Sep 11 2008
USA is Tool Heaven.
I just had the opportunity to wander around glaze eyed The Home Depot. Sort of the USA equivalent to Mitre 10, Bunnings or Place Makers. However there were some real differences.
It is almost wood heaven. AND the wood seems MUCH cheaper than in NZ. Its a lot of pre - cut to length type deals mostly in pine and mostly for the home handy man. I felt empowered as a home renovator come ‘Tim the Toolman type’.
I got down right excited.
There is so much diversity here. There were tiles I had never ever seen like with cuts already in place for mosaics etc. I struggle with too many ideas@ the best of times and my mind was racing.
So here I was wandering the aisles, check’n out the price of tools and bits and pieces AND I thought hey why not get some photos. Being the polite cheeky type I asked someone important, who then asked someone else more important than them………..who bought back the message that they needed to ask someone more important than them even………..like corporate office!
DANG! Then the less important guy said just take photos on my phone. So I did. Very clandestine it was too. BUT I would have loved to have got my 30 D out and really got some good pics.
I share them below.
Americans are really clever. Some of there ideas are silly BUT many of them are brilliant. It does not come I believe from having anymore brains, definitely not that, BUT rather in comes from having a higher population for the benefits of numerical evolution. The more people you have, the more ideas you have, the more workers you have , the more people applying innovative type thinking, do you get the picture. AND so we have a cold chisel with something called a target protector installed on the top. MADE awesome sense to me being one who has hit his hand in such a situation. I see things like that often in America.
HOWEVER it does point out something special about kiwis too tho. We don’t have the high numerical evolution thing happening because of our small population, but we have worked, and maybe our tenacity to get the job done as opposed to finding an easier way was from limited resources being available @ the bottom of the world.
That being said we are also innovators in the extreme. Perhaps our mindset hasn’t been how can we get this job done more easily BUT how can we get it done more efficiently or cleverly.
BACK @ the Home Depot I was drinking in all the different products and solutions you never see in New Zealand.
It was a lovely time.
Here are some of the images of that wonderland.
One Response to “USA is Tool Heaven.”
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Gosh Graham, reading this was like I was walking beside you through that store. I think your explanation about population and numerical evolution is right on. We in NZ have done well in spite of our geographical location and population, but it is all slowly changing here as we become more multi cultural through immigration and the skills they bring too.
But I do believe that the true blue kiwi has over the years been in the situation of having to just ‘nut’ it out. Fix it, make something, or whatever, and I think that we in NZ have a great skill base of craftmanship because of having to tackle our problems and solve them when our material base or equipment available has been limited.
Thanks for the walk through the warehouse. I can only imagine the size and scale of it.