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No McCoys stores here.
Where do you guys buy hardware.
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No McCoys stores here.
two_bit_score
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So where do you buy hardware and building materials?
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This area is saturated with Lowes and Home Depot. I go to my local hardware store and an unfranchised lumber yard. There is also a local sawmill that cuts native lumber which all of my outbuildings are made of.
ning
Elite Member
I buy most of my stuff at the local hardware. One is an Ace, one is True Value, and both have as good of a hardware selection - typically better - than HD (which happens to be 45 minutes away vs 10 & 12 minutes for the other two), and best yet, I can actually find what I want in minutes. Something about how HD sets their stuff up makes it really tough for me to find what I need...
The Ace place basically gives you a personal shopper as you walk in the door, unless you clearly know exactly what you need and where it is, and they know exactly how to do what you need to do, even if you don't quite know what you're trying to do
so they get my buck if I can send it their way - it's worth a lot to me to be in & out quickly with the right stuff for the job, and they don't mind me buying extra and bringing it back months later if I didn't use it.
I detest HD because if you need help finding something, and you're lucky enough to find someone to help, they don't usually know much of anything, and despite being a huge place they have a remarkably limited selection of the things I tend to look for, so I'm pretty hit-or-miss with being able to get what I need at HD. For tractor related stuff, there's a TSC 35min away from me, and I'm afraid for my wallet every time I go in there. Seems nicely set up, I find what I need quickly, prices are good...
The Ace place basically gives you a personal shopper as you walk in the door, unless you clearly know exactly what you need and where it is, and they know exactly how to do what you need to do, even if you don't quite know what you're trying to do
so they get my buck if I can send it their way - it's worth a lot to me to be in & out quickly with the right stuff for the job, and they don't mind me buying extra and bringing it back months later if I didn't use it.I detest HD because if you need help finding something, and you're lucky enough to find someone to help, they don't usually know much of anything, and despite being a huge place they have a remarkably limited selection of the things I tend to look for, so I'm pretty hit-or-miss with being able to get what I need at HD. For tractor related stuff, there's a TSC 35min away from me, and I'm afraid for my wallet every time I go in there. Seems nicely set up, I find what I need quickly, prices are good...
ultrarunner
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I sure miss my two independent hardware stores... they really had everything except for lumber/roofing.
Both are no more and sorely missed.
Eames in Pleasant Hill has 77 reviews and nearly all 5 star... super staff, hired lots of local kids that really embraced the owner's philosophy on customer service.
The rent was going up and all things considered the owner decided it was time for a change.
Thing is the store has been vacant ever since... it was not large but carried a depth of product and things the Box Stores didn't have.
Eames Hardware & Supply - CLOSED - 1� Photos & 77 Reviews - Hardware Stores - 2665 Pleasant Hill Rd, Pleasant Hill, CA, United States - Phone Number - Yelp
Both are no more and sorely missed.
Eames in Pleasant Hill has 77 reviews and nearly all 5 star... super staff, hired lots of local kids that really embraced the owner's philosophy on customer service.
The rent was going up and all things considered the owner decided it was time for a change.
Thing is the store has been vacant ever since... it was not large but carried a depth of product and things the Box Stores didn't have.
Eames Hardware & Supply - CLOSED - 1� Photos & 77 Reviews - Hardware Stores - 2665 Pleasant Hill Rd, Pleasant Hill, CA, United States - Phone Number - Yelp
two_bit_score
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Traveling out west on several occasions, I always marveled at the different chains available for consumers. Only a couple years ago did we get a Costco store in the area in Ma. Krispy Kreme came and went much to my chagrin.
What may be a household name in some areas are simply "a what?" in much of the east. Tractor Supply seems pretty spread out. No such thing as a Menard's or McCoys here.
Drifted through most of these post, the main consensus is to go local local local, we'll that's a good thing to go local but I can't go local, everything that is open when I get home from work is 30 mi. away, so I do the next best thing, ebay or online somewhere.
Last month I was looking for a 12 mm 1.25 tap & die, spent 4 nights looking online, ebay had some good prices from China but the last time I ordered from China it took over 2 months to get the order, the US locations was I thought on the high side for ebay, same on amazon. So on Sat. I went to the nearest hardware store, they had the 12mm tap, $8.00, bought that and some other stuff, and after using up 3 hrs. by now, I didn't want to spend all day riding around the country side and risking getting the (I'm No. 1 hand gesture) went back home and did what I wanted to do on my Sat. off.
At night went back online net shopping again for the illusive 12mm die, went to a bunch of sites that are mentioned here, but this one unknown never heard of site came up>>> Opentip.com: Online shopping for promotional items, sporting goods, office products, home and garden, and apparel. <<< what is a place like this doing selling taps&dies, for some reason they had a good selection at the best price by far, so after checking out this store making sure it was located in Timbuktu China, I ordered the die, got in 4 days, looks like good quality, better then the Harbor Freight set I have. The ordering was easy, shipping not hidden under 20 pages of bla bla bla somewhere.
Last month I was looking for a 12 mm 1.25 tap & die, spent 4 nights looking online, ebay had some good prices from China but the last time I ordered from China it took over 2 months to get the order, the US locations was I thought on the high side for ebay, same on amazon. So on Sat. I went to the nearest hardware store, they had the 12mm tap, $8.00, bought that and some other stuff, and after using up 3 hrs. by now, I didn't want to spend all day riding around the country side and risking getting the (I'm No. 1 hand gesture) went back home and did what I wanted to do on my Sat. off.
At night went back online net shopping again for the illusive 12mm die, went to a bunch of sites that are mentioned here, but this one unknown never heard of site came up>>> Opentip.com: Online shopping for promotional items, sporting goods, office products, home and garden, and apparel. <<< what is a place like this doing selling taps&dies, for some reason they had a good selection at the best price by far, so after checking out this store making sure it was located in Timbuktu China, I ordered the die, got in 4 days, looks like good quality, better then the Harbor Freight set I have. The ordering was easy, shipping not hidden under 20 pages of bla bla bla somewhere.
Mauser12
Bronze Member
From my experiences there, I believe he was correct.
Oaktree
Super Member
We were vacationing in Maine for a few days and stopped in a store called Marden's. It's a chain of overstock/discontinued items/distressed merchandise outlets. Much to my surprise, they (at least the store we visited) had a bigger selection of nuts, bolts, etc. than any hardware store I've ever been in.
Not really relevant to this discussion, but my wife said the same thing about their selection of cloth.
Definitely a place to visit again.
Not really relevant to this discussion, but my wife said the same thing about their selection of cloth.
Definitely a place to visit again.
