[bredren]

The underlying problem with these anecdotes is that All of these experiences depend on who is working that day.

It may even be influenced by who is working that week or that month or who runs the place this year.

Ecommerce is imperfect in many ways, but it is far more consistent in its imperfection than local retail.

W.C. Winks Hardware Inc. in Portland, Oregon has been around since 1909 and is amazing.

You can go in there with some odd piece of hardware and someone will personally wait on you, assess your request and find the exact item or closest likeness.

The staff is patient and friendly, in my experience it is ideal local retail. But Winks doesn’t do ecommerce at all, so I often must relegate it to unusual hard to figure HW needs, because not every project needs this level of service.

I’m in agreement that retail has some pretty serious work to do to stay in the running. It might not be fair or “right” but it has to happen nonetheless.