Tuesday, July 26, 2011

People in your neighborhood- Kemah Hardware


If you happen to be in the Kemah/Seabrook area of Texas and you just happen to be doing repair work on your boat, we highly recommend you stop by Kemah Hardware and Supply. This is not your shiny, sterile, overpriced West Marine populated by sales folk in matching shirts, name tags and insincere smiles. This is a real, old fashioned, locally owned, mom and pop hardware store- an endangered species.
They carry every solvent, epoxy system, stainless shackles and thimbles that West Marine carries, but at a much lower price point. Plus they carry teak lumber and stainless drawer pulls, knobs, etc. so you can build your own custom piece of cabinetry instead of making do with a mass produced item that might nor might not fit. You can still buy nails and screws by weight, weighed out on an honest to goodness scale, unlike at say Home Depot. If you happen to be in need of a trough for your horse, they have those too. Need crabbing supplies? They have everything you need but the chicken necks. Need a tiki style beach umbrella? Yup, they have it. Don't have a boat? Not to worry, they sell a kit and the wood so you can build your own.

You should get yourself to Kemah Hardware and have Larry ring you up (all good hardware stores need a Larry on staff). There won't be any piped in muzak, no endless stream of uniformed smile-a-trons asking you continually if you are finding everything ok, no overpriced geegaws, no digital readouts, UPC scanners or anything of the like. What you will find is a colorful cast of local characters, the supplies you need, and a staff who will help if you need them but will otherwise leave you the heck alone. Everything we think is fantastic in a retail establishment. Yup, we love this place.



2 comments:

  1. We SO need a place like this around here. We have a local True Value Hardware store that selss marine stuff that we always check before WM. And they have funny signs to mark the aisles instead of saying "paints and sandpaper" they change it up and put up things like "lost dreams" and "gorilla food".

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  2. The hardware store my grandmother used to love moved to a new location and then closed down and eventually became the place where my son takes martial arts. :-( :-( :-(

    The blue in that top photo is SOOOOOOOOOO pretty!

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