HARDWARE STORES

A world as ours should be

Why would I say that the world should replicate a hardware store? Over my long life, I have patronized numerous hardware stores in many places, and the experience has always been pleasurable. I have wondered why this is the case, and would posit several reasons. 

GENERAL THOUGHTS

First is that everything in a hardware store is useful. Nothing is frivolous, and some items are even beautiful, such as needle-nose pliers, or a well-designed flashlight. More important is that the associates in hardware stores are unfailingly knowledgeable and courteous. Most of them are men, the kind who use the products they sell. They are courteous because people who labor respect others who labor. They advise you, finding the right hinge for your door, or the most effective drain cleaner, or the right support for a kitchen-cabinet shelf. They can do this because they know their merchandise. 

Why is usefulness important? Apparently, residents of assisted-living homes frequently contemplate suicide. This may happen with the onset of depression, itself caused perhaps by a sense of helplessness. People who were once contributing no longer do so. Everyone likes to make a contribution, so it seems normal to wonder why you’re still on the planet if you’re no longer useful. Employees of hardware stores provide useful services, selling useful items. Might this explain the positive atmosphere I find at hardware stores?

JUST TO CLARIFY …

I distinguish hardware from housewares stores which, although they do sell useful items, are rarely staffed by people who make and repair things themselves. Never having conducted a survey, I don’t know this of my own knowledge, but I think I’m right.  I also distinguish hardware from big-box stores. My brother (who often makes and repairs things) confirms my experience. He tells me that, in a big-box store, occasionally he can find some old guy who knows the merchandise, but that it’s not usually the case. 

COMMUNITY GLUE

One writer said that the hardware store holds the tools, values, and knowledge that bind a community. A former resident of Washington DC reminisces saying, “Everybody went to Frager’s … the guys would walk you through a whole home project … legislators shopped there.” This renowned hardware store burned down in 2013. Community support was immediately forthcoming, as customers donned Frager’s T-shirts and donated cash. Six years later, Frager’s re-opened and now celebrates its 100th birthday. I can’t imagine this would happen with a Home Depot or Lowe’s.

ORIGINS

In case you’re wondering how they came to be called hardware, here’s a spot of history. Prior to the 20th century, general stores served the public, and carried a wide array of products, from food to axle grease to brooms to chamber pots.  Barter was usual, and certain items (e.g., cotton), might serve as currency. The front doors offered themselves as bulletin boards, and there was an area, usually around a pot-bellied stove, where people (usually men) could gather to gab. These general stores helped form community from the farms scattered throughout an area. 

Hardware stores emerged from the general store around the turn of the century, as the “hard” merchandise gradually separated itself from the “soft” lines (e.g., textiles and food). They evolved as society changed, and by the early 1920s, household hardware made its appearance. Hardware stores discovered the value of women, who needed saucepans, cutlery, and appliances. 

Happily, small stores survive today despite competition from big-box stores, although some have wandered down unusuals paths. Artist Theaster Gates once carted the 30k-piece inventory from an abandoned True Value store all the way to Italy. In a Milan gin-distillery-turned-art-venue, he transformed the utilitarian into an aesthetic display of, inter alia, tape measures, extension cords, paint rollers. 

KNOWLEDGE AT THE READY

I like to shop in places where clerks are at ease with their merchandise. In the old days, ladies who worked in department stores would say things like, “Now dear, this color would look really nice on you,” or “I think you would take a different size in this blouse.” I once bought some manuka honey because the store clerk waxed enthusiastic about its health benefits and said that she herself used it. Guys in hardware stores know their products and tools, how to use them, and they can explain it.  They clarify something I might not understand from a DIY YouTube, helping me be self-sufficient.

Tourists rarely go to hardware stores, unless you’re like me. I find the world’s hardware stores and supermarkets as interesting as cathedrals and museums. In a hardware store, nobody tries to sell you anything. They want you to have only what you need. Also, I don’t have to choose from five hundred brands of a given product, like what happens when I need shampoo or makeup. Hardware stores carry only one or a few brands of each item. This saves me a lot of time. 

PLEASURES OF THE ORDINARY

I hope that, with the pandemic, we have felt more deeply the value of ordinary human contact. Similar to the solitary existence of families on the prairies, in today’s large cities many people are isolated, even lonely. Casual conversation with a store clerk may be their only human interaction in the course of a day. Like in farmers’ markets, conversations come easily in a hardware store, either among customers or with the associates advising you on your home project. You can share solutions to problems or find new ways to use a specific item. I am reminded that regular people like you and me built the world from stuff on the shelves in a hardware store.