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04/28/2008: "Urban Hardware"

On my first few days in Brooklyn I've had the opportunity to visit a variety of Hardware stores ranging from the small independent to ACE to Home Depot. Since I gave Home Depot, particularly the Manhattan store some exposure recently, I thought it might be a good idea to point out that countless (well you may be able to count them if you try hard) small hardware stores. The small hardware store I use in Pittsburgh, Mueller's on East Ohio Street is the kind where most everything is behind the counter and you ask for it. Mueller's has most of what can be found at Home Depot at competitive prices. When in San Francisco I found Cliff's, a small hardware store on Castro Street, to have everything and more Home Depot did in a smaller space, and while sometimes the prices were a little higher, sometimes they were better.

The hardware stores I visited in Brooklyn aren't exactly decorated as well as Cliff's, but they do seem to have most of what you can find at Home Depot and more. I don't want to single out Home Depot here to complain about, when the weakest link here was the Atlantic Avenue Target store. Many of the items I purchased were out of stock, including curtain rods which I finally purchased at a small hardware store on Flatbush Avenue.

To the credit of Home Depot, I had already been to ACE, a few small hardware stores and Target before heading to Home Depot for appropriately sized shelving boards for layering CDs. Unlike Target, I had to transfer and then walk under a highway in a not so pedestrian-friendly area to reach Home Depot. While no one in the store could seem to tell me where the small Aspen boards I wanted were, they did have them in stock. (I also asked where I could find home security devices and a well-meaning employee directed me to the tools section).

Of all the hardware stores in New York, San Francisco and Pittsburgh I was aware of, I still find Cliff's to be the best. The small hardware stores here seemed to have most everything you could need, but they are not as well arranged or as attractive as Cliff's (or even Mueller's). The employees there were generally more helpful, however and the number of hardware stores still lining the streets of Brooklyn is remarkable in itself.

Home Depot needs to improve their specialty items and cater items to localities. Two things I know Home Depot does not have but should are plaster washers (these are little disks that you put on the end of a drywall screw to pull in sagging plaster). The Building Mill in Pittsburgh used to have them, most recently I ordered them from Charles Street Supply in Boston. Next are two wood products--picture railing and the simple molding for holding in casement windows. On numerous occasions I have gone to Home Depot assuming they would have basic things that they didn't carry. I think Lowe's is slightly better at this.

The smaller hardware stores like Cliff's specialize in having these and other items you can't find at Home Depot, like lamp parts and ceiling medallions. None of the small stores I went into today would cut plexi-glass (Cliff's and Mueller's do). I did see ceiling Medallions in the window at a store on Fifth. For the record, the small hardware stores around me seem to have most of what I will need and it's basically on the rare occasion I'll need a lumber item that I'd head to Home Depot. The lumber item I did need is one that could easily be carried by these smaller stores, and it's something that could help them compete with the big chains like Home Depot and Lowes that are moving into urban markets like New York.

Eric Miller, on 04.28.08 @ 08:14PST