What I like to do is go to Home Depot, find the one guy who speaks English well and knows where stuff is, handcuff him to me until I find everything I need, then reread War & Peace or Les Miserables while I'm waiting to check out (good idea to not drink any water for 3 hours beforehand and also have had the preemptive enema so you don't lose your place in line), then ignore the idiot receipt-checker who saw me in line but thinks I stole it all or have a deal with the checker to not ring it all up. Then out to the truck (the one with all the dents just about the same height as the top of a cart) and see if I can get out of the lot with out some granny mowing me down.
Seriously, the neghborhood or even Ace franchise is the way to go. Amazing what they can pack in there. Plus since the people HELPING you are often the ones that put the stuff on the shelf, they actually know where it is. Even what it's for. How to use it, too.
Exceptions to the small-operator-is-better rule:
1. The guys in it to stroke their ego (place called "Ultimate Fly Shop" comes to mind), who know everthing (legends in their own mind), the ones who put down customers, probably learned customer skills running a few tables at the gun show.
2. The ones who are strictly in it for the money, drive some ostentatious foreign POS.
3.[rant] The ones who forgot CHINA IS THE ENEMY. I've looked in 4 neighborhood stores for a spatula made somewhere else.[/rant]
[red][size=4] P.R.K.