Pro tip: the stranger who helps you at the hardware store is usually a retired tradesman, not an employee

Grant Torres · 2026-10-16T09:10:03.986293+00:00

I was standing in the aisle at a True Value in Boise last Saturday holding two sizes of anchor bolts, looking lost. A guy in a paint stained jacket asked what I was hanging, and it turned out he ran a cabinet shop for 31 years before he retired. He pointed me to the right bolt in about 10 seconds and told me the ones in my hand would strip out of drywall. It hit me that this happens to me maybe once a month, and it has never once been an actual employee who helped me. The staff at these stores are mostly teenagers, and they are stretched thin, so the real knowledge is walking around in the aisles on a Saturday morning. Has anyone else noticed this, or am I just lucky with who I bump into?

Babble Community

Loading…

Pro tip: the stranger who helps you at the hardware store is usually a retired tradesman, not an employee | Chance Encounters - Babble Community