This is why I go to my local Ace hardware for as many things as I can. It’s been owned for generations by the same family, and they actually treat their employees well, which means they’re actually knowledgeable and care.
I’m not a handy guy but I love Ace because I’m a social worker and they are fantastic about hiring and accommodating disabled people which is extremely useful for me because my entire job is ensuring disabled people have the resources they need to be as independent as possible. Ace has always been the best employer I’ve worked with.
I like them too but I always feel like they think I’m up to something bc of my appearance :/ I guess it might happen at big box stores too but I don’t notice as much lol.
We had a family owned hardware store in our town. It had been there for almost 60 years. But the son chose not to keep going with it and couldn’t find a buyer and it closed down.
That place was great. Solid advice, they could answer anything you asked and helped you find the stuff you needed. Even remembered you and asked how it went when they saw you again.
Ace Hardware also offers way better paint. They have tiers just like anywhere else but overall it's mostly all higher grade than big box hardware store paint options. Fuck Home Depot paint. Great if you want to save like $20/can and paint the whole fucking room again in less than a year.
My old neighborhood Ace's owner, who is the father of one of my old friends, put up a huge stink years ago about the minimum wage going up to $10.10, saying in the local paper how he can't afford to keep a full staff at that wage and would have to let people go. He also used to sexually harass my friend in his employ, who was also underage at the time. Yuck.
Before youtube and freely available helpful books, knowledgeable employees did provide value. Today they don't. Why do we need thousands of employees spread out at each store to provide this information when we can all watch the same video and know what to purchase?
Yeah but we got computers in our pockets now. Like i said im tryina goto a store and pay store prices.
I dont need consultation, i dont need pretty decorations or ambiance, i dont need smiley staff trying to start friendly conversation with me, none of it. And i most certainly dont want to pay for any of that
You are paying more than their cost for products already, the question is whether you want all of that excess profit to go to a handful of executives, or for some to go to the people working in the store.
You can personally decline to support competent employees, but nothing is going to get cheaper, we are all just paying more and accepting worse customer service at the store while a handful of their top shareholders get richer.
The alternative IS more expensive and Lowe/Home Depot model is already the cheapest material available for the regular consumer. Go to any small town where lowe/hd isn’t available. Everything cost a lot more. And none of these smaller store would survive should Lowe/hd decide to move in.
I don’t need better workers at Lowe’s. Democratized access to information via the internet makes “better” workers less valuable. And when you employ a replaceable workforce it makes the goods there cheaper.
Well, it seems you're too fucking stupid to figure out that little computer in your pocket will tell you exactly which aisle and bay a particular product is located in a particular store. So, maybe you do need consultation.
I mean... I don't know how you haven't figured out that paying the dividends to employees instead of shareholders doesn't increase the price you pay by one cent, or that you're already paying for the workers to be there at your whim to help you out.
You also seem to lack the perspicacity to think up any scenario where you might want somewhat knowledgeable/professional help from a hardware store, say about plumbing/light electrical/etc, that you could get for the same price if they were paying/retaining more knowledgable employees with those dividends, costing you nothing more. Instead you'll get to pay extra to a professional for a small amount of help or spend hours of your own time trying to figure it out, with Google getting shittier and shittier.
Disagreeing with me is fine. Namecalling a stranger because you disagree with them is childish.
As a shareholder, they stop paying my dividends, why would I let them borrow my money?
As a customer, I only expect the employees to facilitate the sale. If i want information, ill goto someone that does that kind of work full time, not someone that does retail work full time
Angry little boy? LMAO! This is what sounds like the rantings of angry little boy:
I dont need consultation, i dont need pretty decorations or ambiance, i dont need smiley staff trying to start friendly conversation with me, none of it. And i most certainly dont want to pay for any of that
Again, if you're too fucking stupid to know how to use their website, you probably aren't going to able to figure out on your own what screws to use to use hang drywall.
I'm also guessing you'll be one of the biggest douchebags calling for the manager if you do happen to need to ask a question because you can't get the answer on your little computer in your pocket and there's no one able to provide "consultation." LOL!
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u/tw_693 5d ago
Retail was ensh*ttified decades ago when retail chains got rid of knowledgeable workers for cheaper and more expendable minimum wage workers.