For specialty wood, I suggest West Penn Hardwoods: Exotic Hardwoods | Domestic Hardwoods | West Penn (one of our advertisers and pretty good people too!) they were doing mail order when mail order wasn't cool! ha ha) BUT, if you can get out to Conover you WILL enjoy the experience!I will confirm Asheville Hardware is out of business, retail store and online. Best replacement is Klingspors. Don't know where to recommend for speciality wood. FYI Gennett no longer sells speciality lumber to retail customers--us.
I say it is partly the location. There was something heartwarming buying stuff in that lcation.Asheville area people that miss Gennet and Asheville Hardware:
What should a good replacement for those vendors look like? What kind of wood are you looking for? What other goods drew you to those locations?
I say it is partly the location. There was something heartwarming buying stuff in that lcation.
Also, the selection, like one of the Klingspor locations, there is wood, old tools, new tools, knowledgeable sales people - they have everything!
The staff is the problem, the make-up of the store depends on the trends ((Festool, Mafell, Lamello) are fine items to have in the store, but the margin is crap. So you have to have things that make money ( finishes, other expendable items) that give you turn-over.Yea, the location was pretty good. I would always time it at around lunch time so I would be *forced* to get BBQ at Buxton Hall for lunch lol.
I honestly never loved the store though. Too much focus/ SF spent on slabby, live-edge wood. I did like the Festool department and looking at used tools but I never actually purchased anything.
I think my perfect store would be focused on S3S domestic hardwoods with some hard to find exotics, a great tool department with nice stuff (Festool, Mafell, Lamello), good plywood, and expendables. Good staff, good experience, etc...
I was a very frequent customer of Asheville Hardware. I am a full time furniture maker/artist in the Asheville area. I knew 2 of the employees as friends outside of AH. I can assure you that the employess were not the problem in this case. I visited on a weekly basis because their inventory turned over quickly. I was always amazed at how much lumber, tools and extras turned over in that place. It was very popular. So when you say the "staff" was the problem, I can assure you they were not. They had worked for months without pay and had to get a lawyer (a little over a year ago).The staff is the problem, the make-up of the store depends on the trends ((Festool, Mafell, Lamello) are fine items to have in the store, but the margin is crap. So you have to have things that make money ( finishes, other expendable items) that give you turn-over.
Retail sucks!