Favorite hardware store.

In highschool and just after I worked in a hardware store / lumber yard that was founded in the late 1800's.   It was a fantastic lumber yard with skilled knowledgeable people.   They were killed by Home Depot and their inability to change quick enough. Ohh well.   Townhomes it is for the land.  

 

Anyways.  There are still old cool hardware stores out there and I love them.  So maybe we can all share some. Because they're cool to visit. 
 

here's a favorite. 
http://www.finkles.com

Finkles  in Lambertville NJ     They are plumbing, electrical and hardware supply/store  they also have a metal yard where I bought some angle to make bumpers for my jeeps as a young guy.  
 

my neighbor and childhood friends family owned hardware stores in Philadelphia for years and years.   They moved the store to the suburbs in the 1980's and grew it to three locations.   Only to be closed later  

here's a key chain from their original location 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/295727790133?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28

I still enjoy a good Ace. Yeah its a chain, but the individual stores get to stock whats right for their area.  
 

T.A. Mahoney

Marine supply, but that's my favorite hardware to go pick up.  Means I'm boatin.

I got real frustrated with Ace this past weekend. Wanted eye rings, brass ones.  One store had the size I wanted, they haven't restocked that part in over a month and I picked up one of 3 boxes I need.  Went to 5 different stores over two days.  None of em had what I needed.

Was also frustrated with the local places as well.  I'd love to shop local, but none of em are open on the weekends, just when I'm at work. 

There was this really rad hobby/hardware store not far from my parent's house. I hope it's still there.

I haven't found any local hardware stores yet, though Ace (usually) has what I need.

I hate to admit it, but if I can't find it in-store, I know I can find it on the Internet.

Hardware? Tacoma Screw seems to be top dog around here. (Their website is terrible, but the selection is amazing)

https://www.tacomascrew.com/

General house repair stuffs? Mclendons

https://www.mclendons.com/locations

There are a couple local Ace stores within walking distance (owned by the same people) that have been good for me. I still miss a little independent store that closed a few years back - it had originally opened in the 1920s, and was bought by a soldier when he came home from WWII.  After he passed away, his wife continued to run the store until she was in her 90s.  It had all the classic features - a creaky hardwood floor, nuts and bolts and nails in bins, etc.  One old time store that's still in operation in my neighborhood is Bryant Hardware, at 36th St. and Bryant Avenue in south Minneapolis.  https://www.bryanthardware.com

Ace was my go to, then the owners closed the store and moved to Florida.  Now it's almost exclusively Home Depot.

I haven't had the best experience with small town hardware stores.  If you're under the age of 50, be prepared to be treated like dirt.  If "my buddy Bill" walks in, they're treated like royalty.  

Royall Hardware, Mt. Pleasant SC.

They are the only thing I miss about Mt. Pleasant SC. I remember walking in there with my Dad when I was a boy. They had a wood stove that heated the place with flue blowers that put out the warmest air. 40 years later, you could walk in their new building and know if it was hardware, they had it on the shelf. Any bolt, nut, obscure plumbing part or valve. Electrical supplies, well pump parts, or a belt for your mower, they had it on the shelf. Most importantly, they had someone who knew exactly what you were talking about and where to find it in the store. 

Now my closest hardware store is a Lowes and they suck at almost everything they do and are staffed by the most clueless people they can find. 

Ah, the creaky hardwood floor!  Fond memories.  I think the last of the independent stores closed by 2021, if not well before.  Pleasants Hardware had been a mainstay in Richmond for over 100 years, but it's gone now too.

I remember my first and only visit to Busbee Electronics Supply on Broad Street around 1990.  It was an electronics store, the kind where you could go in and ask for a diode, and the old guy with glasses would look it up and get one out of a drawer and sell it to you for a nickel.    Kind of a funny mix of old and new--Dusty old wooden-floored store selling discrete electronics.  I suspect it was closed by 1995 if not sooner.

A friend of mine with a working knowledge of circuits and an oscilloscope helped me fix the display on a Realistic graphic equalizer with that very diode.  I still own it, sitting here on a shelf next to me.  It still works.

The Home Hardware in my town still has bulk nails in bins. I love that.

Unfortunately, they've somehow managed to source lumber that's worse quality than Home Depot.

iansane said:

Hardware? Tacoma Screw seems to be top dog around here. (Their website is terrible, but the selection is amazing)

https://www.tacomascrew.com/

General house repair stuffs? Mclendons

https://www.mclendons.com/locations

Both of these.

Tacoma Screw usually gives me stuff for free, because I only need a couple fasteners at a time, so I buy something inexpensive (can of lubricant, etc.) to make it worth their while.

When McLendon's doesn't have what I need and I have to go to a big-box store, I go to a Home Depot that is NOT in a suburban area (SODO in Seattle) because a majority of customers are contractors, so the staff are (usually) not idiots. It's also relatively quiet on weekends. 

Ellzy’s Hardware in downtown Biloxi. They're a small, old fashioned hardware store that's been around since the 19-teens. They still give a cash discount too, although I generally don't bother to take my change. 
 

McMaster Carr.

If they don't have it then I have a few aircraft supply houses in Central Florida...

Midway Lumber North Point Blvd, Baltimore (it's really Dundalk) MD 

My local ACE does pretty decent for me. McMaster Carr and Zoro are where the majority of my stuff comes form though.

40+ years in construction. I've dealt with dozens of old timey hardware stores that date back to the early 1900s. 
 

Unfortunately, I don't know any that have survived. 
 

I spent over 25 years refusing to go into a Lowes or HD. Until I couldn't. 

procainestart said:

iansane said:

Hardware? Tacoma Screw seems to be top dog around here. (Their website is terrible, but the selection is amazing)

https://www.tacomascrew.com/

General house repair stuffs? Mclendons

https://www.mclendons.com/locations

Both of these.

Tacoma Screw usually gives me stuff for free, because I only need a couple fasteners at a time, so I buy something inexpensive (can of lubricant, etc.) to make it worth their while.

When McLendon's doesn't have what I need and I have to go to a big-box store, I go to a Home Depot that is NOT in a suburban area (SODO in Seattle) because a majority of customers are contractors, so the staff are (usually) not idiots. It's also relatively quiet on weekends. 

When I lived in the Seattle area and had work around Boeing Field, I always like being able to hit up Spencer Aircraft Hardware for whatever I needed that began with an AN prefix.

There's still a website-- looks like it was purchased in 2011 and has moved to Puyallup.

The Amish Home Depot:  D&J Farm Store  Lit by skylights, gas or battery-operated lights.

There is also Providence Building Supply, not as quaint but they have *much* better lumber than HD or Lowes.

Palmer's Hardware in St Pete. Second gen(daughter) running it now, been around for over 60 years. I walked in with a shower valve and she says, "Got an old Speakman there, huh?" I asked if they had any and she eyeballed it for a second. "I can just rebuild it" and she takes it over to the bench and strips it down, replaces all the wear parts, and hands it back to me. Good as new for under $10.

http://palmershardware.com/index.html

Elliot's Hardware is the go to place in Dallas. The one on Inwood has been around since 1947, and a certain Former US President who lives in the area has been known to hang out there.

https://directory.dmagazine.com/shops/elliotts-hardware/

https://www.elliottshardware.com/

Elder's Ace is a local chain to Knoxville, but they're a joy to deal with, typically. We used to have one within a few miles away, but they shut that store down. Rumor has it that it was due to the out-of-control homeless issue here in the city. Ugh. Huge loss for the local neighborhood. I hate dealing with the big home improvement stores. Most of the people working there are clueless.