100 of half of what you need

The little mom and pop stores have a dozen of everything you need. Home Cheapo and Lowedown have a hundred of half of what you need.

Another case in point. After much cajoling my 17-year old took out the old and bolted in the new tranny in his walk-behind last night. Needed a 3/4 by 3/16 Woodruf key as the one on the old tranny shaft was lodged in too well to be removed without ruining something (that tranny will likely be repaired soon).

Well, it's 7:15 pm, but Ahh, I saw Woodruf Keys at Lowe's! So he doesn't get too discouraged I'll run and get one (I was so happy he picked up a wrench, even if I had to shame him into it!) Of course, they only had a smattering of sizes, just enough to be able to say they got them and to make me drive the 12 mile round trip and waste an hour of my precious time (the older you get, the more precious it is). #<*%)!ing LOWEs !

Let's see ... Auto Zone across the street. Not only didn't the kid at the counter not know what they were, they didn't even have any (I went behind the counter and looked!) Consumer Auto Parts? They have a drawer with a bunch of lables for the sizes they had when the bought the drawer full of Woodruf keys, but all the bins for the sizes people use were empty. Including 3/4x3/16.

Elmwood Adams - small store in downtown Worcester Massachusetts, 100 yds from my dungeon (my boss calls it an office), 220 years in business - nice selection of Woodruf key sizes and about a dozen of each. Thank you very much!

From now on, I'll wait till the next morning and go to Elmwood Adams every time I need something smaller than a ceiling fan, or home and office ice machine.

There is nothing that gets my dander up like making a trip to HD to buy a common item, only to find that either they don't stock it, they no longer stock it, or they do stock it but you have to buy a box of a hundred even though you just need one. And even if they do stock the item, you can't find it half the time because they moved it to a different part of the store and nobody knows where. Also, it doesn't seem to matter if you find what you need or not, you waste at least half an hour anytime you go to HD.

I make it a point to visit my local hardware store at least once a week and buy something, even if I could buy it cheaper at HD. I fear for the day the last mom and pop hardware store closes.

Elmwood Adams is on the north end of Main Street almost across from the new Court House. It is worth stopping in when you are in town, especially if you need an odd nut or the like.

Ya go to Deep Homo, and ya wind up with some pierced and tattooed whack-job with an attitude and no clue, and they probably don't have it even if Zippy the Pinhead COULD be convinced to go look for it.

Ace moved out of they're crappy location where they used ot run a feedmill in downtown (put the road straight through the old feedmill) and now they're closer and with a better store. Put the True Value out of business... but that guy couldn't adapt to the times very well and sold a little bit of everything-not selling to any particular person, so no particular person would shop there...

Donovan from Wisconsin

Sorry to say, Spags is long gone. They did have all that stuff though - I always used to say that if Spags sold lumber there would be no need to go to Sommerville Lumber (gone), Grossman's (essentially gone), Home Quarters (gone thank God), and Home Cheapo. (Lowe's of Mass was just a gleam in the eye of some greedy Lowedown robber baron at the time).

Spags was in decline after Mr. Borgatti died and his daughters took it over. Everyone blamed them but they were fighting an up hill battle against "just-in-time delivery". (That's where you need to buy your winter stuff in summer and summer stuff in winter, or the store will be all out) Spags became "Spags 19" for several years (owned by Building 19) but went into steeper decline. Now it is just a sad, mostly empty Building 19.

I can remember back in the late 70s / early 80s long before big box stores making the annual trip there to get school stuff for me & my four sisters. Going to Spags once or twice a year was quite an adventure!

Prices written in permenant marker (no price guns).
No shopping carts.
No shopping bags -- grab an empty cardboard box.
Aisles you'd walk the entire distance of...sideways :)

And somehow, Spag made everybody love that damn store.

I remember I was leaving the store once, as I'm walking along to my car, it was late the 80s or so, before shopping carts. A lady with her arms full of early Christmas presents just started bubbling over telling me how great Spags is. She was from Ct and she said her husband sennt her there with a wad of cash every year to Christmas shop and she was just unbeleiveably happy with what she found and the prices she just had to share it with someone!

I grew up in Shrewsbury and the next town over (Boylston) and I used to love to go there with my parents, and as a parent and a home owner, and I miss it like most people around here do. Damn, I'm getting teary eyed now just thinking about it.

Oh come on, they're not that old.

>In 1782 in the north end of Worcester >Massachusetts stood a hardware store owned by >Daniel Waldo. Goods such as saddles, oil lamps, >shovels and hand tools were bought, sold and >traded. Forty years or so later a gentleman >named Henry Miller purchased the store from >Daniel Waldo and in 1869 Miller's young >apprentice Elwood Adams bought the store and >changed it's name. The store continued in >operation under ownership of Elwood Adams's son >Robert Adams till 1947 .The store changed hands >a few times until two young enthusiastic >Frenchmen decided to take a go at running the >business. Maurice Champagne and Nelson Cloutier >kept the name Elwood Adams and opened in1958 to >serve the Worcester Community.

I used to work at 20 Franklin. As I'm typing this, I'm up at 51 Channing back behind UMass Memorial. :p