At the Hardware Store
13/10/14 05:05
I went to the hardware store on Saturday. It is a trip about which I occasionally get teased at my house. I guess I go to the hardware store a lot. I like going to the hardware store. One of my favorite places in the store is the row of bins of open bolts and nuts. There was an aisle like that in my father’s store when I was growing up. Rows and rows of bins, each with its own diameter and length of bolts. The hex bolts are separate from the carriage bolts and there are places for lock washers and flat washers and fender washers. There are regular hex nuts and locking nuts and wing nuts. We had rows of galvanized bolts, which these days are pretty much gone from hardware stores, replaced by a lot more stainless steel than we ever had in our store.
But hardware stores have more than just the bolts. I’m a fairly regular customer of tools and tie downs and buckles and cables and wire and harness rings and paint and countless other things that are found in a good hardware store.
Saturday’s trip was to pick up a small container of broadleaf herbicide. I’m not a big fan of herbicides, but sometimes the weeds that invade the lawn get beyond the pulling and digging stage. Even though we live in “Countryside” and I’m not into the kind of competitive lawn keeping that is a part of some neighborhoods, Canada thistle is not my idea of a lush lawn. And if you don’t control the weeds you end up sharing them with the neighbors, which is why I have the problem in the first place, but that is an entirely different story.
My father was a licensed chemical applicator and applied various chemicals with airplanes, ground spray rigs and hand-held sprayers. I learned quite a bit from him and one of the things that I learned is that the most effective season for applying broadleaf herbicides is the fall. Warm and sunny September and October days give you the best results. October 11 seemed like a good day to me.
Anyway, I walked into the lawn and garden section of the store to find it populated by outdoor Christmas lights. There were some ornaments that were still in boxes and some shelves that were empty, but the Christmas theme was definitely a part of the store. And the shelves were bare of fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, hand tools, garden hoses, sprinklers and the usual items you would normally find in a hardware store. I strolled up and down the aisles, hoping that they might have forgotten a single bottle of Ortho Weed B Gone.
Now there is a principle in all hardware stores. When you know what you want and need a little time to think about which way to solve a particular problem and which bits and pieces to purchase, there will be a clerk who will hover and ask you, “Can I help you?” or “Did you find what you are looking for?” every few minutes. It can be a bit embarrassing to admit, “I’m not sure what I want, but I’ll know it when I see it.” Then, when you have something specific in mind, but don’t know where to find it in the store, there are no clerks to be found. It was the latter situation on Saturday. It was obvious that they were in the midst of stocking shelves with Christmas items, but whoever was doing the job had abandoned the work. Perhaps it was coffee break time.
When I finally located a clerk, he made a half-hearted attempt to look for a little weed killer for me and then said, “I guess we don’t have that any more.” I asked him if there might be a bottle in the back, in storage, where they must have just taken the stock that was on the shelves a few days ago, but he didn’t have any idea where to find it.
The scene was nearly the same at the second hardware store I visited. Fortunately they had the end of one shelf with some late fall gardening supplies and there on the shelf was what I needed. But most of the aisle was being devoted to artificial Christmas trees and outdoor lighting displays.
As I checked out, I mentioned to one of the clerks, “I thought for a minute that I had wandered into the wrong time zone.” When questioned, I commented further, “Out here it isn’t even Halloween yet, but back there, it seems to be Christmas.”
I didn’t make any trips to the big box hardware and lumber stores in our town. I avoid them unless the smaller hardware stores don’t have what I want. But I’m willing to bet that they are all decked out with Christmas items as well. In fact, I suspect that the pressure for the local hardware stores to make the switch in merchandise so early comes directly from those big box stores.
Now I understand that some of my neighbors like to put up their Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving weekend because they have some extra time off from work and it can be a big job to do all of that decorating. Our family has never gotten into the lighting displays and outdoor decorating, but I don’t have anything against it.
But are there a lot of people who go shopping for their Christmas decorations in mid-October?
Actually, if you have the storage space, I’m told that early January is the best time to purchase Christmas decorations. That probably won’t work at our hardware stores. I wouldn’t be surprised if they switch over to Valentines Day before Christmas arrives.
There are some jobs that I am simply not cut out to perform. Retail sales isn’t my cup of tea. I think I would like visiting with people. I know I would like finding just the right part to make that home repair. I know I would like talking about tools and how to care for them.
But for me there is no joy in setting up Christmas decorations in October.
I don’t even have my yard work done yet.
But hardware stores have more than just the bolts. I’m a fairly regular customer of tools and tie downs and buckles and cables and wire and harness rings and paint and countless other things that are found in a good hardware store.
Saturday’s trip was to pick up a small container of broadleaf herbicide. I’m not a big fan of herbicides, but sometimes the weeds that invade the lawn get beyond the pulling and digging stage. Even though we live in “Countryside” and I’m not into the kind of competitive lawn keeping that is a part of some neighborhoods, Canada thistle is not my idea of a lush lawn. And if you don’t control the weeds you end up sharing them with the neighbors, which is why I have the problem in the first place, but that is an entirely different story.
My father was a licensed chemical applicator and applied various chemicals with airplanes, ground spray rigs and hand-held sprayers. I learned quite a bit from him and one of the things that I learned is that the most effective season for applying broadleaf herbicides is the fall. Warm and sunny September and October days give you the best results. October 11 seemed like a good day to me.
Anyway, I walked into the lawn and garden section of the store to find it populated by outdoor Christmas lights. There were some ornaments that were still in boxes and some shelves that were empty, but the Christmas theme was definitely a part of the store. And the shelves were bare of fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, hand tools, garden hoses, sprinklers and the usual items you would normally find in a hardware store. I strolled up and down the aisles, hoping that they might have forgotten a single bottle of Ortho Weed B Gone.
Now there is a principle in all hardware stores. When you know what you want and need a little time to think about which way to solve a particular problem and which bits and pieces to purchase, there will be a clerk who will hover and ask you, “Can I help you?” or “Did you find what you are looking for?” every few minutes. It can be a bit embarrassing to admit, “I’m not sure what I want, but I’ll know it when I see it.” Then, when you have something specific in mind, but don’t know where to find it in the store, there are no clerks to be found. It was the latter situation on Saturday. It was obvious that they were in the midst of stocking shelves with Christmas items, but whoever was doing the job had abandoned the work. Perhaps it was coffee break time.
When I finally located a clerk, he made a half-hearted attempt to look for a little weed killer for me and then said, “I guess we don’t have that any more.” I asked him if there might be a bottle in the back, in storage, where they must have just taken the stock that was on the shelves a few days ago, but he didn’t have any idea where to find it.
The scene was nearly the same at the second hardware store I visited. Fortunately they had the end of one shelf with some late fall gardening supplies and there on the shelf was what I needed. But most of the aisle was being devoted to artificial Christmas trees and outdoor lighting displays.
As I checked out, I mentioned to one of the clerks, “I thought for a minute that I had wandered into the wrong time zone.” When questioned, I commented further, “Out here it isn’t even Halloween yet, but back there, it seems to be Christmas.”
I didn’t make any trips to the big box hardware and lumber stores in our town. I avoid them unless the smaller hardware stores don’t have what I want. But I’m willing to bet that they are all decked out with Christmas items as well. In fact, I suspect that the pressure for the local hardware stores to make the switch in merchandise so early comes directly from those big box stores.
Now I understand that some of my neighbors like to put up their Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving weekend because they have some extra time off from work and it can be a big job to do all of that decorating. Our family has never gotten into the lighting displays and outdoor decorating, but I don’t have anything against it.
But are there a lot of people who go shopping for their Christmas decorations in mid-October?
Actually, if you have the storage space, I’m told that early January is the best time to purchase Christmas decorations. That probably won’t work at our hardware stores. I wouldn’t be surprised if they switch over to Valentines Day before Christmas arrives.
There are some jobs that I am simply not cut out to perform. Retail sales isn’t my cup of tea. I think I would like visiting with people. I know I would like finding just the right part to make that home repair. I know I would like talking about tools and how to care for them.
But for me there is no joy in setting up Christmas decorations in October.
I don’t even have my yard work done yet.