o Usually driven by needing something outside of normal business hours or closeness; Tractor Supply store makes sense...

o Gone down-hill big time over the last 4-5 years. It's clean, the staff are relatively available and close and good extended hours; that about it

- > 50% is mediocre store brand / CHICOM grade stuff at name brand/USA prices
- They do have a large "Farm Animal" section. Cant really comment on that as it is outside my scope
- "Farm/Country Lifestyle" merchandise has grown to ~ 25% of the store; most of it looks like the same crap you could find at any Wallmart/Amazon/Gas Station/Mall kiosk
- Real hardware store stuff is down to 5 or 6 isles, again >50% CHICOM quality and they never seem to have what I need. Example, yesterday (Sunday @2pm): zero hard cut nails (For driving into concrete). no name brand heavy duty "Duct Tape" (The black heavy duty stuff like Gorilla Tape or 3m

What a waste of time, swear I'm just going to drive the extra 15 minutes and go to Lowes

Ace is the place.

They have good prices on hardware that is not Chinese. They were out of stock of items a farmer would need at the Staunton store.

Didn't Tractor Supply get in trouble recently when people found their brand of chicken feed made them stop laying eggs?

I like their hats, just got 4 for $4 each.

Do you own a tractor?

Our local Tractor Supply has a pretty decent selection of tractor parts and supplies. They have a huge attachment section for the PTO with decent prices and a good selection of manufactures. They also offer a very good selection of different styles of mowers and lawn care equipment.

I like our Tractor Supply. We have several Farm and Garden stores in the area besides them and I pretty much like all of them.

About the only reason I go there anymore is the stall mats. I really like those

I usually go to Rural King, both are nearby. RK has incubators where you can look at hot chicks!

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Ace is the place.

This ad jingle really has become very, very true nowadays.

quote:

Originally posted by 83v45magna:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Ace is the place.

This ad jingle really has become very, very true nowadays.

I owned and operated a small business for well over twenty years, supplying rental equipment to retail stores, almost exclusively hardware stores, so I was in and out of hardware stores constantly.

It was my experience that Ace was almost always the best choice for a customer who needed hardware supplies. They seemed to have a better selection, better prices, and way better customer service than the big guys like Lowe's and Home Depot. As a customer, if I needed to find something at a Lowe's or Home Depot, it was always difficult to find somebody to help. Ace stores, on the other hand, always seemed to have somebody who noticed a customer walking in and proactively asked, "Can I help you find something?"

True Value Hardware stores seemed to follow the Ace model, but the selection of in-stock items was never as good as Ace. Actually, every True Value store that I dealt with, folded, while with just a couple of exceptions, all the Ace stores in the vicinity thrived, and many of the store owners expanded, opening additional store locations.

Tractor supply is doing a tremendous business here, the parking lot is often very full. Hobby farms and horse people are a lot of it.

They stepped up their spring plant selection this year, still a tiny fraction of what Lowes has, but the quality was noticeably superior. Price was comparable to, we really have no dedicated garden centers.

I like the tractor supply bolts by the pound.

For years our tractor supply had the best price by far on sunflower seeds for the birds. That brought a lot of business in the door, but during Covid they went way up, about by 1/3. Also went way up on herbicides and such… like everywhere else.

And then there are the five dollar caps!

There’s not an Ace Hardware store in our County.

quote:

Originally posted by bryan11:
Didn't Tractor Supply get in trouble recently when people found their brand of chicken feed made them stop laying eggs?

I heard that. My neighbor has chickens and told me it happened to him. I think he has switched to domestic production feed. Good lord, the damn chinese will kill us any way they can - disease, food poisoning, it doesn't end. Doesn't say much about their desire for quality and value for retail products, food stuffs, and packaged foods. I don't eat anything originating from China, and avoid most or all parts and tools from China, depending.

I don't go to TS very often They are building one about 15 minutes from me . I'll still have other choices .