Thursday, September 2, 2010

Where's the hardware store?

When I told my husband I wanted to shop locally for one year and blog about it, he said, "Okay." That's about all the discussion we had on the topic.

Last night, I asked him, "Does New West have a hardware store?"

For the first time, he expressed trepidation about this project.

"Uhh, you might have to expand the boundaries a bit."

I'm not going to do that, but it did make me wonder, why doesn't New West have a hardware store? And, if there is one, why is it so well-hidden, I don't know about it?

There used to be a Canadian Tire in town; that's gone now and there's a big, new one on Marine Way in Burnaby. Close to, but not in New West.
There's a Rona on Edmonds. Again, close to, but not in New West.

There's a Home Depot in Surrey, just over the Patullo Bridge. You should know the refrain by now: close to, but not in New West.

Considering there's so many hardware stores so close to New West, does it really matter that New West itself doesn't have one?  Are there any other cities in Canada with 60,000 people that don't have a hardware store?

When I lived in Pemberton, the population was well under 1,000 and it had a hardware store. When I lived along Commercial Drive, there was a hardware store. (Even hipsters and hippies need hammers.)

The first Lowe's in B.C. is supposed to be coming to Queensborough, but I'm not sure how soon it will be built. Probably not by the end of September, which means if I want to get that much-needed replacement for our kitchen faucet, I've got less than 30 days to do it!