My mom and I are running errands.  Made-up errands.  NextDoor motivated errands.  People on NextDoor were buzzing about Ace Hardware.  "It's well stocked!"  "The help is so friendly!"  "I used to go to Lowe's, but now I just go to Ace!"

We used to live about half a block from Ace, and I was so excited when it moved in.  How lovely not to have to drive all the way to Green Thumb or Lowe's when all I wanted was a bucket or a paint brush.  But then I found out that Ace was lame.  Every time I went there, they had nothing I wanted.  No bucket.  Paint brushes for $1.75 when I could get them for twenty cents at Green Thumb.  They were out of the liquid Miracle Gro.  This happened over and over and I got bitter.  The employees knew I was bitter, because I would grumble, "You never have anything I need," as I left the store.

Apparently other people felt the same way, because the excitement about the change was remarkable.  My spirits soared.  I no longer live that close, and really Green Thumb is now closer, but I was intrigued.  So I called my mom and recruited her, and we went there today.

It was pretty good.  Better organized, much more things in stock, and lots of staff available to help.  There was nothing I really needed, so we just perused the aisles, taking note of the changes.  As we strode toward the exit, the cashier called to me.  "Finding everything okay?" she said.

"I was just looking around to see what you've got," I admitted.

An older man standing at the counter turned around and looked at me.  "Wow," he said, "A lady who browses in a hardware store?"

The only thing disappointing was that they no longer have the free popcorn.  That was the only good thing about the old Ace.  I would console myself with it.  But now I suppose we no longer need consoling.