I love local hardware stores. The employees are usually a lot nicer and more helpful than the big box employees are, for some reason. And local hardware stores smell great. They just do.

So we're just completely throwing away the concept of a free market?

I challenge everyone in America to give me a nickel.

brigid_fitch: I'm a big fan of Mom & Pop shops and I try to support them whenever I can. I think a "Cash Mob" is a fantastic idea.

me too. i took a 4,000 mile motorcycle trip last year and went only to mom/pop eateries/motels. it was awesome.

Wow, they should feel so proud that they just gave a local business owner a small cut and sent a pile of money to China - which is where all that junk came from in the first place.

So it's back to "keep calm and carry on spending" then?

Guys, if you support the mom and pop and push the box chains out of town, think of how many jobs are going to go away! JOBS!

/jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs
//jobs

That's cool and everything but the fact is, that same money can get you twice as much stuff at Home Depot.

I aint rich, I need my money to go as far as it can, which makes me evil.

It is great to help small businesses. But overall to help the economy you need to spend at stores that employee alot more people. How many people work at that hardware store? 3? 4?. In a family owned and operated small business it may just be the sons and daughters of the owner. They may not even be employing anyone outside their family, and while they provide a service to the community, they aren't really helping it all that much.

When a large business fails (walmart closes a store) more people(on average 100s) are unemployed.

Do they sell useful things like love and friends?

A charity drive for a business? By god, there's really nothing that knee-jerk emotionalism can't accomplish.

Harry Freakstorm - A winner is you!

Also, let's boycott Exxon this Friday and totally bankrupt them

Harry Freakstorm:
The guys at the big box got all high and mighty. They thought I should just put up a fence or another deterrent.

He clearly was following his training. This is an obvious attempt to up sell the more expensive "solution" while really only dealing with the symptom. Problem remains and you come back again and again to spend more money. He's good...

Wait, I've seen this episode of Happy Days. Mr. Cunningham will have to close anyway, despite the Fonz's best efforts, as one day of great sales does not make up for the rest of the year.

My local hardware store went under three-four years back. The last thing I tried to buy there was window screen. They wanted $120 for a roll of screen; Home Depot wanted $25 for the same roll. Went with Home Depot.

I don't mind spending a little extra for the small businessman, but c'mon!

TheR0CK: It is great to help small businesses. But overall to help the economy you need to spend at stores that employee alot more people. How many people work at that hardware store? 3? 4?. In a family owned and operated small business it may just be the sons and daughters of the owner. They may not even be employing anyone outside their family, and while they provide a service to the community, they aren't really helping it all that much.

When a large business fails (walmart closes a store) more people(on average 100s) are unemployed.

Is this really where the Wal-Mart argument is going? That they are actually good for employees and Amurca? Despite all we've heard for years about how they short dick their employees with part time hours to withhold benefits and all other sorts of shenanigans? The fact so much of their product comes from overseas, which enables them to sell so cheaply, and also short dicks American industry? The fact they had to compete with, and run out totally, small business that never could have truly competed with them or harmed their bottom lines?

If this was a troll, you are a farking master! +10, would get agita again. If it isn't a troll, you're an idiot.

So, the moral of the story is ... we can take back 'Merica if we buy a bunch of Chinese crap we don't need, like flying monkeys and fuzzy dice? Cool!

There's nothing wrong here, but this is without a doubt NOT the way to take back America. Our businesses should get rich responding to actual economic demand.

This story = charity. Again, its great, but not a long term solution.

TheR0CK: When a large business fails (walmart closes a store) more people(on average 100s) are unemployed.

Seriously? You don't think that there might be 100 small businesses each employing several people that do the same sales as a single Walmart? Or maybe I'm just feeding a troll.

TheR0CK:
When a large business fails (walmart closes a store) more people(on average 100s) are unemployed.

I seriously doubt that the local Wal-Mart will go under because people still shop at the local Hardware Store. How many Wal-Marts in the US have actually closed? (Not relocated from a regular Wal-Mart to a Supercenter, outright closed.)

It's those "mom & pop" places that actually distinguish one community from another.

Drive around this country. Every small town has the same McDonalds, the same Arby's, the same McDonalds, the same Wendy's, the same Walgreens. . .Are you wanting this?

someonelse: I love local hardware stores. The employees are usually a lot nicer and more helpful than the big box employees are, for some reason. And local hardware stores smell great. They just do.

One thousand times THIS.

Another great thing about local stores - they always seem to have that odd screw or bolt that the box stores NEVER have.

FTA The line at the checkout stretched in two directions as people with snow shovels and light bulbs and fireplace grates and vintage movie posters and horse shoe caulk - yes, horse shoe caulk - waited to pay.

Actually, the horse shoe caulk doesn't seem like the most unexpected find among those items.

dukeblue219: TheR0CK: When a large business fails (walmart closes a store) more people(on average 100s) are unemployed.

Seriously? You don't think that there might be 100 small businesses each employing several people that do the same sales as a single Walmart? Or maybe I'm just feeding a troll.

They didn't help hundreds if they did you would be correct. They picked one and only one and helped for 1 day.

Again helping small businesses is great and everyone should try to purchase from them as much as possible.

2 stores face closing 1 Super Target (since everyone here hates walmart I won't use them as an example) employes lets say 100 people, the 2nd is a mom and pop store, that employes 3 people including the mom and pop. Which store closing is going to have a bigger impact on that community? The one who leaves 100 people unemployed or the one that leaves mom+pop and their son unemployed?

bigbabysurfer: someonelse: I love local hardware stores. The employees are usually a lot nicer and more helpful than the big box employees are, for some reason. And local hardware stores smell great. They just do.

One thousand times THIS.

Another great thing about local stores - they always seem to have that odd screw or bolt that the box stores NEVER have.

Yeah well that is because that odd screw or bolt is 30 years old, nobody makes anymore and has been sitting on the shelf for 29 years. That is just wasted money in shelf space and inventory a huge problem for small stores.

I was amazed when my local gaming shop owner took my advice and after a product has sat on their shelves for a year they price it at cost, and start to offer a 5% discount every six months until somebody buys it or they write it off as a total loss. He has started to move more product, has updated stock more often, and sells a ton at cost allowing him to concentrate on what is profitable.

rudemix:

If this was a troll, you are a farking master! +10, would get agita again. If it isn't a troll, you're an idiot.

Not a troll and not an idiot, just someone who understands that economically large employers that employ more people help the economy MORE than a small business that employs only a few. Anyone who does not understand that is the "idiot"...

Slaves2Darkness: bigbabysurfer: someonelse: I love local hardware stores. The employees are usually a lot nicer and more helpful than the big box employees are, for some reason. And local hardware stores smell great. They just do.

One thousand times THIS.

Another great thing about local stores - they always seem to have that odd screw or bolt that the box stores NEVER have.

Yeah well that is because that odd screw or bolt is 30 years old, nobody makes anymore and has been sitting on the shelf for 29 years. That is just wasted money in shelf space and inventory a huge problem for small stores.

I was amazed when my local gaming shop owner took my advice and after a product has sat on their shelves for a year they price it at cost, and start to offer a 5% discount every six months until somebody buys it or they write it off as a total loss. He has started to move more product, has updated stock more often, and sells a ton at cost allowing him to concentrate on what is profitable.

Better advice would have been to have him donate them to a children's hospital so he could write off the full value of the game and get a tax break.

TheR0CK: rudemix:

If this was a troll, you are a farking master! +10, would get agita again. If it isn't a troll, you're an idiot.

Not a troll and not an idiot, just someone who understands that economically large employers that employ more people help the economy MORE than a small business that employs only a few. Anyone who does not understand that is the "idiot"...

Well, most of those unemployed are gonna go work somewhere else, like maybe some of the small mom and pop businesses that offer some of the same services as the big box store. And some of those people might even open up new businesses, or reopen the small businesses they used to own before they were driven out of business by the big box store.

Anyone who doesn't understand that could be an "idiot" too.

Harry Freakstorm: My yard is currently kid free and I seem to have some grieving parents who stay indoors and leave me alone.

So, you really did get those damn kids off your lawn. Nice to see someone actually take care of business, instead of just "talking the talk".
Good job, high five.

Are they going back tomorrow, too? If not, this may not be the way to take back America

Charlie Freak:
You think that Super Target closing wouldn't create a vacuum that wouldn't be able to be filled by a handful of smaller stores? That those people would be unemployed forever?

You're not thinking this through.

I think you aren't thinking it through. Have you seen the unemployement rates? If a super target couldn't survive where are these handful of smaller stores going to pop up at? In my example 2 stores face closing, meaning there was not enough business to support a super target OR mom and pop, to illustrate that the closing of the 2 while tragic, it was the larger store with more employees that will hurt the economy more that the closing of a small family owned and operated business.

This is not about the large chains being better operations, it is about a simple fact they are larger and therefore employee many more people and the more employed people we have the better the encomoy is going to be.

I can believe there are so many people here that do not understand simple common sense economics, and are arguing that if large store and small store were closing that it is better to try and save the small one....

the next town over has a real power house of a hardware store. It's about a mile from a homecheapo. The local store has hired retired electricians, plumbers, carpenters, house painters all the trades are there. I've seen one of the guys make a call to a buddy about a question a customer had. It's a killer place. It's only as expensive as HD plus they've got those things that HD can't make a buck on that you absolutely need.
There are times when the damn place is so crowded it's hard to find a place to park.
They also know how to sell. A hand full of small screws and nuts, washers and what nots *looks at it* "Two Bucks- bag for that?" It's close to what it should be but still, it feels nice.
The owners play a lot of tennis-they give away the used balls for dogs- just stop in a grab one or two-no charge.
They've also sent me to another place to get the "just right thing" really appreciate that too.

They just expanded - they've been there 70 years and are doing just fine thankyouverymuch.