Post #4935606 · Elektrine

2026-07-02 19:51 UTC

One aspect of retail we've forgotten after generations of conglomerated big box stores and subsequent online conglomeration is that of curation of products. When you went into a family-owned hardware store in 1985, you got experts who chose products based on a balance of price and quality. Maybe they only had two kinds of hammers or one brand of bolts, but somebody selected those. There was some level of trust in what you were getting. Now that labor is on us to filter from dozens of types and brands, based on reviews that are gamed by botnets, against manufacturers who change up the models yearly to dodge bad reviews. It's a race to the bottom because we don't have local curators who are personally invested in your returning to their store. 🧵

Replies (1)

@corbden@defcon.social 2026-07-02 19:58

I actually have some direct experience in this. When I look back at my life, I wonder at the unique experiences I've been exposed to. One is that in 1988, when I was 13, my parents started a retail craft supply shop in a tiny town of 2500 people, using a loan from a bank, renting a crappy little space no one else wanted. Since I was homeschooled, I worked at this shop 40+ hours a week and worked the entire process. Additionally, before starting the store, my dad had invented a brush cleaner which we made by hand, bottled, and sold to wholesalers nationwide. I got to see two sides of the three-side process of getting craft supplies market. We also would buy small items in bulk, like 5,000 beads in a bag, and I would repackage them by hand into packs of 200 branded with a stamp for our own shelves. We went to trade shows and on-site warehouses to buy direct, and gathered catalogs from multiple wholesalers. We could special order anything. Learning which paints and yarns were highest quality for the price, that was part of what we did for our small town for three years. This experience is nearly impossible for anyone to have today. 🧵

Open ##4935605