Who's your go to? We order basic nuts, bolts, screws,sandpaper, etc.(small manufacturers), but what about crap around the high house or close to that has everything you might need? We have McCoy's for all the bigger stuff and if I need really bigger stuff I go to home depot about 45 minutes away but for every day work/ home I can count on tractor supply. Love that place. I have found the dumbest little oddball disposable China made tools for around the house AND work there. Ace has always been great but none in my area.

Ace isn't a hardware store. It' a store that has hardware.

We have a really good Ace in our little town, along with a farm store that is pretty well stocked. Ace is the place for stuff that you just know you will never be able to find anywhere and you just know they wont have it but you better check anyway. 9 times out of 10 they'll have it.

Ace. The one here has a big stock of sprinkler system stuff and a small eng8ne repair shop.

We have a pretty good Ace, and they generally have the same price and better shopping experience as compared to Lowes and Home Depot. The big boxes only beat them on stuff like Black Friday tool sales.

Parkrose Hardware east of Portland Oregon has an amazing supply of nuts and bolts, All grades, lots of stainless steel, metrics, rivet nuts, etc.

We have a big Ace, not much they don’t have.

There is a small Ace and a Tractor Supply in the County seat. I can usually find what I need between the two.

We have a place called Hardware City. It's a giant ratfûck of nails by the pound, screws by the each, and a plumber's wet dream.

Old furniture store, the people that run it are ex-carnies or some type chit.

Everything is in disarray, crap spilled out into the aisles, the only ones that know where anything is are the owner's children. If the Apple Dumpling Gang was real, it's the same kids that run this store.

It's the Hoarders Buried Alive version of a hardware store.

Here it's Ace or Big-R. Both have major holes in their inventories, especially in plumbing and electrical, as they have the pipe/conduit, but don't figure on finding the fittings you'll need.

Is it straight up mom and pop or do they have a regular supply of stuff and a website?

Ace is my best selection........

Home Depot/Lowes are 2 hrs away

ACE.....but damn, what’s with all the Hallmark cards and candles?

oh yea........TSC

50 minutes away.......

Lowes is about 25 miles south and Home Depot is 25 miles north. Family owned building supply is 15 miles away and that is where I buy the small stuff. They are handy, but priced on the high side. Really high on some things, you gotta watch them.

Ace is pretty good. Big R has any agriculture stuff I need for my wannabe cabin.

Yep sounds like you're trapped when in a pinch. McCoy's here is a mid sized hardware/lumber store but Tractor supply has EVERYTHING , including plumbing items at least ours does.

I haven't seen a real true old-time hardware store in maybe decades.
I miss em.
local Co-op/Ace is as close as it gets.

I miss the guy you could walk in with a problem and ask " I really don't know what I need but I am trying to do this" and he would take you right to what you needed

TSC

https://www.tractorsupply.com/

The Ace here is maybe half or so hardware. The rest is sporting goods (no guns), housewares, small appliances, grills, etc. They seem to be trying to stock more farm stuff. The last thing I bought there was a paring knife to replace the one that must have ended up in the trash.

Overall favorite is Fleet Farm but that's 80 miles north.

Straight up mom and pop.

If they have a website, I doubt it has anything beyond the store hours.

I'm remodeling a house and I drove to Shreveport for a couple of the items. Got a good deal on sheet rock and flooring. It paid to make the 200 mile round trip.

Pronghorn Country Ace Hdwe in Limon, CO. Half hour away, with building supplies and good hardware selection. Best part is the little gunshop in the corner. Good selection new/used, reloading and ammo supplies (had H4350 all during the shortage and Retumbo right along). Suppressors/scopes/handguns in the cases. Great store with great folks..... BTFOO home depot....

What I have is like that, but it's an old woman and her kids, grandkids.

They can just about read your mind and/or finish your sentence if you begin to tell them what youre nikker riggin up.

Go in there tell em, yeah umm I wanna get propane outta my 500 gallon tank and cross fill some 30 lb tanks....haha. "Ok, mom!!! Can u hepp us on aisle 10"

We had a great store for many years just three miles away.

Dick died a few years ago, and Carleen might be in a home now. No one wants to buy it.

I know of a mennonite hardware store outside Hopkinsville Ky

There's no electricity, you just reach up and yank a chain and and a propane lantern fires up and lights up the aisle.


Oh and for "mennonites be thinkin leggromoticity is de debble"

They got hella generators in there and rechargeable dewalt and bosch tools.

Electricity is ok in the eyes of the Mennonite Yahweh, just long as it ain't coming of "the man's" pole. lmao, what a crock of horse shît

I think there's like 6000 people in our town so we've only got one hardware store. Three years ago when we moved here it had been bought out by Rona not long before, it was an independent for years. It was good. Kinda hokey with not well thought out lean to additions, low doorways and a lot of it not heated, but the nut and bolt bins were full, lumber pretty good and not a lot to complain about for a small town.

Then another outfit bought them out and moved into a newer but smaller imo building. Heavy on the glitz and housewares and gardening chit but no one's minding the bolts, screws fasteners and duh... hardware. Its a crap shoot every time I go, you eventually find the bin but its out or even has the wrong size screw in it. I'm like get one guy that knows what he's doing to spend a day on all fasteners, straighten it up and restock the damn things when you're out. I'm loosin the love..

Other than that 40 minutes or so I'm at a Home Depot, an hour a Lowes. I'd probably say Lowes would be the better. There's a couple independents same distance that I like for lumber or boat hardware or whatever the case may be but can't say there is one hardware that will have everything I'm looking for all the time.

4 hardware stores within about 8 miles,
all family owned, only one family run seriously.

One, the operating family sold to an investing family.
It went from the place where I went in with an idea,
and left equipped and informed, to a box store type place.
All kind of little plastic packets hanging on pegs.
No more letting you borrow a tool and returning it.
Now, they sell you a $25 tool you never needed before,
And won't be able to find it if it's ever needed again.


All to simply agree with others.
Hardware stores don't exist anymore.


Honestly, the concept is obsolete.
With modern efficiencies and thin margins,
The concept of stocking items that I might need is gone.
Today, the motto is, "Stock what moves, they will buy,
What we want to sell."

Was trying to find some 1 1/4" screws for a crafting project.
Nope, not a high turnover item. Had a heck of a time finding some.

Thank you Wal-Mart!
You have screwed everything up.

Ace Hardware 13 miles away that has been owned and operated by same family since 1942. Old three story building chocked full, stuff hanging from the walls and ceilings. Located in a small rural town of about 800 population. They also, have a plumbing and heating business.

I went to school with one of the sons and while visiting in the store I asked him how much they carry on the books. Thousands of dollars past 90 days, but gets paid down by the cycle of livestock and crop sales.

Tractor Supply is 14 miles away.

Local ACE store's only 2 miles away.... But my fave - Fleet Farm - is nearly 20,, dangit...

Isn't Ace a franchise? The franchisees can hang up a sign over whatever other business they already have. Makes sense when small outfits have a tough time being a one-dog show.

"The plumbing supplies are right next to the Crab Leg Buffet"

Howell Hardware, here in Millville, NJ. Been here for generations. The kind of store sadly going extinct since Lowe's and Home Depot entered the scene. I hope Howell's continues to keep their doors open for the next generation, but it must be difficult.

We are fortunate to still have an old fashioned, family owned and run hardware store. If they aren’t open, I go on over to the local Ace.

Only thing in our town, 15 miles from our house, is an ACE with a lumber yard, some brick/stone type stuff, and a decent assortment of fasteners, wooden trim, paint/deck stain, tools, plumbing.

But, high prices and tax on top of it. Lot's of folks go across the border to OR if they have big needs and know in advance. Closest OR town is about an hour's drive. The big box Lowe's types are a good 2 hr drive away.

Nice to have the ACE in town, local folks and I try to spend there on occasion to help the local economy.

Would sure suck every time I need a tool, like the rake I bought the other day, to have to drive an hour or more.

Geno

PS, How the hell does a big ol' red handled garden rake disappear completely from one's property? Reinforced the idea that 2 is 1 and 1 is none. If I find that other rake I'll have 2 again.

I'm not exactly sure Geno. But I like a short spade shovel with a D handle. Not for heavy digging, a longer full sized handle is better for that. But just a handy little compact shovel that fits on the quad, in the small boat or behind the truck seat type of deal. I was just straightening up the garage. I was sure I lost one and bought one but it appears I have 4 of these small just in case shovels somehow

Yeah,

the dude at the ACE told me my good rake will show up after I get home with the new one...................


Still waiting.

I have double (sometimes triple) tools in some cases due to having lived away from my wife seasonally for 9 years or so. A man has to garden if there's dirt around, therefor a bunch of shovels, 2 hula hoes, coupla three garden spades and forks.

But my good "lifetime" rake went AWOL somehow.

Maybe the coyotes ran off with it

Geno

PS short shovel in the truck, and If I'm going somewhere well away from the pavement there's an old firefighting shovel in there too.

I don't consider ace, tsc or rural king to be hardware stores.

When you have half the store dedicated to 50 brands of dog food, jars of pickled beets, horse tack, baby chicks, mums, pansies, and carharrt clothes, mehhh.... not a hardware store

Pickle beets! Yum!

Haven't seen any in our ACE, maybe I better put in an order.

Save the juice in the jar for some hard boiled eggs to stew in awhile too.

Geno

Ace is about 10 blocks E. Fleet Farm about 20 blocks SW. The last Scheels Hardware about 3Mi NW. Lowes, Home Depot, Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, Acme Electric, Mac's, and 2 Menards inside of 10Mi.

I too am rich with choices. We have a couple of small Aces, two Home Depots, two Lowes, an Intermountain Farmer, a Cal Ranch, and a bunch of small home and garden places as well. In a pinch, there's also the home improvement/garden sections of Walmart - of which we have three. There's also a couple Standard Plumbing stores, irrigation supply stores, electrical supply, industrial safety supply, and even a nut and bolt specialty warehouse.

I didn't even realize all that until I started typing this. Holy moley!

Yep.

Ace is a co-op and the individual hardware stores can be dramatically different depending on how the owner of the store decides to run it.

ACE is the place... For me... Three miles away, and stocks more than one of most things. Tractor Supply is 25 miles in 3 different directions. Lowes is 30 miles in one direction, and 45 miles the other.

OK, give us an example of what you consider a hardware store and where it is.

Have you asked the wife where she put the rake?

I miss Samson's hardware in Fairbanks. Back in the day, if they didn't have it, you didnt need it. Their counter guys were Crackerjack, too.