Please help me decide whom to be frustrated with

Hah, hah!!

Just chalk it up as a lesson learned so next time you won't get caught unaware. It's a sad predicament but it does happen alot, particularly in hardware stores and most particularly with guys who feel their manhood is on the line if they don't know something they think they should know. This is why

It was a fun two pages to read, i can tell you for free.

Rereading - he probably thought you meant Scratch All...

I bet you're right. I guess I'm lucky he didn't try to sell me a bamboo backscratcher. Maybe I should have told him a striking knife would be okay, too.

Remind me, Roger, when you're in town - I have what I think of as a semi-antique awl, belonging to my father in law from some long time ago. I hate to just give it to the good will as I bet they'd toss it. You wanna nice awl?

Yes, as a matter of fact I would. I really do have a striking knife, but it doesn't do curves. Not that I'm likely to get much out of either, but hate to see good tools get tossed.

Speaking up for good hardware stores, Pierson's in Eureka CA was/is a swell place.

Go in on a chilly day and just inside the doors would be a warming stove, several sets of small tables and chairs, and a bunch of how-to books on some expansive shelving for perusal. On the other side, to the left, was a counter with available coffee/lattes/tea, croissants, donuts, and a case with, if I remember, sandwiches and pop. Oh, I think they sold hot dogs too..

The hardware store was large, and most everyone there had been there forever, or way before I ever came to that town. Nails, screws, bolts, the people there knew from what.. The paint guy knew. And so on. They had a fair lumber yard, though not the only one in the area of good lumber yards. Good garden center.
Excellent mill/lumber yard just up the coast. Another good lumber and hardware place just inland.

Well, I could keep going re great places, but not in my new neck of the woods.

I'm doubting my supposed awl is what you could use, but I have other tools I need to move along..

(Hardware Man enters. 25 years of answering questions)
First, Thomas, the guy does not know what size or length of screw you want just because you said "License Plate".

The last hardware store I managed stocked the following types of license plate screws in Fractional (American) and Metric Sizes.
=some with truss heads and slot drives,
=some with Phillips heads,
=some that were plastic, threaded and came with their own plastic nuts.
=some that were threaded like sheet metal screws to screw into the embedded speed-nut in the car.
=Some with hexdrive or Allen key heads or Torx drive.
=American sizes were both 1/4-20 and 1/4-24 (in chrome) usually 1/2" long.
=Metrics were mm-1.0 and mm-1.5. They were usually between 15 and 20mms long.

My favorite kind of customer would have brought me one to match.
BUT I could have worked it out with you by asking:
"What kind of car?"
"Did the heads look like these?"
And "Here. Try this length. If you get home and it's longer than the ones you've got left, try'em, there's usually some room."
===
You can save a customer a lot of grief by asking the right questions.
I forget who was looking for the wire cutters, but I would have asked "Can I ask what you're going to do with them?"
because I know which wire cutters are good for just cutting wire (diagonals) and what wire cutters you need to cut and twist (like for flower arranging). There's also flat nose cutters, round nose, long nose and needlenose. And electrician's cutters.
There are spring-loaded versions and mini-versions. (If you are doing 10,000 cuts of floral wire, you just might want the pair which re-opens each time you cut.)
AND
if you are looking for a tool you are going to use a long time, I'd like to show you the real ones rather than the ones which only LOOK like the real ones.
I've waited on customers who wanted something tough enough to yank staples out the IKEA furniture yet delicate enough to pull bones out of fish and still be able to cut wire.

(Pliers do not have cutters.)
=
So, yeah. I would have asked if I could ask.
It's what I did for a living.
Gotta a hardware question?
Joe(I'm right here)Nation

Many of the employees I encounter at our local HD do not even know where things are in their store - I've been sent down many wrong aisles. That's why they have aisle numbers with hints (Screws, Nails, Fasteners). Therefore, I would never rely on them to help with anything. I'd take the licence plate in and try to fit screws to it. I may even buy several sizes to save me a trip back and I certainly wouldn't return the ones that didn't fit. I mean, how much did they cost, anyway? A few cents? Could maybe use them somewhere else.

On the other hand, to be fair, some employees were a great help. It's a toss up. You just never know who's working that day, so you have to figure it out yourself.

if you would have gone to a CANADIAN TIRE STORE for your screws , you could have bought bacon and eggs at the same time as the screws and you would not have to waste your time going from store to ... ...

remember these two words : CANADIAN TIRE ... for getting all your problems solved .



hbg

Crappy Tire, you mean!

Next time you go in ask him if they carry shingle stretchers.

Last week I went into Home Depot, where they now always have a person at the front door who is supposed to help. I asked where something is because I dont know, I am in a hurry, and the store is big. He then tells me "it might be over there, or maybe over there, and if not then maybe over there" *paraphrase* .....thanks for all the help buddy.

It reminds me of a time years ago when I went to a fast food place. They had some flunky who appeared to have some mental functioning issues going around asking how everything was. I said that my fries are ice cold, expecting her to then say "let me get you new ones then". Nope. She said "oh" and then turned to the next person to ask how their food was. It was obvious that she was not wanted behind the counter, so they put her in customer service, if you take customer service to mean asking a customer service question. If you mean servicing the customer then no, she was not in that line of work.

Or banana curlers...

In Sweden we have these types of hammers in all seizes.
http://www.byggmax.com/image/products/534x534/28002_534x534.jpg

I find them pratical as you can always hammer and pull out the nails with one tool.
Tried to buy one several years ago in Germany. The guy in the hardware store not only told me that they were special tools for men doing roofing and I as a woman would never be able to handle it.

Claw hammers are surely pretty universal.



Lol unbelievable
My wife would have got one and brained him with it just to show how wrong he was.

Maybe this would be more suitable for a woman

At least a coloured one is easy to find.
My father was of the opinion that women should learn how to handle tools - never know what kind of impractical husband they might get.

I agree. Yes indeedy.

You know, i never have any problem asking for directions, and i always ask the respondant to repeat the directions--if they're not the same the second time aroud, you are probably being bullshitted by someone who doesn't really know but won't admit it. I will ask where things are in a "hardware" store, but won't answer what it's for. Most such places are "big box" stores now, and there's absolutely no reason to assume that the clerk you're dealing with has any expertise beyond knowing where items are to be found.

I think the whole "guys won't ask for directions" thing is an urban legend beloved of women. I've asked for directions all my life, and i've had guys ask me for directions all my life. I suspect the urban legend comes from guys who are know-it-alls dealing with their wives/lovers who are also kn0w-it-alls, and neither side is willing to give in.