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I was at the mall the other day and watch a guy with a clip board write some information down then took pictures. I think it is a $100.00 fine.

The fine folks I'm talking about have the placard but it belongs to their grandma who died last year and they brag at work about how they get to park close everywhere they go and get mad when someone who doesn't have a placard parks in their spot. A friend of mine even went so far as to print up notices that he places under the wipers of folks that are parking without placards and prevents him from parking there and he's one of those who uses somebody else's placard. I guess once you do it you begin to feel like you have a right to use the placard even if you don't have a walking issue. Ok, off my high horse, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

fjimp wrote:There must be seriously wrong with me. I read the walmart stories and give thanks I do not darken there stores or parking lots.

I'm with you - WalMart finally slinked into nearby Eureka a few years back and I haven't even thought about going there once...not some protest on my part, the place just doesn't offer me anything worth my time to go there. Seems like it's a social highlight to some folks but it's just a bunch of cheap Chinese plastic crap to me. I have kids to buy X-Mas presents for but one stroll through the toy section in a place like that tells me there's no soul in any of the mainstream toys for sale today. Same kids that play with that junk have their heads buried in their smart phones mom and dad got them so they can play video games and send text messages all day.

Most of the anti-Walmart comments come from older folks. I run a decent sized hardware store and at least half of our customers are older. Another 35 percent are middle aged. We don't have the younger crowd. That demographic belongs to the box stores. We still have a strong business but at current trends, our life will dwindle in time. Sometimes it makes me glad that I am approaching retirement.

I found WalMart to have some really good deals on Mobil 1 & oil filters that beats any auto parts store or even stores like Costco or Sam's Club if you purchase the 5 quart container. The only thing I don't care about is the size of the store- it's huge! Fortunately I can go into the store through the auto service department side door & run in & out.

Well I gotta get off here and go to Wal Mart. We do our grocery shopping there. They are quite a bit cheaper than Dillion's "AKA Krogers".

burkhome wrote:Most of the anti-Walmart comments come from older folks. I run a decent sized hardware store and at least half of our customers are older. Another 35 percent are middle aged. We don't have the younger crowd. That demographic belongs to the box stores. We still have a strong business but at current trends, our life will dwindle in time. Sometimes it makes me glad that I am approaching retirement.

Some day that younger crowd will be middle aged. With a bit of luck, they will learn the difference.

However here we are down to ONE real hardware store that is run by a family. That is for a city of over a quarter million population. No more Aces, no more True Value, no more Do It Best, no source of hard to find 'hardware' if it closes down. I do hope the younger generation of that family perseveres.

HD and L just do not have a large enough selection to be useful. Yes the last hw store does not stock a lot of many items, but they are willing to 'get' it.

I'm older and I prefer to shop in a Hardware store. However I refuse to pay twice the price for the exact same product. Likewise I really appreciate being able to go to the parts bin but I refuse to play $1 for two 1/4" plain screws.

Being able to walk in and ask a clerk where the "this or that" is, is fantastic, but then having to pay 35% push up in price isn't.

My heart goes out to small mom and pop businesses that are pushed against the wall by the Big Boxes but my compassion only goes so far. If you want to compete cut the inventory you haven't sold in ten years and stock the inventory you can't keep on the shelf. I had one guy tell he couldn't keep something I was after on the shelf, so he stopped stocking it. Might have made sense to him but I was speechless.

Ed in Tampa wrote:I had one guy tell he couldn't keep something I was after on the shelf, so he stopped stocking it. Might have made sense to him but I was speechless.

I once had a retailer I was calling on tell me the same sort of thing. Mind boggling...
There is an old saying in the retail business "We must really love our mistakes because we hang on to them tightly". When I was a factory rep for The Hoover Company I had dealers (mostly older hardware stores) hanging on to new stock that was over 20 years old. In several cases they had as many as 20 or 30 units of a couple of different models that old stuck back in some extra room or attic. I used to ask them how long they thought they would have to hold on to them before they could sell them at antique prices...
I kept telling them that they were only becoming worth less and less as time passed and they became even more obsolete with the passage of time. I was able to get several guys to stick them out in a sidewalk sale etc. at about 80% of cost and roll that money into current stock. That was about 40 years ago and a couple of those guys that wouldn't probably still have that old stuff...
Of course on the other side of the coin some of my fellow reps would get just silly and walk in a store and try to hustle the owner/manager the latest "deal" that the company was running. If they were doing their job they would have known that that particular dealer still had a couple of dozen units of that model from the last time that deal went around that they had been unable to move. They would get all pi$$ed saying that the dealer wouldn't work with them.
It was not my main job to sell to the dealer, it was my main job to help the dealer sell what he had on hand so that he would then need stock and reorder. I couldn't make money unless he did.
The company sort of frowned on it but I commonly worked deals between dealers in my territory where I might pick up 8 to 12 units of a model he was having trouble selling and hauling them to another dealer (basically on consignment) that did well with that model. My dealers became my friends over time and I never once had one of those deals go bad.
I liked that job as well as anything I ever did working for somebody else. Lots of friends.


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Ed in Tampa wrote:I'm older and I prefer to shop in a Hardware store. However I refuse to pay twice the price for the exact same product. Likewise I really appreciate being able to go to the parts bin but I refuse to play $1 for two 1/4" plain screws.

Being able to walk in and ask a clerk where the "this or that" is, is fantastic, but then having to pay 35% push up in price isn't.

My heart goes out to small mom and pop businesses that are pushed against the wall by the Big Boxes but my compassion only goes so far. If you want to compete cut the inventory you haven't sold in ten years and stock the inventory you can't keep on the shelf. I had one guy tell he couldn't keep something I was after on the shelf, so he stopped stocking it. Might have made sense to him but I was speechless.

HD and Lowes prices for 'hardware' I found to be higher than the then remaining hardware stores.