Barnes Ace Hardware

I think one of the aspects that I’ve enjoyed most about moving outside of the city, is the fact that you have wonderful small business stores.
My husband and I have really enjoyed getting to know the folks at Barnes hardware store. We just bought a house this past summer about 7 minutes from this store, and have had so many great experiences.
Our first encounter here, we knew that we needed a lawn mower. Desperately. Our home sits on a half acre lot, and we were starting to look like those neighbors that you really wish had NOT moved in. We finally had enough cash reserves after dumping nearly all we had into down payments. We knew that if we got a push mower, it would take a full day of «family togetherness» for us to accomplish the task of mowing our lawn. We decided to check out Barnes, since it looked like a nice little place right off of Veterans Memorial. We received warm greetings right upon entering the store. We made our inquiries on riding mowers, and sure enough– they had a nice one that had recently been traded in and fixed up by their mechanics. Steve, who owns the store with his sweet wife, was not on location that day, and so his wife got him on the phone for us so that we could get the specs on the mower, and work out a reasonable price. In the end, we ended up getting a great little mower that has a cart that can be attached for half the price of a new one. Talk about being fortunate! (PS– I can’t wait until this summer. I fully intend on rocking out to P! ink’s «Rock Star» while mowing).
As is the case with many smaller stores– They don’t have everything. But you know what? I don’t care. Sure– we cheat on them every once and a while by going to the big box hardware stores, but not until we’ve assured that they don’t have exactly what we’re looking for. Time and again this little hardware store has proven that they will take the time to help us. None of this «push the button and we’ll have a store associate with you in a few minutes» stuff.
One additional note– They’re very competitive price wise with larger home improvement/​hardware stores. I was very impressed with their seed prices (they buy in bulk locally) when we dropped in this past week.