I once worked in a hardware shop. When I took the job I thought it would be romantic.
Let me explain why. My father had been a builder and I grew up around tradesmen.
I thought that working in a hardware shop might bring me into contact with men like him and the men who worked with him.

It didn't. Because this wasn't really a hardware store. Not like the one where my dad used to go, where the people who worked there knew about screws and nails and drills and what a 4x2 was.

This was a fucking chainstore