Yet another benefit of shopping local. [View All]

[MineralMan]

Earlier this week, my snowblower quit moving. It was still blowing snow, but the drive wheels weren't turning. Bad news, because we have another storm coming tomorrow that's expected to drop up to 10" of snow. I'm 65, and shoveling is not something I enjoy doing any more. Looking at the owner's manual, the troubleshooting section gave three suggestions about what might be wrong. From the symptoms, it sounded like the thing had a broken belt in the drivetrain.

So, this morning, I headed out to find a replacement belt. It's not too tough a job, but would have taken me a couple of hours. My first stop was my local Ace Hardware store, which is run by a local family, with people working there from age 16 to the middle 80s. On Sundays, it's the young members of the family who are in the store.

I went in and asked if they stocked belts for my brand of snowblower. They don't. But one of the guys in the store, in his early 20s, asked me what had happened. I described the symptoms. He thought for a minute, then told me I should check for a broken shear pin where the chain sprocket attached to the snowblower's axle. Now, I had looked closely at the exploded-view drawings in the manual, but hadn't seen that shear pin.

So, I ended my search, went home, took the cover off the bottom of the snowblower and, sure enough, the shear pin was broken. I had one on hand, and the snowblower was fixed in about 15 minutes. So, here's a young man, working in his family's hardware store, who was able to tell me what the problem might be with my machine. He saved my morning and helped me to fix something that could have been a real problem.

And I didn't even buy anything in the store on this trip.

This is one of the best reasons I know to patronize your local businesses. It's not a matter of price. It's a matter of the relationship between you and the people who work in that store. It's my first stop for all hardware issues, and I spend quite a bit of money in the store, but this young man would have provided the same information had he never seen me before. That is the difference between a local business and a big box store, where nobody knows much of anything.

I encourage everyone to patronize their local businesses whenever possible. My trip today to a local hardware store saved me hours and kept me from buying unnecessary parts. They know I'll be back.