[widebody911]

What's funny is that the list the guy gives is mostly just a bunch of big-box also-rans.

From what I can tell, most of the real hardware stores are gone. The ones run by the grizzled old-timers, where you can bring in a fitting from your 19th-centure house and he'll hobble over to a dusty cabinet and fetch all of the parts you need to rebuild it, or better yet, an exact replacement for it. The guy working there will know the difference between metric, SAE, and Whitworth. Those guys are gone.

Luckily I have two ACE stores not too far from my house; the closest one is kind of small, but they have 95% of my random hardware needs, and I can usually get the remaining 5% at the other one. If I need bulk materials (ie fencing, lumber) I have to go to Home Depot or Lowes.