A cherry deal
You may recall that a few weeks ago I mentioned that Id found a good source of lumber far better than the big box stores. Incredibly, I just found another….
You may recall that a few weeks ago I mentioned that Id found a good source of lumber far better than the big box stores. Incredibly, I just found another.
Because I live in a small town, I was surprised to find a second source that fit my needs. And as a testament to how real hardwood dealers work as compared to the big box stores, it was that first source Id discovered a few weeks ago who recommended the second.
I needed to get about 30 bf of good cherry for a project and had gone to source #1 to get it, but I needed it in larger widths than what he carried. He checked his racks, but when he found that he didnt have it he cheerfully recommended the name of the second source. He even gave me the phone number off the top of his head, which tells me this wasnt the first time hes sent customers to someone who is certainly a competitor of his.
My new source turned out to be a large, local custom cabinet shop that also deals in lumber. The manager greeted me and when I told him what I needed he personally took me through the stacks till we found one containing the boards I needed. They were buried, of course, but he didnt hesitate to fire up the fork lift and dig it out. He then helped me sort through the stack to find the best boards for my needs. When it came time to pay up, he noted that because hed noticed two of the boards had some undesirable checking on the ends, he knocked 10 bucks off the total.
Surely, I must be small potatoes for this guy, and yet he treated me like a big spender. He asked what my project was and about what other kinds of things I make and seemed genuinely interested. Then, once we had my car loaded up he walked me around to show me what else he had in the warehouse in case I saw anything I might want for future projects. Clearly, he was hoping that Id become a regular customer. Just as clearly, Im sure that I will. You just dont get that kind of treatment at the big box stores.
I dont mean for any of this to sound like Im trashing the boxes because Im not. They have their place in the economy and Ill continue to shop at both the orange one and the blue ones in my area in fact, I just dropped about $50 at one of the blue ones yesterday for some yard-care stuff. But when it comes to customer care and really finding exactly what you need, you just cant beat the local retailers.
Till next time,
A.J.
A.J. Hamler is the former editor of Woodshop News and Woodcraft Magazine. He's currently a freelance woodworking writer/editor, which is another way of stating self-employed. When he's not writing or in the shop, he enjoys science fiction, gourmet cooking and Civil War reenacting, but not at the same time.
