I have noticed a big difference in the offerings at Swedish hardware stores; they are incredibly poor today. A lot of items are special order only, and there's not much of a selection either. It makes you wonder why that is.
I currently live in the French countryside. The nearest town has a population of 30,000, the same as Visby or Motala, for example. Here, you can find everything you need and more at hardware stores. All the electrical and plumbing materials you can think of are available, the machine department has all the brands and models available, and everything is in stock on the shelves. If something happens to be out of stock, it will be there the next day, and the prices are much lower. I asked when I was there last if there was anything they didn't have in stock. They answered no, we have everything. Then I pointed to a 10x5 meter plastic pool that was outside and asked if they had more of those in stock. The answer I got was that they have 3 of them in stock right now
I currently live in the French countryside. The nearest town has a population of 30,000, the same as Visby or Motala, for example. Here, you can find everything you need and more at hardware stores. All the electrical and plumbing materials you can think of are available, the machine department has all the brands and models available, and everything is in stock on the shelves. If something happens to be out of stock, it will be there the next day, and the prices are much lower. I asked when I was there last if there was anything they didn't have in stock. They answered no, we have everything. Then I pointed to a 10x5 meter plastic pool that was outside and asked if they had more of those in stock. The answer I got was that they have 3 of them in stock right now
Reminds me of summer 2018, fans+portable ACs were out of stock throughout the whole country, couldn’t get new ones for months according to all stores! I ordered a portable AC from Germany myself, had it at home after a week... seems like slow supply chains often.