Let's say something falls apart in your home and you need a small bolt to fix it. Not brain surgery, but where to get that bolt?
In Regent Square, you could try the Braddock Express at South Braddock and Hutchinson to see what's hanging up on the pegboard down past the fax machine ... or maybe go to Edgewood Towne Centre and try K-Mart's sorta-hardware department where they might have a blister pack of 100 bolts that might be the right size ... or you could drive to Home Depot in Wilkins using an hour, braving the Parkway and spending four dollars on fuel for a 19-cent piece of hardware.
Around here, the smart money is a quick trip -- you could walk -- to Master's Hardware on Roslyn Street, right down from the Swissvale police department.
At Master's, "old-fashioned" is a supreme compliment. It's what a hardware store should be, and the community is unaccountably fortunate to have it.
Just walk in, tell Stan (or one of his helpers) what you need, and they'll fetch it out of a drawer or bin. Your 19-cent bolt will cost you exactly 19 cents, plus two cents for the governor.
Tired of paying $18 for Scott's grass seed in one of its 15 varieties? At Master's, they'll measure out their own blend from a 19th Century wooden barrel using an antique handmade scoop, weigh it out on an even older beam scale, then place it in a regular paper bag -- you've seen those, right? -- sealed with a dab of masking tape. You'll pay $3.99 per pound and the grass will grow within a week. Just that simple.
More than anything, after years of being abused by modern merchandising practices, you'll get a kick out of watching somebody who really, actually knows what he's doing. You will be served. Better still, Stan will tell you -- for free -- how to use the stuff he's selling you.
Nobody gets rich selling individual bolts, or nails by the pound, or repairing window screens, or rustling up obscure plumbing valves from the back room. But Master's has done well enough to put up a snappy new website:
http://masterhardwarepa.com/