Your words are a bit drastic in my opinion. Who’s the hater now? And really…what form of glee does one receive by simply being the first to post, particularly when the comment has nothing whatsoever to do with the current comic? Seriously…is it really that big a deal? Have I been missing something? Should I sit at my computer at 11:59, nervously wondering if I’m gonna be first? Maybe I’ve been missing the big picture…
Not that I have anything against the local hardware store…I *love* that place and all its nooks and crannes and neat gadgets and helpful staff…but I repurpose when I can, too.
There are three locally-owned hardware stores within biking distance of my house. One has nice people, but they never have what I want. The other is the ‘nooks & crannies & neat gadgets’, but most of the staff are less than helpful. The third has lots of stuff, and a helpful staff; and, if they don’t have what I want they’ll tell me exactly what to ask for at the well-stocked but surly-staffed one.
I don’t always go to the local store… Especially at week-ends I like to pick a place at the other side of Paris for shopping; it gives one more opportunity to ride.
You try fixing a ‘broken’ IT program with any of those! I would be amused by the effort of trying to though (Often wished we kept a hammer near the computer though! Ohhh, that’s why we don’t! )
Most of the times problems with IT are due to some human factor, be it on the programmer side or the end user side. The hammer is made to menace them, not to break the computer.
A pointed stick can be used for the same purpose too.
the navy had a procedure that sounded alot like this: if it doesn’t move but it supposed to, grease it. if it moves and it’s not supposed to, send it to the paint shop. if it can’t be fixed with a hammer, it’s an electrical problem.
The only tools you really need are WD-40 and duct tape; if it doesn’t move but should, use the WD-40; if it shouldn’t move but does, use the duct tape.
Tee, would it be crass of me to request a picture of that? If I remeber correctly, you’re in Ontario right? It would be nice to see some Canadain created Danish style chic.
Next time I’m where I can have someone get a photo of me as I ride past, I’ll post a picture. As for chic…that’s funny. More often than not, I’m wearing Teva sandals and stripey tights with the aforementioned [floral] skirt, and quite possibly a hoodie. I definitely have my own sense of style. I’m very near British Columbia; right on the border of Washington, about 35 miles from Vancouver.
Local store for stuff I need right now. Metric fasteners, small plumbing/electrical parts and the like.
Home Despot/Lowe’s for stuff I use on the job. Electrician’s tools and the like. The local store doesn’t sell that stuff, and truthfullly they wouldn’t know what it was if they fell over it. Also a better selection of materials than the local yokel.
SEARS for Craftsman hand tools, always and forever.
I like the local hardware store, where I can walk in with an old part, say to the guy I need 1 of these, he goes hmmmm, and goes down an aisle and comes to a shelf, where there is the item I am looking for, and I can get one for 25¢. Yes I can spend an hour looking around a bog box store and when I find said item, I need to buy a box of 10 for $2.14, I have a drawer unit that is full of items, usually 9 of each, because I ended up with a package of 10, when I needed one. Besides, I can walk to the local hardware store, I need to drive to the big box which is 38km, one way. This often means that in order to save 3½¢ I need to spend $3.59 on gas….
Big Bux probably carries bicycles too. Anyone shopping for cabinet knobs might just notice them, and come looking at them later, when they’re in the market for a bike.
At the local big box stores, the high end bicycles they carry are definitely bicycle store quality. The rest . . . . BSO’s. So you can’t write them off completely, as much as you’d like to.
Even if the parts are bike store quality (on their highest end bikes), the builds definitely are not. You wouldn’t believe some of the mistakes we’ve seen on new dept store bikes. For the average consumer shopping at wal-mart for a bike, this is even more dangerous than cheap parts. Most aren’t interested in fiddling with the bike; many haven’t ridden enough to be able to gauge if brakes are working, if something is missing, etc.
So, whattaya do when your LBS doesn’t stock the stuff you like? Specifically, the brands one likes or a model that one has researched and decided on? There is no one localy to me that stocks Nitto, or Panaracer, or Vittoria, or *insert wool cycling gear here*…
Oh, they can order it, but so can I from a number of on-line retailers. My shop doesn’t know the trouble I go through to keep shopping there.
My LBSs both know where they stand with me. Some things I can get cheap online, like the frame/fork I picked up on a mega sale from an online retailer. Some things cannot be done online, like the face/chase prep on said frame; which I will pick up from the LBS today after my 100k Permanent. Other things could be had for approx. the same cost, but I can get them cheaper online, and the total savings becomes the extra I’ll spend at the LBS for the remaining things I need.
- Saved online buying my headset, spending the savings at the LBS to have it pressed in.
- Saved online buying my crankset, spending a few bucks at the grocery on beers for the shop guys so I can borrow their tools.
My LBS will order anything you want. Or, if you order it yourself they’ll install it for just labor. (The OTHER LBS will charge an ‘installation fee’ on top of the labor if you bring in something you ordered!)
Aren’t there banners in the States under which a smaller unit can exist and survive, if not thrive ?
Here, in Canada, for example, we have “chains” like Rona which are subdivided in “lines” that reflect the size of the store, from small pop and mom places, still owned by them but serviced (bulk buying, publicity, etc…) by Rona, to big renovation centers. It is as a nice compromise for modern times as can be I guess.
@Jean_M: For stand alone hardware stores in the States, the “banners” are, at a minimum, Ace Hardware, DoIt Yourself, & True Value. Typically, single owner stores are affiliated with these national parts suppliers and their national ad campaigns.
In Kent, we lost our local hardware store to the economy and much dithering by the the city council and its ever changing redevelopment plans. The Lowe’s that opened a couple of years ago just 4 miles away didn’t help either. I’m very pleased with the nearest (5 mi) Ace Hardware store in Hudson, OH. (CAUTION: Commercial grade complements forthcoming) They’re friendly, knowledgeable, willing to recommend another store if they don’t carry what I need, and they carry lots of unique and obscure parts and pieces.
That said, I find Joe’s trip to Big Bux because he needs the knobs NOW is perfectly reasonable. Besides, the knobs won’t be truly local at either store unless you live in China.
A programmer, a hardware technician and their manager were driving down a twisting mountain road when their brakes failed. They careened wildly down the mountain until they finally managed to stop the car safely in a mound of soft dirt beside the road. Then they tried to decide what to do next. The manager said, “We need to form a committee, develop an action plan, and meet again in a day or two to discuss implementation.” The hardware guy said, “I’ll use my Swiss army knife to dismantle the car and fix the problem.” The programmer said, “Before we do anything else, we should push the car back up to the top of the mountain and see if it happens again.”
My neighbourhood hardware store closed in January. The only thing I didn’rt buy there in the last 3 years was a water heater and some copper pipe. It was nice to ride my bike over there instead of burning 2 gallons to go to Big Box. I’ll miss ‘em…
In my experience, with only one exception, all hardware stores have cabinet knobs. The one exception has PLENTY of loose metric hardware one could combine with rubber stoppers (also in stock) to make cabinet door knobs, and that’s just off the top of my head.
I can’t remember the last time we had a “local hardware store”. Closest is Ace cause they’re smaller than the Home Depots. If we all give up our cars and only ride bikes like Yehuda, I suppose the “local” model idea might work again. Oh yeah, and tear down the freeways.
Up in Fairbanks, AK there is Sentry Hardware which, I think, is truly independant (not a chain, not a franchise). It also truly rocks, if you’re up there check it out. You can buy a rifle, snowshoes, work boots, a high end fashionable jacket, and any (I mean any) fastener you might ever need all under one roof.
The local hardware store here in LA–Koontz–carries three times as many SKUs as Home Depot, and has a staff of around 20 competent salespeople who can actually answer questions! And they’ll special order stuff. They recommended and ordered in the best crescent wrench I’ve ever had–use it for removing freewheels etc. Not very expensive either.
Home Depot, on the other hand, has been useless to me. Low-quality stuff, and plenty each of a very narrow selection. Lousy service too. Illusion of choice: the American dream.
Usually I’m on the clock when I take a trip to the hardware/building supply store. The slightly higher unit prices I charge my employer/client are almost always less than the per hour time I would have wasted at Home Despot.
We have a local hardware store. The prices tend to be a little higher than they would be at Wally World, if WW carries it, but they carry metric nuts ‘n bolts so I support them for anything I can – lumber, water heater, home maintenance materials etc. Our local LBS is almost 60 miles away, so if we aren’t planning a trip to “the big city” anytime in the next week or so, we order online. If it can wait or we are heading to or through Flagstaff anyway, then we stop at Absolute. We needed a new bike rack and wanted one that supports the wheels and doesn’t clamp onto the frame – we bought it yesterday when we were passing through on our way back from vacation in Mexico. They assembled it for us and helped me install it in the receiver hitch for the first time. The thing is HEAVY but it shouldn’t get bent out of shape on a rough road like the last one! We probably paid a few % more than we would have ordering it online, but they have always been very good to us and we want them to remain successful so they will be there in the future. It is also nice that they are “dog friendly” and we could bring our pups in while we poked around and they assembled the rack.
We recently invested in a trailer (on sale at an online site) and have started using it for our grocery store runs. So far, so good – even with the high winds we tend to experience. With the exception of lumber and water heaters, we should be able to transport pretty much anything we buy locally, either in panniers or in the trailer. It might only save a couple of miles in a cage, but those miles will be spent much more enjoyably and I’ll be able to retain a bit of smugness, even when we shop at WW!
This does underline the problem with “Mainstreet USA”. The Mainstreet stores close at 4:45 on weekdays, are only open half a day on Saturday, and are closed on Sunday.
Right.
This. Does. Not. Work.
Not in the 21st century. The 1950s were a LONG time ago…
First!
NO ONE CARES.
@Wid and Anyn..boo-hhoooo wahhh, haters hate much?
Your words are a bit drastic in my opinion. Who’s the hater now? And really…what form of glee does one receive by simply being the first to post, particularly when the comment has nothing whatsoever to do with the current comic? Seriously…is it really that big a deal? Have I been missing something? Should I sit at my computer at 11:59, nervously wondering if I’m gonna be first? Maybe I’ve been missing the big picture…
Boooooooooo!!! I care. I’ve said that before, and hopefully I will hold the bragging rights someday too.
Well, okay then. Dream big.
Yehuda, you da man. Tell’em!
Duct tape on moustache and beard, that’ll smart when it comes off Moon’s self righteous face.
Duct tape your mouth shut.
Yehuda, will you marry me? <3
Joe, why not just use bicyle parts?
Not that I have anything against the local hardware store…I *love* that place and all its nooks and crannes and neat gadgets and helpful staff…but I repurpose when I can, too.
There are three locally-owned hardware stores within biking distance of my house. One has nice people, but they never have what I want. The other is the ‘nooks & crannies & neat gadgets’, but most of the staff are less than helpful. The third has lots of stuff, and a helpful staff; and, if they don’t have what I want they’ll tell me exactly what to ask for at the well-stocked but surly-staffed one.
Tee, that would be a great idea. Use the cogs from broken dérailleurs. Sections of bicycle chain as ‘pulls’
That would be chic and functional.
if you spend enough time in a bike shop it’s really nice to have something around thats not made of bike parts. Also, local knobs are the way to go!
I can’t imagine how anyone this can be, but I’ll take your word for it.
But these would make great knobs!
http://store.velo-orange.com/index.php/accessories/lighting/low-down-light-mount-type-i.html
I don’t always go to the local store… Especially at week-ends I like to pick a place at the other side of Paris for shopping; it gives one more opportunity to ride.
If you can’t fix it with a hammer, screwdriver, duct tape, or bailing wire (and now zip ties) it’s broken and irrepairable…
You try fixing a ‘broken’ IT program with any of those!
I would be amused by the effort of trying to though 
(Often wished we kept a hammer near the computer though! Ohhh, that’s why we don’t! )
@ Tencon
Most of the times problems with IT are due to some human factor, be it on the programmer side or the end user side. The hammer is made to menace them, not to break the computer.
A pointed stick can be used for the same purpose too.
Oh, they “duct tape” software all the time. Just the “duct tape” code and techniques don’t come in rolls at the local hardware store.
works with chassis
not with software 
Just had fun imagining MrGreen with a hammer ‘fixing a computer chassis
the navy had a procedure that sounded alot like this: if it doesn’t move but it supposed to, grease it. if it moves and it’s not supposed to, send it to the paint shop. if it can’t be fixed with a hammer, it’s an electrical problem.
If it moves salute it. If it doesn’t move paint it.
you forgot WD40
The only tools you really need are WD-40 and duct tape; if it doesn’t move but should, use the WD-40; if it shouldn’t move but does, use the duct tape.
If you think WD-40 is a lubricant, no wonder your stuff is always seizing up. it’s good as a water displacer and degreaser only.
Hence the name, “Water Displacement: 40th attempt”
I repaired my mirror with duct tape today. How tickled am I that they make pink duct tape?
Joe’s not decked out in his lycra, so he’s either walking or driving to Big Bux, huh?
I’ve never ridden in lycra. I do, however, often ride wearing a long skirt.
Tee, would it be crass of me to request a picture of that? If I remeber correctly, you’re in Ontario right? It would be nice to see some Canadain created Danish style chic.
Next time I’m where I can have someone get a photo of me as I ride past, I’ll post a picture. As for chic…that’s funny. More often than not, I’m wearing Teva sandals and stripey tights with the aforementioned [floral] skirt, and quite possibly a hoodie. I definitely have my own sense of style.
I’m very near British Columbia; right on the border of Washington, about 35 miles from Vancouver.
Vancouver, BC has a cycle chic website now:
http://vancouvercyclechic.blogspot.com
Very cool! I love the Copenhagen site. Wouldn’t it be amazing to live in such a bicycle-friendly city?
Its sad that most local hardware stores are going out of business, at least here in Massachusetts
Local store for stuff I need right now. Metric fasteners, small plumbing/electrical parts and the like.
Home Despot/Lowe’s for stuff I use on the job. Electrician’s tools and the like. The local store doesn’t sell that stuff, and truthfullly they wouldn’t know what it was if they fell over it. Also a better selection of materials than the local yokel.
SEARS for Craftsman hand tools, always and forever.
Bike tools from the LBS.
I think that covers everything.
I like the local hardware store, where I can walk in with an old part, say to the guy I need 1 of these, he goes hmmmm, and goes down an aisle and comes to a shelf, where there is the item I am looking for, and I can get one for 25¢. Yes I can spend an hour looking around a bog box store and when I find said item, I need to buy a box of 10 for $2.14, I have a drawer unit that is full of items, usually 9 of each, because I ended up with a package of 10, when I needed one. Besides, I can walk to the local hardware store, I need to drive to the big box which is 38km, one way. This often means that in order to save 3½¢ I need to spend $3.59 on gas….
Big Bux probably carries bicycles too. Anyone shopping for cabinet knobs might just notice them, and come looking at them later, when they’re in the market for a bike.
Not smart, Joe.
No bicycles there, Robert. I looked high and low for them. Just BSOs.
At the local big box stores, the high end bicycles they carry are definitely bicycle store quality. The rest . . . . BSO’s. So you can’t write them off completely, as much as you’d like to.
I can’t? Bull hockey, I just did.
Even if the parts are bike store quality (on their highest end bikes), the builds definitely are not. You wouldn’t believe some of the mistakes we’ve seen on new dept store bikes. For the average consumer shopping at wal-mart for a bike, this is even more dangerous than cheap parts. Most aren’t interested in fiddling with the bike; many haven’t ridden enough to be able to gauge if brakes are working, if something is missing, etc.
So, whattaya do when your LBS doesn’t stock the stuff you like? Specifically, the brands one likes or a model that one has researched and decided on? There is no one localy to me that stocks Nitto, or Panaracer, or Vittoria, or *insert wool cycling gear here*…
Oh, they can order it, but so can I from a number of on-line retailers. My shop doesn’t know the trouble I go through to keep shopping there.
My LBSs both know where they stand with me. Some things I can get cheap online, like the frame/fork I picked up on a mega sale from an online retailer. Some things cannot be done online, like the face/chase prep on said frame; which I will pick up from the LBS today after my 100k Permanent. Other things could be had for approx. the same cost, but I can get them cheaper online, and the total savings becomes the extra I’ll spend at the LBS for the remaining things I need.
- Saved online buying my headset, spending the savings at the LBS to have it pressed in.
- Saved online buying my crankset, spending a few bucks at the grocery on beers for the shop guys so I can borrow their tools.
My LBS will order anything you want. Or, if you order it yourself they’ll install it for just labor. (The OTHER LBS will charge an ‘installation fee’ on top of the labor if you bring in something you ordered!)
Aren’t there banners in the States under which a smaller unit can exist and survive, if not thrive ?
Here, in Canada, for example, we have “chains” like Rona which are subdivided in “lines” that reflect the size of the store, from small pop and mom places, still owned by them but serviced (bulk buying, publicity, etc…) by Rona, to big renovation centers. It is as a nice compromise for modern times as can be I guess.
@Jean_M: For stand alone hardware stores in the States, the “banners” are, at a minimum, Ace Hardware, DoIt Yourself, & True Value. Typically, single owner stores are affiliated with these national parts suppliers and their national ad campaigns.
In Kent, we lost our local hardware store to the economy and much dithering by the the city council and its ever changing redevelopment plans. The Lowe’s that opened a couple of years ago just 4 miles away didn’t help either. I’m very pleased with the nearest (5 mi) Ace Hardware store in Hudson, OH. (CAUTION: Commercial grade complements forthcoming) They’re friendly, knowledgeable, willing to recommend another store if they don’t carry what I need, and they carry lots of unique and obscure parts and pieces.
That said, I find Joe’s trip to Big Bux because he needs the knobs NOW is perfectly reasonable. Besides, the knobs won’t be truly local at either store unless you live in China.
When all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail.
@alfred: And when you’re a software engineer, all problems are solved by rebooting.
No, that’s the CSRs response on the ‘phone!
The software engineer will write new code to fix something you didn’t know about and charge for the time!
A programmer, a hardware technician and their manager were driving down a twisting mountain road when their brakes failed. They careened wildly down the mountain until they finally managed to stop the car safely in a mound of soft dirt beside the road. Then they tried to decide what to do next. The manager said, “We need to form a committee, develop an action plan, and meet again in a day or two to discuss implementation.” The hardware guy said, “I’ll use my Swiss army knife to dismantle the car and fix the problem.” The programmer said, “Before we do anything else, we should push the car back up to the top of the mountain and see if it happens again.”
My neighbourhood hardware store closed in January. The only thing I didn’rt buy there in the last 3 years was a water heater and some copper pipe. It was nice to ride my bike over there instead of burning 2 gallons to go to Big Box. I’ll miss ‘em…
Is the duct tape needed to silence Yehuda or to keep Joe’s head from exploding?
Both, probably.
Duct tape is for everything but duct work.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, it has a dark side and it holds the universe together.
Duct tape now has a plaid side, to tape salesmen together, presumably.
Plaid duct tape?!? Want!!!
The plaid I saw was Burberry. High end, that. But functionally identical to silver.
The old ones are the best ones….. [Duct tape llike the Force]
… and still over a month until Star Wars day.
The old ones are the best ones….. [Duct tape llike the Force]
… and still over a month until Star Wars day.
In my experience, with only one exception, all hardware stores have cabinet knobs. The one exception has PLENTY of loose metric hardware one could combine with rubber stoppers (also in stock) to make cabinet door knobs, and that’s just off the top of my head.
That’s my type of man – if you haven’t got the part, make it!
I can’t remember the last time we had a “local hardware store”. Closest is Ace cause they’re smaller than the Home Depots. If we all give up our cars and only ride bikes like Yehuda, I suppose the “local” model idea might work again. Oh yeah, and tear down the freeways.
Up in Fairbanks, AK there is Sentry Hardware which, I think, is truly independant (not a chain, not a franchise). It also truly rocks, if you’re up there check it out. You can buy a rifle, snowshoes, work boots, a high end fashionable jacket, and any (I mean any) fastener you might ever need all under one roof.
No bike rack though.
http://www.frontieroutfittersfairbanks.com/sentry.html Sorry for the multi-part post, I’m hanged overed
Wow, a guy reluctant to use the word:”hung.”
Rich, some of us have actual jobs and stuff that we need to get to.
Haven’t you had your teleport booth yet? !!!
Even if I did, what guarantee do I have that there’s also one at the jobsite?
Small enterprises impede the aggregation of wealth and power in the hands of a few.
The local hardware store here in LA–Koontz–carries three times as many SKUs as Home Depot, and has a staff of around 20 competent salespeople who can actually answer questions! And they’ll special order stuff. They recommended and ordered in the best crescent wrench I’ve ever had–use it for removing freewheels etc. Not very expensive either.
Home Depot, on the other hand, has been useless to me. Low-quality stuff, and plenty each of a very narrow selection. Lousy service too. Illusion of choice: the American dream.
Usually I’m on the clock when I take a trip to the hardware/building supply store. The slightly higher unit prices I charge my employer/client are almost always less than the per hour time I would have wasted at Home Despot.
I was just thinking, I go to Home Depot when I want to avoid all human contact and I’m not in the mood to hear “Can I help you find something?”.
We have a local hardware store. The prices tend to be a little higher than they would be at Wally World, if WW carries it, but they carry metric nuts ‘n bolts so I support them for anything I can – lumber, water heater, home maintenance materials etc. Our local LBS is almost 60 miles away, so if we aren’t planning a trip to “the big city” anytime in the next week or so, we order online. If it can wait or we are heading to or through Flagstaff anyway, then we stop at Absolute. We needed a new bike rack and wanted one that supports the wheels and doesn’t clamp onto the frame – we bought it yesterday when we were passing through on our way back from vacation in Mexico. They assembled it for us and helped me install it in the receiver hitch for the first time. The thing is HEAVY but it shouldn’t get bent out of shape on a rough road like the last one! We probably paid a few % more than we would have ordering it online, but they have always been very good to us and we want them to remain successful so they will be there in the future. It is also nice that they are “dog friendly” and we could bring our pups in while we poked around and they assembled the rack.
We recently invested in a trailer (on sale at an online site) and have started using it for our grocery store runs. So far, so good – even with the high winds we tend to experience. With the exception of lumber and water heaters, we should be able to transport pretty much anything we buy locally, either in panniers or in the trailer. It might only save a couple of miles in a cage, but those miles will be spent much more enjoyably and I’ll be able to retain a bit of smugness, even when we shop at WW!
This does underline the problem with “Mainstreet USA”. The Mainstreet stores close at 4:45 on weekdays, are only open half a day on Saturday, and are closed on Sunday.
Right.
This. Does. Not. Work.
Not in the 21st century. The 1950s were a LONG time ago…