An Ode To Lowes...And A Hat Tip To Curtis Lumber

We would often joke when we went to the Lowes Hardware at Ticonderoga that the store looked like a Hollywood set, where the company might film their commercials.

That's because the store was like a scene from a movie, brightly lit, always pristine - where the floors actually sparkled. There appeared to be not a screw out of place. We were always helped by happy, smart and attentive employees.  (That's a far cry from other Lowes stores we've been to, as far south as Maryland and New Jersey, where it seemed like a hurricane had just passed through moments before our arrival, scattering products and making the staff disappear).

But the Lowes at Ti  - at least at the times we were there - seemed to be a "closed film set", a ghost town, where we were the only customers wondering the aisles. Sadly, that last observation may have been the store's death kneel. The company's reason for closing Sunday was that it never met sales expectations since opening in 2009.

Let the record show that we are huge fans of Schroon Lake's Curtis Lumber, as our multiple trips and credit card statements clearly show. We are truly grateful that Curtis is our "home town" hardware store. But what drew us to Lowes recently were the need to purchase a fridge and a barbecue, items not carried by Curtis.

And there were services offered by Lowes that Curtis Lumber wouldn't touch. This summer we tried getting some plywood sheets cut to specific sizes and were told by a Curtis employee that they no longer offered that service because of their liability insurance.

So today we remember fondly, the passing of one store of a big box corporate chain. In this tough economy we hope that the 80 or so former Lowes employees land on their feet. Got a story to share about an experience at Lowes or a theory why it wasn't successful? Tell us in comments.