About 15 years ago we lived near a hardware store named for the family who owned it for 3 generations, back then. Finkles Hardware. What a trip that place was and still is. Its in several buildings and each building supposedly houses different categories of hardwareness, although then as now I have a hard time distinguishing what is where and why, but that's part of the fun of it. Makes whatever you are buying a bit of a treasure hunt. The cool part was they used what seemed like an entire block of basements belonging to other buildings to house there collection of every conceivable piece of hardware you could ever want or need. Nails sold by the pound in bags; same with screws, nuts and bolts, it was like walking the catacombs. Corridors of floor to ceiling shelving under brick barrel vaulted ceilings made of what could have been ship ballast from the 18th and 19 century. Most of the buildings around them are from that time. The bigger buildings were ramshackle warehouse type buildings, that housed mostly the steel & iron stock and most piping.
I pretty much did my entire 3 bedroom 2.5 bath house from them. Copper pipes, wiring, electrical boxes, ovens, stoves, dishwaters all the plumbing fixtures (Kohler), steel I beams, wooden dowels, tons of metric stuff for several German and Swedish cars and on the list would go. The place was a basic must go before Saturday kind of place otherwise you didn't get back home for many hours. The son who was in his late 60s maybe even in his 70s could find anything you needed and if he didn't have it he'd order it for you and deliver it. Love this place. It's still going now in the 4th generation by his grand daughter. She's as hands on as her grandfather was. Her older cousin would never use the cash register, he could add two pages and more in his head and not be off a penny; tax included. He had loads of fun in AC, but that's another story..and then some.
Here's a link you hardware guys might enjoy reading and the pictures are spot on.
Finkle's hardware in Lambertville, started as scrapyard, survives test of time | NJ.com
Have fun.
Box store, nah, don't need no stinkin box store with this treasure still alive and thriving. We're so lucky!