The good old days were good but not as great as we all remember.
As for WalMart, I generally avoid going there, but it's easy to pile blame on them without really looking at the big picture. WalMart was one of the leaders in a few areas that help customers. For example, they were leaders in allowing returns. I clearly remember in the 70's when you bought something it was yours. Mom n' Pop generally would not take returns or gave you the third degree if you did try to return it. WalMart? They couldn't care less if you returned it. I don't like people who abuse return policies but sometimes you just buy something in error.
Home Depot? For the first time in my life I could go there and expect to find enough of a product to actually finish the job. Mom n' Pop's hardware store? They'd have a bin with three 1/2 conduit hubs, one of which was missing the nut - and I needed 12. Go back a week later - they'd be down to 2.
And Mom n' Pop stores seldom actually had people working there who knew much more than the dopes at Home Depot. About 2 years ago I went to Mom n' Pop's because I needed a piece of 1/8" iron pipe threaded. They have a Ridgid threading machine...I can run those all day long. The guy there, about 50 years old, assured me it was impossible to thread 1/8" pipe - only 1/4" and bigger could be threaded. I asked him how 1/8" pipe got threaded and he informed me 'they can only do it in factories.' I asked him why they had a set of dies marked 1/8" sitting right there and he said they came with the machine but didn't actually work. I decided to give up while I was ahead and went to HD where they threaded the pipe for 50 cents and 3 minutes.
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