Sometimes the simple things in life are the best. Maybe more often than not. If you had told me when I was a teenager that touring a new hardware store would be on the top of my list of fun things to do I would have had you committed. But time marches on and sure enough a hardware store is big time entertainment now.
A few weeks ago the Big Hardware store opened up not far from where I live. I have mixed emotions about big box stores. On the one hand I know that they can drive the little guys out of business. I know for a fact that in the recorded music industry a certain big box retailer has made it a mission to drive small Mom and Pop record stores to chapter 11. And sometimes finding what you want in a big box store can be a chore.
On the other hand it’s just wonderful to be able to find acres and acres of stuff in easy driving distance. You might not find what you want but you can certainly find a lot of stuff that you might want to have. We checked out the new hardware store the first day it opened up but didn’t buy anything.
But it was a wonderful trip just the same.
Aisles and aisles of guy stuff. Huge barbeque grills in every shape size and variety. Row after row of gleaming lawn tractors just waiting for me to get them stuck in the mud.
The long suffering wife and I spent some wistful time in the kitchen design center looking at things we could never afford and will never do in any case. It’s a nice store and if nothing else I can look for items I might want to buy at the small store down the block from my house and see if they are any cheaper.
The place where the New Big Hardware store is now used to be home to a small church. In a rather amazing display of being a good neighbor the folks who wanted to build the big hardware store agreed to move the little church intact to a new place just down the street and they did just that. It was a great gesture, marred only slightly by the fact that where the altar used to be is now a display of flush toilets.
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