As a home-owner and a business owner, it falls to me to make repairs. I wind up going to the hardware store about once a week. There is an Orchard Supply Hardware right by my house in South San Jose, and another one right by my Mountain View store. I usually go to Orchard. I like the service and I know the layout. They usually have what I need. Now and then, I have to go an extra mile or two to the much larger Home Depot for a part that OSH doesn't carry. I am pretty familiar with OSH and Home Depot. I've been to both places hundreds of times.
Today I noticed that one of the back-issue bin sections was sagging. The problem could easily be fixed by installing a couple of corner braces. I've got lots of them at home, but none at work, and I wanted to fix the problem right away, so I headed around the corner to the OSH on Charleston Road. It's only about half a mile away from the store. Something looked amiss as soon as I entered. I saw that the shelves in the back of the store seemed empty.
I headed over to the hardware section and began looking for a box of 3/4 inch screws. They didn't have them! There were lots of empty hooks where they should have been, but no product. I didn't worry about that too much as the corner braces would probably come with their own screws (although not quite as heavy duty as I like.)
I then went over to where the angle braces should have been. Again, empty shelves greeted my where the product was supposed to be. I did find some angle braces that were not quite the size and style that I was looking for. They were also copper colored, and I wanted metal color. It didn't matter too much. No one was going to see the angle braces. I figured that I would make due with those.
I flagged down a worker, and asked him what was going on with the stock at the store. "Why isn't Orchard ordering more product for the shelves?", I inquired. I showed him all the empty shelves that were supposed to display the product that I was looking for. The worker told me that Orchard put in the orders, but the factories were slow in delivering the goods due to the slow economy. He told me that he gets asked that question about 10 times a day, and that he feels he should print up a card with the answer for all the people that ask him.
I thanked him for letting me know, and I didn't tell him, but I have a hard time believing his explanation. He might well believe it himself, and it may very well be something that a superior told him, but I don't buy it.
For one thing, as I mentioned, I go to hardware stores frequently. About once a week. I mostly go to Orchard in South San Jose, and I haven't before noticed empty shelves or a lack of inventory. Now I don't go to the Mountain View branch nearly as much. The problem could be limited to just that branch.
I suspect that the Mountain View branch is experiencing some kind of trouble. Perhaps it's a trouble with management. One thing is for sure, when you go to a hardware store it's usually because you need to fix something in a hurry. If you go once, and there are empty shelves where the parts you need should be, you will go elsewhere. The next time you need something, you might not even try that place again, so you won't know if they got their act together or not.
It's really easy to blame the bad economy for everything. The Mountain View Orchard Supply Hardware had better find a way to stock the products that people want, and they better do it fast, or they will soon go under. They can't afford to have a store full of half-empty shelves. It's either fill those shelves up with the parts people need, by hook or by crook, or close. When people need hardware, they need hardware, not excuses.
