Returning Hardware in Romania

From Eric --

In Indiana land, when you have to get some hardware, you have three main choices. I don’t even need to mention them. (If you don’t know, volunteer to fix the sink the next times it leaks and you will easily find out the answer.) Today I went to take back some material that had been purchased for the puppet stage that needed to be returned. The name of the store here was OBI. It was a great store but a bit eerie. This store had one predominant color. Lowes is blue. Menards is green and red. And Home Depot is bright orange. OBI is all one bright color. One bright color. One color that pervades every cart, sign,
advertisement, clothing of the employees, and floor. Bright, ever-present orange.

The last time I returned something in the states, it was a rather quick, two minute, “sign here and we will return it to your credit card” transaction. Here it was a much longer process. Each item was checked and rechecked. Each item was hand written down on a paper with all the serial and skew numbers. Then, they called the manager of each department to come up to the return desk to approve the returns. Kind of a lengthy process. But the time was so worth it as I learned about how great it was to participate in this process today.

Following the fall of communism in 1989 here in Romania, home supply stores were not in existence. And they were not around for many years later. Here one could not just decide to do a home repair project on Saturday and go down to your local orange store and get what you need. You had to plan and wait and wait. Only recently had OBI, a German based store, come to Romania. And even more recently have they allowed you to return things for exchange or credit. Carolyn told us that 15 years ago when she came here it she needed a light bulb, you could go down to the local store and see if they had any light bulbs. If they did, then you had to test it in the store because you were not allowed to bring things back (even if they didn’t work).

So what seemed like a rather routine process today really was a great experience of a freedom that is new for Romanians and should always be cherished as a blessing for those of us in the states who can jump in the car and get or return whatever you need today at your local orange, red and green or blue store.