Finding help is not always easy, but in hardware for home repair or embellishment in the midtown Tulsa area, Midtown Hardware at 4311 East 31st Street has you covered. With answers and suggestions, this is a neighborhood merchant of the old-school sort that built Oklahoma commerce from the ground up.

On a visit to the store recently, the writer enjoyed a chat with owner D.J. Day. “We’ve been able to diversify with a U-haul franchise and propane exchange–cheapest in Midtown–plus Bill Call’s amazing consignment tools and knives and watches, seriously, come check them out…” Day invited, suggesting we grab a bag of popcorn and go shopping.

“Some of our customers are sympathetic to the struggles of small business, and to them we offer a ‘Patriot Discount’ card of 10% off forever. I call it the ‘Bidenomics’ discount. Probably the most frustrating thing to me as a small business owner is how legacy media has reported about the economy. I’ve been accused of price-gouging, which is obviously ridiculous. I”m doing the opposite in order to survive!”

So how does a hardware merchant judge the economy? Day said, “Bird seed sales have practically disappeared. After all, what is a family going to do, buy 18 eggs for your family or a bag of bird seed? The choice is obvious. Another one is the increased interest in nuts and bolts and such has gone sky high. Are you going to fix what you have if you can’t find the part? It seems there are people who never learned to repair, but we can help explain. Others have adopted the disposable culture, but in an inflationary economy, that gets outrageously expensive. I could go on and on….

“We still key keys, sharpen knives, and fix screens. More discounts are available for your readers, to order from us in bulk. We have an outside salesman, Rich W., who has been in the hardware game for over 40 years. I’m sure many of your readers remember him from the Best Hardware on Peoria. Drop him a line with a product you or your business needs in quantity and he will find it for you for as cheap as we can provide: rjrwomack@gmail.com … Oh, and also, please stop buying things off Amazon!  If we don’t have it we can order it and have it here in under a week for you,” Day declared.