How do they do that? The car parks at B&Q and Homebase are emptying, and my local hardware shops (and that's two within five hundred yards of my front door) are thriving. Of course they are a design disaster, but there is in each of them two people who know where everything is. Which is a whole lot more than in the aircraft hangers at the end of the car parks on the York Road or the Purley Way.
How do you stock a hundred different types of vacuum cleaner bag? Numerically, in an old filing cabinet of course! How do you get the tools off the little hooks twelve feet above the floor? You give the customer a ladder and tell him or her to mind the liquid gas heater in the middle of the aisle! Do you have the things that I can only describe by moving my hands in small shapes and telling you that they're white? The curtain hooks are in this wooden drawer!
Five years ago the titans of retail consolidation would have given you long odds on hardware shops surviving. Of course, these people turned out to be brilliant at selling screwdriver derivatives, or pipecutter futures, but real screwdrivers, with blades the size that fit the screw, and the screws that went with them could be found in greater numbers hung on a wall behind, just a second, don't worry, I'll get it for you, there you are, call it a fiver.....
Wood? Out in the yard. Electricals - we've got the lot. Hard hats? We don't do hard hats, but if you go down just past the church, on the right hand side, there's a shop there with check shirts in the window. They do hard hats, and work boots, the whole lot. Telephone sockets - you sure you don't want a double?
Perhaps the recession will be a boon to hardware stores, as people make do and mend. And, perhaps those same titans will shortly predict a return to hardware stores. I wonder if there's a hardware store futures market? While you ponder that, I'm off to check out the new one in Balham...
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In praise of....hardware shops!
We had one, just down the road.
It was much like a traditional old LBS....lots of cardboard boxes on shelves, from floor to ceiling. And the ceilings were high - much too high to scale the upper boxes without safety equipment, indeed, from outside the shop one couldn't countenance its ability to fit such ceilings below the quite diminutive roof.
Of course, none of these cardboard boxes had labels on them. And yet, ask the grizzled old fellow behind the counter, in his 1960s brown apron coat, or anything and he was up the ladder like a rat up a drain pipe, straight to the correct box, pausing only to ask if it was a 3/7ths or 32c that you needed. Although wow to anyone that requested "fork 'andles".
Alas, it was taken over by the next generation of hardwareers. Stripped out and re-adorned with chrome and shiny new displays. Lasted less than a year. Another hairdressers is there now.
It was much like a traditional old LBS....lots of cardboard boxes on shelves, from floor to ceiling. And the ceilings were high - much too high to scale the upper boxes without safety equipment, indeed, from outside the shop one couldn't countenance its ability to fit such ceilings below the quite diminutive roof.
Of course, none of these cardboard boxes had labels on them. And yet, ask the grizzled old fellow behind the counter, in his 1960s brown apron coat, or anything and he was up the ladder like a rat up a drain pipe, straight to the correct box, pausing only to ask if it was a 3/7ths or 32c that you needed. Although wow to anyone that requested "fork 'andles".
Alas, it was taken over by the next generation of hardwareers. Stripped out and re-adorned with chrome and shiny new displays. Lasted less than a year. Another hairdressers is there now.
Manx Cat wrote:We are lucky to have an ironmungers in Ramsey. Family run outfit, and everyone working there looks just like an Ironmunger to boot!
B&Q, I must admit I avoid when ever I can. Him indoors and I both find our brains liquify every time we cross the threshold of the place.
Mary
Dunno what it is about them but Mrs Si always goes dizzy when entering them. She's fine in big supermarkets, but big DIY stores...forget it.
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thirdcrank
- Posts: 36781
- Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm
Unfortunately, some traditional hardware shops have not survived.
I think the saddest case I saw was in Dolgellau in North Wales. There used to be a really good hardware shop there and unfortunately it closed down. There was some sort of restriction on what type of business could open there and eventually there was a change of use application for it to become some sort of Welsh cultural centre. It all seemed a bit ironic to me. At least it did not become a charity shop or a building society branch.
Anyway, I suppose as no more than an occasional vistor to Dolgellau it's not open to me to comment. Although I went in there a couple of times for bits and pieces, the only thing I can remember buying was a shepherd's whistle: a circle of plastic, doubled over into a semi-circular shape with a hole in one face. Fits completely in the mouth. I did manage to teach myself to work it to quite spectacualr effect, but neither dogs nor sheep were particularly impressed - perhaps my accent was wrong
Hardly the type of purchase to keep a shop open.
I think the saddest case I saw was in Dolgellau in North Wales. There used to be a really good hardware shop there and unfortunately it closed down. There was some sort of restriction on what type of business could open there and eventually there was a change of use application for it to become some sort of Welsh cultural centre. It all seemed a bit ironic to me. At least it did not become a charity shop or a building society branch.
Anyway, I suppose as no more than an occasional vistor to Dolgellau it's not open to me to comment. Although I went in there a couple of times for bits and pieces, the only thing I can remember buying was a shepherd's whistle: a circle of plastic, doubled over into a semi-circular shape with a hole in one face. Fits completely in the mouth. I did manage to teach myself to work it to quite spectacualr effect, but neither dogs nor sheep were particularly impressed - perhaps my accent was wrong
Hardly the type of purchase to keep a shop open.
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eileithyia
- Posts: 8399
- Joined: 31 Jan 2007, 6:46pm
- Location: Horwich Which is Lancs :-)
My aunt used to have a trad ironmongery shop, which my mum worked in a few days a week, and full time when my aunt went on hols. As kids we would accompany her in the school holidays.
I used to love helping out, putting all the various bins and plants outside, and best of all was serving the customers their parafin from the special optic.
Where I live we have trad ironmongers and it is great and very often cheaper than B&Q, but do not be fooled there is often an assumption that these places are cheaper but if you check prices properly they are not.
I used to love helping out, putting all the various bins and plants outside, and best of all was serving the customers their parafin from the special optic.
Where I live we have trad ironmongers and it is great and very often cheaper than B&Q, but do not be fooled there is often an assumption that these places are cheaper but if you check prices properly they are not.
I stand and rejoice everytime I see a woman ride by on a wheel the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood. HG Wells
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hubgearfreak
- Posts: 8212
- Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 4:14pm
B&Q et al. may well be more expensive, but the sad truth is that they've got huge amounts of free parking. this will ensure their continued patronage by the majority of households. the type of shop featured in the two ronnies sketch has a customer base of the people who work in nearby shops & offices and those that either cycle or walk to do their shopping, which may or may not be enough customers to survive. 
Our local one is a triumph. An egg slice to a hinge, bolts by the ounce, every broom imaginable, door locks and ornaments sold from an array of oak cabinets by nice gay men, women of a certain age or traditional type in brown overalls depending who's at the desk. All very friendly and helpful.
Also dusty rooms to wander where you'll find things you never know you needed. Fantastic.
Also dusty rooms to wander where you'll find things you never know you needed. Fantastic.
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ferrit worrier
- Posts: 5503
- Joined: 27 Jun 2008, 7:58pm
- Location: south Manchester
thirdcrank wrote:Unfortunately, some traditional hardware shops have not survived.
I think the saddest case I saw was in Dolgellau in North Wales. There used to be a really good hardware shop there and unfortunately it closed down. There was some sort of restriction on what type of business could open there and eventually there was a change of use application for it to become some sort of Welsh cultural centre. It all seemed a bit ironic to me. At least it did not become a charity shop or a building society branch.
Anyway, I suppose as no more than an occasional vistor to Dolgellau it's not open to me to comment. Although I went in there a couple of times for bits and pieces, the only thing I can remember buying was a shepherd's whistle: a circle of plastic, doubled over into a semi-circular shape with a hole in one face. Fits completely in the mouth. I did manage to teach myself to work it to quite spectacualr effect, but neither dogs nor sheep were particularly impressed - perhaps my accent was wrong
Hardly the type of purchase to keep a shop open.
If it's the one I'm thinking of it was just off the main square. A real hardware emporium. There is a smaller one just of the square on the old road to Corris, The was another good shop in Barmouth "Cadwallader Roberts" next to the ambulance station! sadly thats gone as well
Percussive maintainance, if it don't fit, hit it with the hammer.
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Peter Rowell
- Posts: 134
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