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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: The Amazing One-of-a-Kind Fischer's Hardware Store
There's an indepedently owned hardware store here in Springfield, Virginia. In an era where the mega millions are sucked up by the corporate giants like Lowes, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart, Fischers survives based solely on the fact that (a) there is no finer customer service anywhere,(b) they carry stuff nobody else has (c) they are staffed by experts in every department who know exactly what you need, where it is, can explain what it does...and how to use it or apply it. (d) they refuse to sell you stuff you don't need (e) they respect female customers and would never take advantage of their lack of knowledge in specific areas...a quality that made my wife drive by Home Depot to go to Fischers. (f) they endevor to learn your name and treat you like family and last (g) they all have a mastery of the English language and no habla anything else. My late wife used to say,"Fischer's is like Noah's Ark, they have two of everything." Let me tell you a story by way of illustration. My Father-in-Law (Solveig's dad) was a Norwegian long range hunter...Each, Norwegian infantry unit (company level) had two "long range hunters" who ranged ahead of the unit as it skiied in the barren areas and brought down game, field dressed it and hauled it back to feed the advancing troops. He (Sverre Nordvik) was one of the best and became Norway's national champion in the biathalon (ski shooting) and would have represented Norway in the Winter Olympics if it had not been for Norway's occupation by the Nazi's in 1940. His ski-shooting prowess brought him an appointment to the King's Guard and later led to a direct commission in the Norwegian Army...At the outset of WWII he was serving in the Neutrality Guard under General Rugge in the far north of Norway guarding against any violation of Norwegian neutrality as a result of the Russo-Finnish War...No one ever thinks of it, but Norway has a common border with Russia in the north. When the Krauts, invaded Norway...Sverre was a captain of bicycle infantry and was deployed in the defense of Narvik where he and his men put up one helluva fight until all their ammo, rations and everything else but their courage and high morale was exhausted and they were captured on the road standing in perfect formation with their empty weapons shouldered...and they made the Krauts come and take the weapons from each man. It was considered dishonorable to lay down your weapon. He and his men were marched off and imprisoned on ships in Narvik harbor. The German's allowed the Norwegian POW's to keep their mess gear (unit pots, pans...individual mess kits, eating utensils and even butcher knives) The Germans provided the food and the men locked in the holds cooked it on steam lines below and used their issued gear to eat it. In the thirties, Sverre's brother, who had migrated to the States and lived in Seattle sent him a small aluminum coffee percolator made by an outfit called PRESTO, a division of Mirro Cookware. It was a simple dime store quality coffee pot. Sverre used it as a long range hunter and carried it in his rucksack when he served up north and carried it with him when he went into captivity. He scratched a geographic journal on it denoting all the locations it had been and the dates visited. After the War, at some point in time the little glass "perking knob" on the lid broke. In 1966, Sverre mailed it to me, to see if a replacement could be obtained. I wrote to the manufacturer who wrote me a very nice letter back, telling me that the model and the manufacture of replacement parts were discontinued in the late 1930's and were unfortunately no longer available. An advanced design stove top percolator was recommended...but it had never visited faraway places, seen the inside of a Norwegian infantryman's rucksack or percolated urtsatz Kraut "what passed for coffee" in the dark hold of a dank moldy German supply ship. So I gave up...Then one day I had to pick up something at Fischer's and tossed the thing in the car seat. There is a fellow named Neal who works at Fischer's. Neal is the Chief Magic Elf at Fischer's...It took it to Neal and showed it to him. I didn't say a word about the letter from Presto..."Neal, You ever seen one of these?" "Yeah, that's an old Presto Model (Zippity Doo-Dah so-in-so) They quit making the damn things before World War Two....where's the glass knob for the lid??" "That's my damn problem Neal, you can't get em any more. The thing broke and I've been trying to find a replacement." "Can you come back in an hour?" I did, and Neal was grinning like the cat who swallowed the canary...there on his Customer information counter were three of the sonuvabitches in faded, falling apart, seen better days, boxes. "Hadda helluva time locating the damn things...Had to move a bunch of long ago crap to get at em...found some old rubber hot water bottles that had turned to a rotten mass of goo and some strings of Noma Christmas lights that all the insulation had cracked and fallen off...the shipping bill of lading said we got em in 1942." Fischer's is an updated version of Alladins cave...You need a Thermos bottle cork for a 1950's kid's lunch box?....women's garter belt removable snaps?..a kerosine lamp globe and six feet of wick?...a can of Union carbide?...a glass washboard?....a National BOH Beer church key?....snap traps that will cut an armadillo in half?....Hey, you need it, call Neal...Recently a neighbor and I were talking and at one point we got to talking about this idiot New York governor who got nailed patronizind a $4000 dollar a night hooker...He says, "Now, if you wanted to get linked up with a high dollar call girl like that, where in the hell would you go??"..."Fischer's, the sonuvabitches have at least two of everything."...Julie Andrews sung a song about..."These are a few of my favorite things"...My list would start with Fischer's Magical Hardware. Most of you probably can't see the magic and wonder of a place like this...but Sid Harrison will...Sid they carry Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Red Ryder jack knives...the one's that if a kid carried it to school in his pocket would stand to get fifteen to life and his knife confiscated. Fischer's hardware, the last bastion of the unconverted, UNRECONSTRUCTED, non-housebroken Neanderthal man. DEX (Disclaimer for upset nukes...The reference to the New York governor conbtained no political intent...I don't even know or care about what political party the sonuvabitch belonged to or his church affilliation, shoe size or if he likes small animals.) DEX again |
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Old Salt
Posts: 359
Location: Saco, Maine | Subject: RE: The Amazing One-of-a-Kind Fischer's Hardware Store
Something like this? One aisle in our store...
 (1aisle.JPG)
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 1aisle.JPG (60KB - 683 downloads)
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1405
Location: Houston, TX (Best state in the US) | Subject: RE: The Amazing One-of-a-Kind Fischer's Hardware Store
In the Texas Panhandle, there's a little town called Borger which had two such hardware stores...Mom and Pop's ...both of them....I don't think they ever threw anything away unless it was broken. And they didn't raise the prices on their inventory on a regular basis either....I recall going in for some fence stain once and got a few old gallons at a few dollars cheaper a gallon than the other gallons I bought at the same time. And of course, in Borger, everybody knows everybody and so with a few exceptions here and there, most folks were friendly.
It's rather desolate there, and pretty flat. There a long lake there, Lake Merideth, very well hidden 'cause it is at the bottom of a canyon carved by the Canadian river from the cactus and mesquite covered plains above it. The panhandle is also called the High Plains because it is about 3000 feet elevation. However, the scenery (or lack thereof) sort of grows on you, and so does the laid back lifestyle.
It was where my first job was after graduating from college. I stayed there for about 2 1/2 years until I was transferred to Houston which was totally different....hot, humid, congested, two major interstates running through it, very seldom saw anyone you knew when you were shopping, and traffic sucked! (It still does)
I can relate to what Dex said....Love those little places.
Every now and then, I'd be on a project and the plant contact would take us to a little hole in the wall restaurant that you'd never give a second look to on your own. One of those places was in Orange, Texas and it was a Mom and Pop Mexican place. The crew (there were 6 or 7 of us that would spend the better part of a week in Orange) would go there at least twice, sometimes 3 time a week for lunch or supper. The owner would come out and shoot the breeze with us occasionally. Food was great, plentiful, and inexpensive. When we were done with the project, that was the last place we had supper at. The manager found out that we were done with the job, he reached down, picked up the bill and ripped it up. Said he enjoyed us as customers and the dinner was on him.
I imagine the world is full of those souls, thank goodness!
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: RE: The Amazing One-of-a-Kind Fischer's Hardware Store
John and Stoops, You go into one of these giagonzo monster corporate hardware outlets and they all sell rediculously small packets of bubble pack nails. There are more matches in a pack of book matches than nails in one of those blister packs of nails. At Fischers, you can still buy them by the pound...the guy loads one of those tin hopper hanging scales with his old dinged up scoop, weighs them and writes the calculated cost on the side of a brown paper bag with a stubby black grease pencil that resides behind his right ear and says,"What else can we gitcha today?" I get called, Mister Armstrong and qualify for the senior citizen discount. There's no "fifteen items or less" speedline. Mister Fischer feels that he doesn't want to put folks who are buying a lot of stuff from him, at a disadvantage and give folks who are buying a piddling amount in a more favorable position at the large volume customers expense...His words." The concept of few items speeded up check out...makes no sense. Why would I want to create a cheaters line to bypass my major purchasers?" There was a time when family owned small independent hardware stores were woven into the national commercial enterprise fabric...They were as the saying goes, as American as apple pie and the 4th of July....Now you go into a HOME DEPOT and need to have a working knowledge of Spanish, Portugeese, Nigerian, Tanzanean...various dialects of the Zamborangeans, Hotten-tots, Bangledeshians, Romanians and lord knows what, that came pole vaulting over the pourous Border Patrol net. All of our hardware seems to be manufactured by folks who eat with chopsticks...Never thought I would see the day when I would see Stanley tools made by the decendents of the guys who came bouncing across the Yalu River to shoot a lot of good Americans and drive us out of all we had gained by the fabulous effort at Inchon. Has anyone explained to the guys in VA hospitals nursing loads of communist shrapnel. just how and when we crawled in the sack with the Red Chinese, our current soapy shower pals? Fischer's also sells grass seeds that can grow a crop of grass on a wet manhole cover. There are things in every man's life that are uniquely personal to him...Fiscer's Hardware is such a place for me. All you have to have is a working knowledge of the English language and the coin of the realm required to pay for all the stuff you haul to the check out register. DEX |
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Old Salt
Posts: 359
Location: Saco, Maine | Subject: RE: The Amazing One-of-a-Kind Fischer's Hardware Store
We won't tell my employer, but since the scale we have was last calibrated adn certified by weights and measures in MASSACHUSETTS 17 years ago, I even tell customers that want nails to fill up the box and tell me how many pounds they have... Amazing how often I have to throw more in the box to keep them from cheating themselves. With the exception of the owner it is a fun place to work. If we don't have it I can usually make it!
Nine years and there is not a day that I don't find something I never saw before. I found a box of lock bolts individually wrapped in newspaper. Asked what they were and was told that they are the locks for Jail Cell Doors. I commented that they use electronic ones now and was told "everyone is looking for those" I noticed one piece of newspaper wrapper had an ad for sirloin steak at $.29 per pound. Checked date. 1932!
NTINS! |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: RE: The Amazing One-of-a-Kind Fischer's Hardware Store
John, LOVE IT....1932 and the place is still in business. Fischers had a copper ballcock that had verdigised green. I love the removable nickle-plated stocking snaps that fit WWII vintage girdles and the cast iron, strike anywhere wooden match holder cast in the form of Satan's head. I love the packets of mole poison that reads KEEP THIS STUFF AWAY FROM FOOD PRCESSING AREAS....and the old Hi-Flier kites. If you can't stand around and bulls**t with the employees about falling off step ladders...the bust size of the new waitress at Kates....the price of regular unleaded....prospects for the possible World Series match-up....the latest real estate tax rates and all the electronic crap Ray Stone bought with his new Battle Star Gallactica mobile...the earthquake warning system, microwave oven. flat screen TV and (Rays words) the electronic panty remover., why go to a damn hardware store....Our national economic recovery plan should include the funding to re-establish the neighborhood Ali Baba and Forty Thieves independent hardware store where you can still buy wooden clothespins, a cheap pocket watch and anchor bolts the size of bridge rivets. DEX |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1010
Location: NE Florida | Subject: RE: The Amazing One-of-a-Kind Fischer's Hardware Store
Yup. Our local hardware store always has one of the family owners on duty wandering around helping folks. They know how things work and how you can fix them. There's a color picture of the "Employee of the Month" over the cash register - it's of the store cat, which mainly lays around allowing people to pet it.
Great places.
Coyote |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1324
Location: Oxnard, CA | Subject: RE: The Amazing One-of-a-Kind Fischer's Hardware Store
If you want to know anything about building a house, raising a barn, fixing the plumbing or electrical, fishing, hunting, candle making, wood heating, painting, churning butter, milking cows, watering livestock, the Civil War, taxidermy, planting corn or tomatoes, weeding, trimming a horse's mane or tail, birthing piglets, sewing or knitting, hatching chicks, bird dogs, mousing cats, barbed wire, shovels and other farm implements, ... just go to your local version of Fischer's Hardware store, just sit and listen. You will be attending one of the greatest schools of life that ever was or will be - HARDWARE U.
Around here, Saticoy Hardware closed about 15 years ago. The building still stands, wooden floors and all, but the hardware store itself is closed. Nearest thing we have now is a place called Keene's Hardware, but it's affiliated with True Value, and just isn't the same. They don't carry alfalfa hay or feed pellets, baby rabbits, or covered wagon tongues. You can't find a horse collar, hame knobs, bridles, reins or trace chains. No free gum balls for the kids either. 
Edited by JrKrup, Skimmer 2008-08-24 11:08 PM
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The Amazing One-of-a-Kind Fischer's Hardware Store
