Walmart is a mark of sophistication, but there’s a difference between being too classy to allow a Walmart and being Sidney. So, when my dad wanted some [pepitas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin_seed) for cooking, he went to whatever grocery store Sidney has. He couldn’t find any, so he asked around. He got a clerk and a manager combing the aisles for his pepitas. Eventually, the manager had an _idea_. The manager went to whatever “ethnic food” section the store had, picked up a container of pizza sauce, and presented it to my dad, like a man explaining something to a person who had obviously eluded their minder and gone off alone, with a carefully-enunciated “pe-PIZZ-ah”. My parents didn’t live in Sidney very long. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/97 "2021-09-25T05:13:28Z")
I went to my local Ace looking for a package of [shims](http://mobileimages.lowes.com/productimages/06f89684-0553-4168-8298-e0b5ffb5202d/03137226.jpg). The kid who was helping me had no idea what I was looking for. An older guy pointed me in the right direction. When I found the shims, I made a point to find the kid and show him the package, and explain what they were for and why they are necessary. He seemed like an earnest lad, and thanked me for explaining them to him. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/98 "2021-09-25T05:14:06Z")
Oh, that is profoundly wrong on so many levels. Guh. And the cotter pin thing has me all headscratchy because Home Despot and Lowe’s sell trailer equipment and every trailer hitch needs a cotter pin. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/99 "2021-09-25T05:30:52Z")
I’ve had the same problem trying to buy bar soap. The same day, I was also looking for a certain brand of toothpaste and had to go to several shops. Apparently, both are products that are mostly used by… by… old people! It began to dawn on me at the second shop, and, at the third, the young shop assistant explained that they’re not popular items because they’re mostly purchased by… by… I cut her off with the words she dared not say, and she laughed nervously. I brought things to a close by adding that I was going to have to go live in a museum, and we laughed politely. I was also in need of a styptic pencil, but damned if I was going to ask for _that_. Grass whips, or whatever they’re called, are seen several times in the film Cool Hand Luke. Excellent sound track in at least one of those scenes, with a thousand banjos playing furiously and evoking the sweltering summer heat. This [Scotch broth](https://www.daringgourmet.com/traditional-scotch-broth/) recipe calls for turnip, rutabaga and parsnip, among other ingredients. I’ve always wanted to make it, especially around this time of year, but nobody in my area has even heard of rutabagas or parsnips. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/100 "2021-09-25T05:33:43Z")
Generally speaking, the type of pin used on a trailer hitch is not called a “Cotter pin." A trailer hitch needs a “[hair pin](https://www.horsetraileraccessorystore.com/-Keeper-Clip-Hair-Pin-_p_543.html)” or a “retainer pin.” A [Cotter pin](https://www.albanycountyfasteners.com/blog/what-are-cotter-pins/) is a single-use pin that needs a tool to install and remove. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225.md?page=6)