There is no smell quite as wonderful as the smell of a hardware store. It is a scent you will only find in a hardware store, and no Lowe's or Home Depot do not have this smell, as they arent really hardware stores As soon as you step foot inside, it hits you and for me, it brings me back.
There were really only two places I always wanted to go to with my Dad. The hardware store and the Millbrook Bread factory store. Both of these were for completely selfish reasons. At the Millbrook store, I could get a Peanuts coloring book, one of the most cherished prizes for a child in single digits. At the hardware store, it was my other most prized possession - a Tootsie Roll Pop of which the owner always kept a bag to give me and the other kids who tagged along with their fathers when they came to the store.
Everything about these trips was exciting for me. Riding in the car with my Dad in the old blue VW bus to the store in Lakeland, seeing the Winnebago parked in the driveway of the residence located behind the store, anticipating the sweet lollipop that would be mine at the end of the trip. While my dad would talk with the store owner, I would wander the aisles looking at Toro lawn mowers and Snapper trimmers, nails, drill bits, and power tools. During the 1979 World Series I even won an entire bag of Tootsie Pops from him betting on the Pirates to win it all. He was as happy handing over that bag as I was receiving it.
I had forgotten much of this from my childhood until the first time walking into the Shelby Hardware store several years ago. I had done most of my shopping for hardware and home repair items at Lowe's or the other big box stores for years, but on this one occasion I decided to go to the local hardware store to pick up an item and there it was - the smell. It took me back immediately to those cramped, dark aisles of the store in Lakeland and those trips with my Dad.
Since then, I have made it a habit to go to the local hardware store as often as I can. First it would be Shelby Hardware and now at my current house McSwain's True Value in Boiling Springs. The prices are a little bit more and you can't always find everything you need, but the service is superior and there is something you can't put a price on - the sense of community and the memories that you build when shopping at a local merchant.
Recently, a friend of mine organized a cash mob at a local merchant's store. The idea was to pick a deserving local merchant and have as many people show up at the same time and spend ten or twenty bucks to help boost their bottom line. The turnout was good and the impact was positive.
A colleague of mine couldn't attend the event, but donated $40 to it by dropping it off at my office. The mail in my office being what it is, I didn't receive it until after the event was over. I tried to return it, but my colleague told me to use it for the next one.
As things go, there hasn't been another one. The forty bucks was burning a hole in my desk drawer. So I decided to conduct an experiment with it. I would do my own cash mob by using the money only on locally owned businesses until the money was gone. I thought it wouldn't last long. I was wrong.
The money lasted almost a month. And during that month, I enjoyed fresh meats and vegetables from farmers markets, great meals at local restaurants, delicious coffee from local coffee houses, and other items from local businesses in and around my community. Not only did I enjoy wonderful things, but I met all sorts of new people, began relationships that will hopefully grow and last for years, and shared a little bit in their lives and they in mine.
I learned after planning this very article that this week is Shop Small Business week. I encourage everyone to start a new habit - spending whatever you can at a locally owned small business. Ten or twenty dollars a week may not seem like a lot, but if it is money you can reinvest in your local community rather than giving it to Starbucks or Wal Mart or Lowes, it is an investment that will go a long way toward saving jobs, families, and the very existence of your town.
Oh, and bring your kid along. You may just be planting memories that will bring a sudden smile decades from now.
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