We went out today to buy 6 steel butt hinges. I know that sounds simple but it was not. Screwfix only had one packet of two. B&Q had some but as usual the packets were all mixed up on the price hangers. And the packets all looked the same and contained 3 hinges. At the automatic checkout the first packet was £4.38 and the next £11.48. Luckily I noticed and stopped the transaction. The second packet was nickle plated.
While my husband handed the packet to an assistant and got the transaction taken off I went to fetch another of the steel ones. But now the price was £3.48. More head stratching. Ahh, they are steel, and the others are strong steel. But all are 100 mm butt hinges produced for the Kingfisher group so similarly labelled except the small print.
By the time we got home we had a right mixture of 8 hinges from which we managed to make something fit the new poly tunnel doors.
By tea time I did manage to comment that if we had waited and gone down to the local independent hardware store we could have brought them loose and probably for a lot less and they would have been clearly labelled!
I think we must be getting old, shopping is too complex for us.
There used to be a lovely proper hardware shop in Fakenham, closed years ago now, but it was a fascinating place, full of lovely smells which took me back to childhood in a way - even though I never went in a hardware shop when I was a child! Go figure, as the young folk say - or said?
ReplyDeleteI agree sometimes the smaller old fashioned types of stores are the best,
ReplyDeleteMy husband and eldest son are actually "addicted" to that ironmongers smell. We were on holiday once in Ireland with friends when my husband wandered off into a really old fashioned store in a remote town in Galway. They were gobsmacked when I sighed and suggested coffee and cake as he was "going to be some time in there".
ReplyDeleteI love the old shops where the bloke behind the counter knew exactly what you are talking about. Which brings me to the two Ronnies and the 'Folk Handles' 'Four Candles' sketch ! priceless.
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