On Line

[MinUph]

Change is inevitable. Weather its the big box stores, imported furniture fro chine, or any other change. We ca talk about it, complain about it even blame it for things we dont like. But in the end it is change. Always has happened and will continue. I wonder what the fur traders said when joe Schmitt  opened his general store. Probobly didn't like it much.
We need to find the good in changes. There has to some. There always is.

[byhammerandhand]

Another view:

I move to Cincinnati in 1979.  Hardware stores were always a sore spot with me. 

The closest one was not all that good.   The old geezers that worked there were condescending, especially to women.  After a few visits, my wife refused to go there and pick up something for me.   

I settled on the hardware/lumber branch of a local department store.   Sort of like an old-time lumber yard.  The company went out of business when the children of the founder took over after his death.   The old man refused to be open on Sundays because he said it was the day for his employees to be with their families.   That changed as soon as he died.

We went through a number of national/regional chains -- Furrows, Central Hardware, HQ, Builder's Square.   One by one, they all folded.   FINALLY Lowe's, then Home Depot came in.   While service was never very good, in general, at least they stocked items.   Now Menard's has moved into the area.

We have lots of convenient choices now.   I still shop at the local corner hardware store, Do-It-Best.   But I've recently moved 25 miles away, so it's not on the corner any more and I don't see any equivalent nearby.

Hardwood Lumber stores -- the first local independent went out of business when the EPA wanted them to upgrade to comply.   The larger one decided they did not want to be in the retail business any more.  One of the employees started a store, then gave it up 5 years later.   Now the original one has re-opened a retail store, a former shadow of itself.   There's a family-run mill over in Indiana that I'm going to start to use, maybe, and another independent about an hour north of here.    For the last few orders, I've been getting stuff delivered from a couple of hours away when their truck is in town (once a week or so).

[SteveA]

Change is good but not always better.  For instance .... a few months ago I needed thirty 2 x 4's and figured I'd pick them up in HD.  After going through the stack unable to find straight lumber I went back to my local lumber yard.  Not only was the lumber straight straight - the price was the same. 
They loaded them in my van and said take care as I left.  I hope this lumber yard never goes away
SA