My dad loves this place, and it reminds me of my childhood, which is peculiar since I didn't grow…read moreup in Indiana and had no contact with Mennonites until I lived in Indiana as a grad student in 2001.
I'm one of those dorks who adds goofs to IMDB. Most people add continuity issues, and I do too, but one of my IMDB-goof specialties is anachronisms. I just have an eye (and ear?) and a memory for phrases, speech patterns, and especially objects that are out of place in films and TV series set before the present, especially in the 1980s. Why am I bringing this up in a review of a hardware store in Shipshewana, Indiana? Why, because this place just reminds me of perusing a huge hardware store with my dad when I was a little kid and we were looking for supplies to build a doghouse for Buster (RIP), whom we hadn't acquired from the Downey pound yet. And further, when I walk around these aisles in 2023, nothing would be totally and completely out of place from those hardware-store visits in 1985. That is, although I'm sure there are objects and tools available here that were invented and patented long after 1985, there's very little that stands out as from the 1990s or 2000s or 2010s or 2020s. How cool is that? It's downright comforting, I tell you.
Yes, the hardware is expensive. So what? Things used to be more expensive, relatively. And you know what? That was fine, because things being manufactured locally meant people had more money, because US manufacturing jobs used to pay well, so people could afford to buy well-made products at slightly higher prices, and doing so contributed to the local economy. All that cheapo crap you're buying from Walmart and Target just further enriches already obscenely wealthy people, and do you really need that many more T-shirts? Not that everything sold here is American made; but it does remind me of a much simpler and, yes, better time, at least economically.
The people who work here are very friendly, and the selection of everything is ridiculous, especially when you consider how much smaller than a typical Home Depot it is. If you need it for your yard, garage, or farm, they probably have it here. If my parents lived closer to Indiana, I can guarantee you my dad would have bought many more things from here than he has the three or four times we've visited.
If you ever find yourself in Northern Indiana with nothing to do, you should check out Yoder's Shipshewana Hardware, along with other businesses in the Yoder's empire (although Yoder is a fairly common surname among Anabaptists, so they might be owned by different Yoders, but those Yoders are all probably related not too far back).
