Forever horrible Mayday Hardware has gone seriously worst

brooklyn gardener · June 2007

I am totally new to this forum and website and this is my very first posting.

I have lived in Prospect Heights for 28 years and all of us Brownstoners knew soon after moving here that Mayday had one price for white people and one price for black people, besides his gross overpricing, small selection, and low-quality goods. (In fact, Mayday won as the most expensive hardware store in Brooklyn a few years ago in a Daily News article.) Despite Jerry's extreme friendliness whenever we white people came in, we always avoided going there unless it was truly a dire emergency. Although Mayday is just around the corner from my house, I and most of my neighbors have walked an hour away just to avoid him. In fact, people in this neighborhood so dislike Mayday, that the store was firebombed about 10 years ago or so. Unfortunately, now that I no longer have a car to go to Home Depot, I have needed to go there more often for some small items whenever my handyman comes and it is not cost effective to go to the other hardware stores. When I came in in April for a new sink piping and asked Jerry how come few of the items I selected had any pricing on them, the owner laughed and said "I see you have a $20 bill on you and I am going to get as much of it as I can." I said "I bet you will" and Jerry only laughed again. I knew that that was his eternal system - put prices on only half the items so that he could jack up the prices depending on how much money he thinks he could pull out of you. He got $18 of my $20 bill for items that would have only cost about $10 elsewhere and there was nothing I could do about it.

When I bought a $4.98 electric plug my handyman needed immediately last month and I gave him $6, he only gave me back 50 cents change. I said that the tax can not be 50 cents on a $4.98 item and he responded by saying, "Why are you nickel and diming me?" I said that tax is 41 cents and I would like proper change back. He balked and sighed and gave me back a dime. I said it is 41 cents and here is a penny back, he said that it was OK he didn't want the penny. OK, let's store owners do that to avoid the pennies. I then said an even-toned thank you. Not giving me back a quarter or half a dollar change is something he has done before and I had already learned not to let him get away with it. By the time I got back into the house, my handyman fixed that electric plug and I no longer needed the new one so I came back a week later to return the item. I asked him if he would give me back cash or credit and he said , "I will give you back whatever you like". I said that was good and I would like cash back, while I looked for flooring screws which my handyman needed now. However, when it came to returning my money, he only gave me back $5 and none of the taxes. I said I would like my full refund including the tax I paid. The usual good-mood Jerry seemed to be in an exceptional foul state that day and he began shouting that I am always nickel and diming him and that I insulted his hardware expertise when I said to him that I hoped my handyman agrees with him that the nails, (NOT screws) he, Jerry, insisted were not only perfect for the job, but are made for my task are truly what my handyman needed me to buy. (I decided that I would continue to not tell him that the $6 mouse poison this hardware store expert insisted last year was the best in the world was a total waste of money and I had never come back for his promised refund in case it didn't work.) I repeated that he had offered me a full refund for the electric plug and that a full refund should include the tax I paid. "Consider yourself cheated" and don't come into the store again", he responded. I maintained my usual cordialness with him and walked out of the store. I don't know if his young girlfriend threw him out (something I just learned from reading this website) or his wife finally got proper marital support from someone the other old time storekeepers call a "cheapskate"; or the complaints about him on this forum (see the other Mayday thread) have gotten to him, but I decided enough is enough. We old timers know about Mayday and the new residents are not familiar with him. Rather than add my comments to the other long thread, I thought I would start a new one.

Although I have shopped at wonderful Pintchick's for more than 30 years, there are other hardware stores in Prospect Heights and one doesn't have to go to Home Depot (horrible service) or Lowe's. I think that it is important to know, especially that the same exact painting stick Pintchick's had for $18+, I found at Daffodil's for $4.49. Please know about the other local hardware stores which have good prices. Franklin Hardware, which I found to be pretty good, is only a 10-minute walk from Mayday. Here is a list:

Franklin Hardware
646 Franklin Ave, Brooklyn, NY
(718) 399-0532

Rt Building Supplies
646 Franklin Ave, Brooklyn, NY
(718) 399-0532
Category: Hardware-Retail

Daffodil Hardware & Building Supplies
570 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn, NY
(718) 789-4031

M & J Home Center
766 Franklin Ave, Brooklyn, NY
(718) 857-2693
Category: Hardware

Flatbush Hardware (cheap place for copying keys)
265 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn, NY
(718) 857-8688

Decorative Hardware
1530 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY
(718) 363-7179

Hope that this has been helpful.

Brooklyn Gardener

ben · June 2007

I can also recommend:

Sister's Community Hardware Store
900 Fulton St at Washington

I was only in there once but the people were really friendly and helpful. Depending on where you are coming from, it's really not a very far walk, you just have to cross Atlantic.

Also, the storefront where M&J was (listed above) is currently for rent.

poppy13 · June 2007

Any of these places open on Sunday? Seems to be my day for hardware shopping and Pintchick's is the only place open (with wide selection).

evan · June 2007

i live across the st from mayday and walk to pintchik for everything i need. i went to mayday several times when i was painting/moving in and quickly realized it wasn't worth the convenience. i saw him have several interactions with people like the ones you mentioned where he complained about people "nickle and diming" him to death.

brooklyn gardener · June 2007

Subject: Forever horrible Mayday Hardward has gone seriously worst

I don't know that, but I do know that Flatbush Hardware is open 9 am to 7:45-8 pm on weekdays. I guess you have to call each store to get their hours. Flatbush Hardware's prices are always cheaper than Pintchick's and sometimes Daffodil's. This is probably why they have survived less than half a block away for at least 30 years and Pintchick's has to offer you free cappuccinos and popcorn. They are very good for a lot of things and pretty knowledgeable as well. I can say similar things for Daffodil, but they have not always had what I was looking for. So, there is really much more selection in hardware stores than we imagine and many local businesses to support. I always try Daffodil or Flatbush, but comparison shopping is still advisable if you are going to buy several things. Pintchick has always been very good for paint and gives great advice about how to go about lots of projects, but fewer of the old time knowledgeable staff are still around. I suppose that you can ask who are the old timers there and ask them any important question you have. But finding a 4 times higher price for a plain wooden painting pole than a hardware store 2 blocks away is inexcusable, even if I appreciate their vanilla cappuccinos.

I had never been to the Franklin Avenue hardware store until 2 months ago and was pleasantly surprised to find that they also have a lot of building supplies for which I usually go to Home Depot or Lowe's or Sid's Hardware. Franklin Hardware and Rt Building Supplies are actually one store, one across the street from the other.

I was also happy to learn a few months ago that Arecibo Car Service has a Lowe's special. They only charged me $8 with their SUV/van to go with my many packages from Lowe's to my house. I don't know if the price is the same from Home Depot nor how long that special is/was going on. But do call/remind them and check it out. When my cellphone didn't work about 2 weeks ago, I got stuck paying $25 one of the local truckers hanging around Home Depot for taking me and some 8' lumber home. BTW, some of their van-owning drivers are very nice and will help you pick up furniture in the brownstone neighborhoods for a very low price ($15-35) and some of them will not help you and want $35 for little effort. So, check each one out before you conclude anything about all of them. They are much cheaper than hiring moving van guys on Craigslist.

Lastly, if you can not get to a good hardware store in time, remember that there is a Home Depot on W. 23 between 5 & 6 Ave that is open until 9 pm. Stopping there after work will save you a lot of effort getting to the Hamilton Avenue store. I have had only one experience with the Home Depot in Bedford Stuyvesant and that was not so good, even though taking the train to Nostrand Avenue and the Nostrand Avenue bus was not bad. I called ahead of time to check if they had 12' treated wood pieces and they assured me that yes, they were on the floor. But of course, when I got there, the people on the floor told me that they never carry that size. What can I say.

BTW, FYI: The owner of the liquor store on the corner of Washington & Lincoln Place is the brother of Mayday's owner. Since I never shop for liquor locally, I have no idea if he is a better or similar kind of merchant.

Best of luck.

brooklyn gardener · June 2007

Subject: Forever horrible Mayday Hardward has gone seriously worst

Evan,

I assumed that he was just having a really rotten day the last day I came in, especially since he has always been super nice to me in trying to get me to be a regular customer. He knew that we had done a lot of our own renovations in a house that need just about total renovation and that we could help him make a nice living by buying there. So I was very surprised when he turned on me like that for asking him to return my change. I had begun to think that maybe now that I was coming in once a month he thought he finally had me as a customer and he could finally treat me like dirt for rarely coming in there all the previous 28 years. I noticed that he always has an aversion to giving people back their change and that you have to always ask him at least twice until he took you seriously and then you had to make sure to argue with him that he is supposed to return proper change until you actually got it. It's really pathetic to hear that he screams at others for the same thing. That is really sick. I will of course never walk in there again and he lost whatever business I was finally giving him.

I remember when Jerry used to charge people a quarter for using his xerox machine while another store on the block used to charge only a nickel. It was exactly the same machine, but he had no shame. I once asked him why he was charging a quarter while the other place was charging a nickel for the same exact machine and the same exact service. He said "that is my price" with the straightest of faces and nothing more. I guess enough people got smart to that and he finally had to get rid of the machine. I was happy to find that the Thriftway (is that the name?) Pharmacy has their own make your-own-copies xerox machine for 10 cents, while the printing store across the street now charges 15 cents for every copy they make. Beats going down to Park Place & Flatbush Ave for xerox copies. Just to get people into Mayday, Jerry made his store into a UPS pick up station for local people and a regular mail station where the mailman picked up your letters because the local mail boxes were "too unreliable", he claimed. Who knows what he charged people for that. Another scheme was photo development, but he never beat Kings Pharmacy prices. He runs all kinds of other businesses from the back of his store, just to make up for low traffic in front. Everyone I know avoids going into his store and the only reason why he is still in business is because we have so many newcomers. The newcomers haven't figured out the deal with his initial friendliness or don't yet know about all the other nearby hardware stores. But I have a feeling that he is just too angry and vengeful a person to leave the neighborhood, even after he was firebombed by who knows who.

Thank you for your remark.

kerchoo · June 2007

I had a wonderful experience at Daffodil a few weeks ago, trying to get copies made of my new keys -- after two tries the keys still didn't work and I was cheerfully offered my money back.

I'll be going back when next I need something.

brooklynred87 · June 2007

As I discovered a couple of weeks ago, Daffodil is not open on Sundays. Good for them for taking a day off, I suppose. And at that point, Pintchik wasn't that much further of a walk.

brooklyn gardener · June 2007

But Daffodil is opened at 7 am - even earlier than Pintchicks. That is really good. Forgot to tell you that before.

leffertsgirl · June 2007

Ben wrote: I can also recommend:

Sister's Community Hardware Store
900 Fulton St at Washington

I was only in there once but the people were really friendly and helpful. Depending on where you are coming from, it's really not a very far walk, you just have to cross Atlantic.

Also, the storefront where M&J was (listed above) is currently for rent.

sister's community hardware rocks. they are the sweetest, most helpful people and manage to fit so many useful items into their space. i highly recommend them.

smokin joe · June 2007

Subject: Re: Forever horrible Mayday Hardward has gone seriously wors

Brooklyn Gardener wrote: Flatbush Hardware's prices are always cheaper than Pintchick's . . .

i haven't used them much but the times i have i've found their prices higher than pintchik's.

brooklyn gardener · June 2007

Not my experience.

As I already wrote, comparison shopping is always the way to go, because there always surprises.

vanilla · June 2007

i had trouble getting my change back at mayday, gave them a $20 for getting a couple keys made and to my surprise was handed back some coins --- how is it that one key costs $2.50?! plus, even at that price i was still owed coins and a few bucks. this is when i just started going to places in park slope, usually the place on 5th ave a block or two from gorilla.

anyway, if anyone wants to take their frustration out on mayday::: help me out by calling 311 and complaining about their "light pollution" at night. those lights are WAY too bright & if you go by after dark you'll see what i mean --- as a mayday neighbor, i think those lights are not only absurd but totally disrespectful. (***and also those lights shine directly into my bedroom, and i am sure other people experience the same thing!)

thecolonel · June 2007

They should tear that place down and put up a KFC. Our prices are alway's low and fair. Plus you get a full belly out of it too.

$2.50 for a key?! Is it made of gold? I smell something burnt. [-X

sje · June 2007

NEVER get keys made a Daffodil, they will not work Chris is an expert locksmith at Flatbush Hardware, his keys always work, and he's gotten me out of some locksmith jams over the years as well.

brooklyn gardener · June 2007

Let me second that about the expert locksmith at Flatbush Hardware. I always get my keys made there. Best AND cheapest place as far as I know. They just re-keyed my Medeco lock for $25.

They are also open on Sundays.

sweet tea · June 2007

huh. the two times i tried to get my mail key copied at flatbush, it didn't work. no one else seems to be able to make a copy that works either, but no one else has acted like i was wrong about the difference between the key i have and the blank they use. flatbush told me it didn't matter, which is fine and dandy except that it does.

sisters' copy didn't work either, but they were nice about it. and the key was free -- they copy one key free with any purchase over some small amount ($5?)

ddd · June 2007

Subject: the "old" Mayday of the 60s and 70s

My father, "Arnie", started Mayday Hardware in the late 1960s at 727 Washington Avenue (I think it's now a vacant lot). In the late 70s he bought the store at 755 Washington Avenue and took Jerry in as a partner (Jerry had worked for him as a kid). My father passed away more than 20 years ago and Jerry took over Mayday. It pains me to see how Mayday's reputation has deteriorated. My father had hundreds of friends in the neighborhood and would have given you the shirt off his back. He gave away Christmas trees on Christmas Eve to anyone who asked, contributed generously of his time, money and inventory to the local parishes, civic associations and police station and often helped families and young kids in the neighborhood who needed financial, as well as moral, support. He gave jobs to neighborhood kids who needed guidance and some responsibility in their lives. He often treated local kids to afternoons at the Brooklyn Zoo.
I hope some of the posters in this forum remember my Dad and have some good things to say about him and the way Mayday was back then. It would really pain him, as it does me, to see what the neighborhood locals now think of the business he worked so hard at with his blood sweat and tears.

brooklyn gardener · June 2007

I don't know when your father ran the store, but I can tell you that when I bought my brownstone around the corner from Mayday in 1979, Jerry's policies of one price for whites and one price for blacks (higher) and ridiculously higher prices was in full force. When I asked my black elderly neighbors who had moved here in the 1950's about Mayday, every single one said that they avoided going in there unless it was an emergency. By 1979, every one I knew already had a well-established habit of taking the 10-15 minute walk to Pintchik's. I, as a white lady, was so disturbed by this 2 different price policies and the fact that few items on the shelves had a price on them, so that the owner could decide what he will charge you only once you got up to the counter, that I didn't walk into that store for many, many years. We ALWAYS drove to Pintchik's for even a one dollar item just not to see Jerry's greedy, friendly face. When we told our other new young white Brownstoners about this, they laughed and all said they were doing the same. I remember hearing positive things about an Arnie from Gus Vlahavas, but I never met your father. I don't know about giving away Christmas trees, etc., but I can tell you that Jerry's bad reputation for jacked up prices was well established by the time I got here. Everyone here on Sterling Place near Washington Avenue would have loved the convenience of having to walk a few steps to Mayday and we had a complete renovation to do, but it was not to be. Jerry was the only person I saw in the store and I have no idea who set the policies there, but charging the regular folks high prices and then getting recognized by your local civic organizations for your generosity, is a common disease in the world of business. It's as if one hand is going to wash the other. It may seem like it does, but it doesn't, not even in the hearts of the people who are handing you that civic award. Washington Avenue used to be very rough and I can tell you that many people, including Washington Avenue BUSINESS OWNERS, had contempt for those who frequented the street. All the black homeowners used to tell me that they avoided doing any shopping on Washington Avenue, whenever I asked for advice on shopping. I assumed that it was because of the constant loud loitering day and night, street fights, public drunkenness, and frequent shooting off of guns at night. I don't know if anyone got killed, but I remember that hearing gunfire going off at night was not unusual for me in the early and mid-1980's. For many years we were the only white people who lived near Washington Avenue, and I really resented not being able to use the convenience of a hardware store that was so close by. I remember that Mayday was the only store that had the old straw-colored shades I liked, and it took me years to find them elsewhere just so that I wouldn't give him any business. I understand the contempt for the street regulars of those years. But it does not excuse taking advantage of the hundreds of working class people who used to live here and came in for hardware whenever they wanted their homes to look nice and tidy. It may seem like it and it may even feel like it, but one hand does not really wash the other. I have no idea when you father stopped running the Mayday or what things were like when he ran the store, but I can tell you that your statement that "Mayday's reputation has deteriorated" is not a true statement. Mayday's reputation has been very bad for at least 28 years. A few good deeds may gain mythic proportions in our minds for the people we love, especially once they are gone and the old stories get repeated. I can tell you that I asked just last week one of the old timers from the 1950's again if she or her now co-owning children shopped at Mayday and she said the same thing she and at least 15 other homeowners told me in 1979, "Only in an emergency."

ddd · June 2007

If you moved in in 1979, then you remember the electrical fire that destroyed the store and put Mayday out of business for several months? After that, Arnie had less to do with the running of the store due to declining health. I'm sorry you never had the chance to meet him.
You probably also missed the blackout in the mid 1970s when Mayday was one of the only stores on Washington Avenue that wasn't looted because several guys from the neighborhood (friends of Arnie from the neighborhood and some of the guys that worked for him) stood guard until the morning.
It's nice to hear that Gus had positive things to say. I remember Gus fondly from those years.
I'll not state my opinion of Jerry publicly, but again I'm sorry you never knew Arnie at Mayday.

alafairnadia · June 2007

I believe Jerry is the new (or not new, not certain of history) of the WAMA - that whole campaign with the flags on Washington - eat, drink, shop - is his re-invigoration of the association. it's sad that someone with such a lousy business sense and ethic is somehow in charge of this.

brooklyn gardener · June 2007

"An electrical fire that destroyed the store"? A hardware store that has an electrical fire? Who ever heard of that?

Everyone said that it was firebombed. That has been the word for years and years. You want to re-write history?

ddd · June 2007

Well, I can tell you that it is a proven fact that "the word" is wrong. I don't know who "everyone" is, but they do not have the correct information on the "history". That is what happens when the rumor mill gets going by people who have some sort of vendetta, extreme dislike or hatred, or point to prove, I suppose. It's unfortunate.

vanilla · June 2007

sweet tea wrote: huh. the two times i tried to get my mail key copied at flatbush, it didn't work. no one else seems to be able to make a copy that works either, but no one else has acted like i was wrong about the difference between the key i have and the blank they use. flatbush told me it didn't matter, which is fine and dandy except that it does.

sisters' copy didn't work either, but they were nice about it. and the key was free -- they copy one key free with any purchase over some small amount ($5?)

are you trying to boast about actually getting mail delivered to your mailbox at your building? :twisted: b/c that's what i call lucky!

sweet tea · June 2007

vanilla wrote: [quote=sweet tea]huh. the two times i tried to get my mail key copied at flatbush, it didn't work. no one else seems to be able to make a copy that works either, but no one else has acted like i was wrong about the difference between the key i have and the blank they use. flatbush told me it didn't matter, which is fine and dandy except that it does.

sisters' copy didn't work either, but they were nice about it. and the key was free -- they copy one key free with any purchase over some small amount ($5?)

are you trying to boast about actually getting mail delivered to your mailbox at your building? :twisted: b/c that's what i call lucky!

hee, hee. don't worry; they still don't actually bring packages or anything, and the P.O. is still (racist-ly?) mean to me in person. (thank god for haleijah!)

apollonia666 · June 2007

Brooklyn Gardener wrote: "An electrical fire that destroyed the store"? A hardware store that has an electrical fire? Who ever heard of that?

Everyone said that it was firebombed. That has been the word for years and years. You want to re-write history?

Um, pretty much any place that has electricity can have an electrical fire. Shockingly (yuk, yuk), that generally includes hardware stores.

And I'm not quite sure why you're taking what sounds to me like a long-time rumor as the gospel truth. Unless you have confirmation of some sort that it was indeed a firebombing, I don't see why we shouldn't find ddd's explanation credible -- at least he has some direct knowledge about the situation.

Forever horrible Mayday Hardware has gone seriously worst

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories