Based on true stories of determination, diversity, and optimism in a world where the small independent shop is under attack by the multiples and questionable politics. Strippers, grippers, knickers, knockers, nippers, nipples, and ballcocks! You can buy anything in the local hardware shop—well almost. It’s the legendary Aladdin’s cave with fixes for everything from a leaking pipe, a shattered groin, a wobbly bladder (—er, that should be ladder) to a broken heart. And some remedies are not so easy to find, such as the cure for a case of the potentially lethal hardware man's embitterment disorder. But in the provincial town of Little Sniffingham, the predators are looming like scheming forces of evil, determined to pillage and plunder the town center, smashing shopkeepers aside in their wake. This book is one man’s memoir—a treasure trove of anecdotes, some tinged with humor, others with disappointment, some are downright bizarre—his guide to observing life from behind a shop counter, and told by the man himself.