My Peeve About Hardware Stores

[EddieWalker]

For common sized bolts and assesories, I used to go to Tractor Supply. They have a good selection and good prices. Recently, we got an Atwoods, which is basically a bigger, better Tractor Supply. The biggest difference besides more selection is they have everything in stock. They also have a really good selection of bolts to choose from. You pay by the pound, so it doesn't matter what size you buy, it's all weighed together.

I always check what I'm buying. The time you don't is when you get to where you're going and ready to use them, then realized they are the wrong size.

Lesson Learned.

Eddie

 

[mjncad]

Don't even get me started on Big Boxmart stores.

My local Ace charges by the piece or box for nuts, bolts, and machine screws. Nails and drywall screws are by the pound.

Getting lazy customers to put back hardware where it belongs is impossible, and yes it ticks me off.

 

[Philscbx]

I'm usually the one putting them back where they belong when finding them messed up.
It doesn't bother me in the least, as long as I get what I'm after.
But, not have a common bolt in grade 5 or better will be another story if the bin is empty for no good reason. I just spent $50 round trip with makeshift alternate.

 

[wedge40]

The unfortunate trend is to not carry anything that doesn't have a bar coded SKU. Nothing like having to clean the bar code label off of bolt threads or a PVC elbow, especially when they use the anti-switch labels that are designed to come apart when lifted.

Edit: I wanted to insert a wise crack about it getting to the point of tattooing bar codes on a certain part of the anatomy of practitioners of an ancient art form, which is generally illegal, but well known to the local constabulary. However, that would probably have violated the terms of engagement here, so feel free to insert your own joke.

I believe Nevada is already doing this.. They gotta keep track of their tax base
Wedge

 

[Spudland_Dave]

I have since bought a bolt bin and stocked with 1/4 to 5/8. Its a bit of a luxury at home but it sure saves a lot of trips to town. Of course now I have to gripe at myself when the bolts get mixed up
Ken

Not a Luxury IMO, a necessity.... I used to do the onesie/twosie purchases when I needed them, but ultimately it was more hassle for me then anything, not to mention if a person factored in time & fuel, wayyy more expensive.... I now purchase all my fasteners at a local Fastenal, quality is great, price is right in line if not cheaper and I get em by the bag of watever their quantity level is (Example 1/4" bolts might come 50 to a bag, 1/2" might come 10 to a bag) Really works nice for me as the leftovers ALWAYS get used. Just Wednesday night I broke the hold down bolt to the Battery in my truck when trying to remove it, went to my bin set, grabbed what I needed and kept on truckin along.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Speaking of TSC and Atwoods, recently I was tightening up the lug nuts on my rear wheels and popped one of the heads off. No I am not that strong, it was a factory defect. Luckily I was able to remove the remains. Anyway here I go to TSC and Atwoods to try and find a lug nut for my Yanmar. Nothing to be found. A couple days later I was doing some dirt work with my FEL and just happened to stop to do something off the tractor. When I started to mount back up, I noticed a bolt on the ground, so I started looking and found the hole for that one and a couple more that were missing as well. So he I am in Bismarck Ark and needing some bolts. I go up to the little local store which just happened to have a small bolt bin and asked for some Grade 8 bolts. Not only did the lady have the grade 8 for my FEL but I still had the remains of the lug nut in my truck and we sized it up also. I paid about double for them but I didnt have to make a 40 mile trip to get them. I got a few extra also just in case more of my loader mounts worked out. I think the ones that the dealer used are grade 5 and they stretch then get loose then fall out. I have been pretty rough with it digging up some thorn trees.
Well, what I was going to contribute is that not only do you need to check the size, type of threading and length, but also make sure the grade is not mixed if the place sells more than one grade of bolt. Regardless of where you buy, this is a problem.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Not a Luxury IMO, a necessity.... I used to do the onesie/twosie purchases when I needed them, but ultimately it was more hassle for me then anything, not to mention if a person factored in time & fuel, wayyy more expensive.... I now purchase all my fasteners at a local Fastenal, quality is great, price is right in line if not cheaper and I get em by the bag of watever their quantity level is (Example 1/4" bolts might come 50 to a bag, 1/2" might come 10 to a bag) Really works nice for me as the leftovers ALWAYS get used. Just Wednesday night I broke the hold down bolt to the Battery in my truck when trying to remove it, went to my bin set, grabbed what I needed and kept on truckin along.

I did the same thing 2 years ago. I got a parts bin at HF for $10 on sale. Stocked it with 1/4", 5/16", 3/8", and 1/2" stuff. Plenty of lock washers, a few nylon lined nuts, regular nuts, and plenty of washers. I keep the bolts from 1" upto 6".

I also picked up some grade 5 and 8 stuff. I like Rural Kings bolts because they dye them. Normal grade are just metal, grade 5 are gold, grade 8 are purple, and all metric is red. They carry the most complete line of nuts and bolts this side of Fastenal.

I bought all the hardware at Rural King, like TSC but bigger/better, when it was on sale for $0.89 per pound. I think I bought about 40 pounds.

Chris

 

[jimmer2880]

My peeve is why they feel like they have to empty their inventory this time of the year, EVERY year to the point where it looks like they are going out of business.

All that does (besides make their books look a smidgeon better and making me furious!) is drive their regular customers back to the "mom & pops" who still have what you need in stock.

 

[escavader]

HARD WARE STORE? Heck id like to get the boneheads at work to put the bolts in the correct bin at work.It really irritates me when they just throw back the extras carelessly.Or how about when they take the last one of something and dont write it down ,or get them replaced.You ar in the middle of a repair to get the mill running and youve got to go chase bolts cause the bin was empty!!!!Ok rant over
ALAN

 

[sandman2234]

I have this new to me mowing deck, that needs a bit of paint, so I stopped at HD, then Napa, then a paint supply store (closed by the time I got there). No luck, so I passed a JD dealership today, and turned into the hardware store nextdoor's parking lot. Figured since they supplied me with a place to turn around, the least I could do was give them a shot at the paint. Nice folks, bought all they had, then went next door and paid just over twice that for the same green and yellow paint. Gotta love them hardware stores!!!
David from jax

 

[marimus]

Our "bolt bucket" (yes yes, on the right)

 

[LBrown59]

One of my My pet Peeves is concerning any store {not just hardware sores}
that does not have The entrance and exit doors side by side.This is especially bad for the handicapped which causes me to label such stores as non handy capped compliant in spite of them having handicapped stalls coming out the wazoo.
Wall mart and Lowes are bad about that as well as most other Big Box Stores.
It's also a saftey hazzard in case of a fire or other emergency.

 

[Cat_Driver]

My pet peeve is that these clerks don't check returned products.

Many times I have purchased products that have obviously been returned and missing parts.


Phone machine I bought had messages from whoever purchased it the first time.
Drill batteries that were dead used batteries.
Worst one that didn't happen to me but the service girl told me about was a person bout the combo Dewlt pack and it was full of ROCKS. Someone purchased the product took the three tools out and filled it back with rocks and got their money back

 

[patrick_g]

We are approximately 25 miles from towns with TSC, Orcheln's, Atwood's, Ace Hardware, Wally World, etc in 3 different directions. There are smaller closer towns with no hardware and one 12 miles away with a small combination furniture and hardware store that has a few things. Just a couple miles away there is a trailer manufacturer that retails trailer stuff, welding supplies, and a modest selection of nuts and bolts as well as 80lb bags of Redicrete.

If (and that is a big if) the trailer place has the hardware you need you save a 50 mile round trip so paying 2-3 times normal retail is quite welcome.

Much more practical, especially with today's fuel prices, is your own stock of a fair selection of common fasteners. You can easily afford to tie up money in stocking some fasteners when compared to the hassle and cost of a trip to get one or two nuts or bolts.

So in self defense I stock some hardware. I have some HF bins mounted on the wall to hold 5/16, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, and 5/8 nuts, locks, flats, and 5 lengths of bolts.
I built a cart to hold hardware too. I bought some HF bins and assembled a pair of them back to back and put them on tall legs. I put more bins at one end. IT is a work in progress, I will buy a couple more HF bin sets to install under the top two and probably add some shelves to use the enclosed volume below the bins or maybe hinge an end and put bins on both sides as well as having shelves.

I have an assortment of drywall screws in interior and exterior grades as well as using bins to hold boxes of hardware. I put the whole thing on caster wheels for convenience.

Buying at a big box store and to a similar but lesser degree, buying at TSC, Atwood's, etc is strictly caveat emptor as the "associates" only associate their time with their hourly rate and typically have little clue about the products. I gave my wife a detailed note to take with her to Home Depot. I asked for the PVC conduit fittings that let you run PVC conduit into a j-box and secure it. The "knowledgeable" assdashociate (gaming the censor routine) sent her out with a package that clearly stated on the front that it was for putting metal armored flex conduit into a j-box. There were 3 other similar items on the list. Of 8 or so items I wanted, only 3 were correctly handled, 1/2 inch PVC conduit and 45 and 90 degree 1/2 inch PVC elbows. I don't expect experts but I do expect they should be able to read the label and know that armored steel flex conduit is not PVC plastic!

Anyway here are pix of my bins. I have other supplies but they are not as photogenic or organized yet.

To expect that customers will not mess up the contents of hardware bins or expect store personnel to sort them out is truly misguided wishful thinking not at all congruent with reality, unfortunately. I am one of the few who when changing their mind will return an item to where I got it. What bothers me more than homogenized hardware is homogenized milk or other "needs refrigeration" items left laying somewhere (not in a cooler) by a customer and then some store person just returns it to the cooler. How many hours at room temp does it take to maybe encourage bacterial growth in a steak or bottle of milk?

In the one picture you can see part of my DeWart collection (DeWart is Chinse for DeWalt) I would dearly love to not have started the collection and have Ridgid instead. I ran out of shelf space and made wine glass style hangers for some of them (more to come.)

 

[Egon]

The Neigbours shop at Pat's Emporium!

 

[mjncad]

Buying at a big box store and to a similar but lesser degree, buying at TSC, Atwood's, etc is strictly caveat emptor as the "associates" only associate their time with their hourly rate and typically have little clue about the products. I gave my wife a detailed note to take with her to Home Depot. I asked for the PVC conduit fittings that let you run PVC conduit into a j-box and secure it. The "knowledgeable" assdashociate (gaming the censor routine) sent her out with a package that clearly stated on the front that it was for putting metal armored flex conduit into a j-box. There were 3 other similar items on the list. Of 8 or so items I wanted, only 3 were correctly handled, 1/2 inch PVC conduit and 45 and 90 degree 1/2 inch PVC elbows. I don't expect experts but I do expect they should be able to read the label and know that armored steel flex conduit is not PVC plastic!

In the one picture you can see part of my DeWart collection (DeWart is Chinse for DeWalt) I would dearly love to not have started the collection and have Ridgid instead. I ran out of shelf space and made wine glass style hangers for some of them (more to come.)

Last year I replaced the water heater in the house and the inDUHvidual plumbing specialist working at Home Despot didn't know what a T & P valve or a boiler drain valve was. I always replace the cheap plastic drain valves with metal ones.

DeWart...I like it. I call them DeFault.

Nice work on the mobile hardware rack.

 

[patrick_g]

Last year I replaced the water heater in the house and the inDUHvidual plumbing specialist working at Home Despot didn't know what a T & P valve or a boiler drain valve was. I always replace the cheap plastic drain valves with metal ones.

DeWart...I like it. I call them DeFault.

Nice work on the mobile hardware rack.

Thanks, It isn't done but has proved very useful so far. I intend to add two more of the racks like the two with the yellow bins. I have more of the grey ones to use on it, probably at the other end with the panel to which they will mount on hinges and shelves in the enclosed volume.

The OSB flanking the gray bins on the cart were added as "bumpers" to protect them as they would easily be dislodged if bumped into (I'm not always perfectly graceful.) They work fine now.

We had a "Payless Cashway" building materials store on Hy 9 in Norman (Home of OU) go out of business (became an Atwoods) and the outfit running the liquidation kept bumping up the % discount on the retail prices to keep things moving along. I eventually got 70% off on a bunch of boxes of bolts and nuts. larger stuff 1/2 inch up to about an inch in various lengths, many carriage bolts too, many were hot dipped galvanized not just plated. Given the increase in prices in the following years it was a terrific investment. I don't have to use much of that collection to be bucks up on the game.

Pat

 

[MikeD74T]

My peeve is why they feel like they have to empty their inventory this time of the year, EVERY year to the point where it looks like they are going out of business.

All that does (besides make their books look a smidgeon better and making me furious!) is drive their regular customers back to the "mom & pops" who still have what you need in stock.

In New Hampshire it's because they have to pay an inventory tax once a year. Better to sell as much as possible, do inventory & pay tax (on much less stock), then restock. Our warehouses with parts for our own use, not for any resale, do the same thing. It's a real PITA to have to wait for parts that are on the shelf 10 months of the year. Sometimes we have to pull parts ahead of schedule & put them in the shop to get them out of inventory. I've seen dumpsters full of excess new parts because it's cheaper to buy new when needed than pay tax for years until it's needed. MikeD74T

 

[Bird]

My peeve is why they feel like they have to empty their inventory this time of the year, EVERY year to the point where it looks like they are going out of business.

All that does (besides make their books look a smidgeon better and making me furious!) is drive their regular customers back to the "mom & pops" who still have what you need in stock.

Yep, like MikeD74T said, some states have an inventory tax, as does Texas. I'm guessing Oklahoma either does not have such a tax, or that it's a much smaller tax than Texas because several years ago, I knew of an RV dealer who had dealerships in both states, and in December (the week after Christmas) he had the employees busy moving as many RVs as possible from the Texas facility to the Oklahoma facility, then on January 2, they started moving them back because the tax was on the inventory on the premises on January 1.

 

[dgl24087]

Yep, like MikeD74T said, some states have an inventory tax, as does Texas. I'm guessing Oklahoma either does not have such a tax, or that it's a much smaller tax than Texas because several years ago, I knew of an RV dealer who had dealerships in both states, and in December (the week after Christmas) he had the employees busy moving as many RVs as possible from the Texas facility to the Oklahoma facility, then on January 2, they started moving them back because the tax was on the inventory on the premises on January 1.

A local automobile mega dealership used to do the same thing, moved virtually the entire inventory of 2500 cars and trucks to a neighboring county that had a significantly lower inventory tax rate. 2-3 years battling in court over this and the county lowered the inventory tax.