OPEN still March 20 2026 and being run by new management and same staff…read more Ace manager runs this Dale store. Very friendly service, great selection. Highly recommend. It is not closed that is a mistake.

This place is my joie de vivre. I even have the sweater…read more The plant section is a Union City oasis. A slice of Eden. I love getting my perennial flowers here, lots of rare stuff that you can't find at most nurseries. I got my jasmine, fuschia, lavender, salvia, petunias, nemesia, zinnias, and cosmos here. They have lots of unusual colors. Tomatoes are $3 most of the time. Strawberries come in a prolific 6 pack. Thai chili and basil can be found here too, as well as okra and other harder to find veggies. Seed selection is the best. This was my year for planting from seed and the basil seeds I got from dales produced spicy sprouts that are so much more fragrant than that at the grocery store. Staff is welcoming and extremely chill as I tend to browse here for hours! Price point is lower than most specialty nurseries while providing a world class selection.

Great staff, and they always have what I need. Their fastener selection has served me well…read more One note: working people with 9-5 jobs like to shop after they get home from work. It's 6:22 PM, and I'm headed to a store that's open...

Just a shout out to Ace Hardware in Palo Alto…read more The service is outstanding. Everyone is sooo helpful and nice. The store is always clean. I can most always find what I need when I go in. Of course the prices can be a bit more expensive, but I would rather shop local than big box!

What a gem of a hardware store! Very friendly and helpful customer service. They had exactly what…read morewe needed and even met us behind the store to directly load the 100 pounds of cement we needed. Since 1983!

Avoid: Smug, rude employees that thought it was funny to play games and abuse an elderly person by…read moresaying she could use their bathroom, getting her to come back in the store; only to reject her causing her to have an accident. They lost a $450 sale from me today, and I will never return. Hopefully all of my neighbors will do the same. It's sad when I need to take my business away from a small business owner to a corporate chain that would never treat their customer in this manner.

I decided to go to Pete's Ace Hardware after finding no help at my local Lowes. I needed a cabinet…read moredoor hinge replacement. The staff at Lowes said he was only doing stocking and I should pick out possible replacements and if it does not work, return for refund. His and my incompetence was at the same level. An entirely different experience at Pete's. Within seconds after entering the store, a staff member asked if he could help me. I showed him item I needed and he found the exact model needed and asked another associate to confirm it. Never get this type of service at a Big Box store.

If there's a place that I would rate for customer service satisfaction, it is this place!Staff are…read moreso friendly and helpful.I will assure you, you will never leave the store without anyone asking you ,if you need help! Love this store!!

Such a great hardware store, my local go-to, friendly knowledgeable staff. Unfortunately they are…read moreclosing up shop in the summer of 2026 and I'll miss them. Patronize them while you can, they deserve it!

I see that it's going out of business and that's unfortunate for their local customers. However,…read moreI've never cared for this hardware store. Of the few times I've went, what I was looking for was never in stock. Help was ok. I left wondering how they stay in business and that was 7 years ago! It's interesting because I've always found True Value Hardware stores disappointing. Orchard Hardware (now Ace) is my go to favorite.

Awful place to go! Will never go again! Workers are not friendly or eager to help!…read more Called to get an items and the guy said it's available and we have it but 'I do t have time to get them for you to put on hold' , so I had to drive to the store! Parking is a nightmare! The guy i first saw told me to go to the front desk not welling to assist at all! Then the same guy was called to find the item but some one else from the store came and went to fetch! I thought why is this guy did not just help me at the first place? They have some kind of Command in line? The place had few workers but no one really care to assist me! I am trying to purchase an over $100 stuff and came few miles away to get it but they don't seem to care! Then the guy came back and told me they don't have what I want ! The online is wrong! I think he is just stupid and did not find it!!! Completely waste of my time! Not sure what is wrong with Menlo Park stores! I have repeat bad experiences in a month so I guess i will not return to this town to do any purchases! Where is the old fashion service?? It's gone !! Or maybe now a day ' service' is an unknown thing!!! I will just go to home depot or Amazon. Instead! Store like ace should review their service , if Amazon or home depot monopolised the market , this will be a good reason! I got better service at home depot cone to think of it!!!

I needed some flare fittings that are not commonly stocked at big box stores. Acehardware.com told…read moreme that Menlo Park Hardware had six of them in stock today so I put an order in for pick up to make sure I didn't have to dig through a disorganized rack for half an hour to find them when I got there. Less than 20 seconds after my order confirmation email I got an order cancellation email full of broken links to files on someone's hard drive. No explanation, just "Your order has been cancelled. Bye." I contacted customer service to see what the issue was and they gruffly told me that my payment was rejected and that I'd need to call my bank. I called Discover and they said no one had even attempted to charge my card for anything in the last 48 hours. Basically, Ace is full of it. McMaster-Carr overnighted the fittings to me for $13. Same card and everything. The next time you see some local hardware store owner crying on the news about how everyone shops at Amazon now try and remember it's likely because they stopped attempting to provide anything their customers needed a very long time ago. There's dozens of small-time hardware stores in San Rafael, none of them have the lowest prices on anything and all of them are packed with customers because they actually try.

I usually go here just to get the Dust Remover since it's the only location I can think of…read more I heard that they sell cheap tools, but it's a small place to go though. You can find at least some tools you need for repairs. People probably come here because they prefer getting cheaper tools compared to the ones from other stores. At least you're not in a big building constantly looking for supplies that you can't find.

We've had our fair share of home improvement stores and we're now seemingly leaning toward Harbor…read moreFreight for tools which is great to have options. L O C A T I O N Harbor Freight Tools is located in a plaza on the corner of Blacow & Mowry Ave. The parking lot is shared by a Indian grocery store and other establishments. It was a crazy experience when we were parking so proceed with caution. I N S I D E Everything is labelled well and what I do is look up what we want online picking the store we want to go to and it will state what aisle to look and if they have inventory at that store. Take this with a grain of salt. What I found with this particular Harbor Freight was that many shelves and areas were empty. So again proceed with caution. But it was all quite organized. S E R V I C E We were in need of a 5/8 deep socket and a socket wrench as well as a normal wrench. Luckily Harbor Freight comes to the rescue as we're not needing anything super fancy, just something that will do the job without breaking the bank. Luckily they had what we needed at this particular Harbor Freight. There was someone who was walking up and down the aisles asking if people needed help. He pointed us in the right area. Checking out was a bit long though as there was only one person initially and they were doing a return that seemed to be having some issues. But eventually the line was being handled a second person as they saw the line was growing exponentially. He seemed to be chugging away through the line after we paid. Glad they were there to help but it would've been nice to have a third person helping out. O V E R A L L This particular Harbor Freight seems to be quite popular that their stock seems to be out of a lot of things. Lines got pretty long but it was just chance. I recommend trying out Harbor Freight for any tools you may need that are good enough and doesn't have to be expensive and just works.

I had an absolutely amazing experience at this location thanks to Manager Dee! She went above and…read morebeyond to make sure the Christmas tree I purchased would fit in my car. She helped unload items from my trunk, removed the car seats, and carefully tried every possible way to get the tree inside. When it still wouldn't fit, she didn't hesitate--she immediately offered to look into getting it delivered to me. Her patience, kindness, and genuine willingness to help from start to finish truly stood out. Dee is an absolute gem and a perfect example of outstanding customer service. I'm so grateful for her help! Thank you Dee for all that you do!

I purchased a ready to go BBQ last weekend. The manager of the store, Chris, came out to help me…read moreload it. Unfortunately, many of the BBQs of the style I purchased were dirty and/or scratched/nicked. Chris went above and beyond to keep moving through all of the BBQs to ensure mine would be up to standard. He had another associate wipe it down before me as well! I was appreciative of his efforts to make sure I was satisfied with the purchase. Thank you!

I've been doing a massive remodel for my in law suite and I've had to make a whole bunch of trips…read moreto this hardware store for supplies at all times throughout the day. You can tell everyone is trying to make do with what ever staff they can have and even though they all seem to be wearing multiple hats everyone is so helpful and nice! They had pretty good stock, I was able to knock out almost everything on a whole list I was only really expecting to get some of which was super nice, and they all worked really well with each other when I needed an item that was locked up or making paint for me. Some items are only a little pricy, but very good quality so it's worth it if you have a flexible budget. Shout out to the evening staff thank you for always being so helpful!

I'm shopping around for indoor plants. A hobby I just started. The Lowe's off Brokaw didn't have as…read moremany plants as the Fremont location. The Fremont location have more plants to offer and the customer service was great. I was looking for a plastic draining pan and the staff were helpful in pointing it out to me. It's not outside or near the entrance which you would think. They have growth hormones which I plan to use when my plants have more roots growing out of their pots. There are plenty to look at. I took a lot of photos but not all because there were so many plants. The plants are displayed very well and organized. If you need work-life balance, taking care of a plant in the office and seeing it grow is rewarding and takes your mind off work. Plants aren't too expensive when you start out with easy ones to raise.

[[ Kids Workshop Review ]]…read more Every 1st Saturday (or sometimes even more), Home Depot offers a Kids Workshop for free to build something which they list on their website. For October 2025 it was the Haunted Candy Box. It was our first time doing it so I wanted to give a detailed review and some things I noticed when I went. 1.) Workshop location is OUTSIDE of home depot on the right hand side. I attached a picture to show the location. 2.) Although you have to register on the website beforehand, the event is relatively chaotic and they do not check. I think they get a set amount of kits and they just hand it out until they run out. 3.) When we arrived at 9am, the event wasn't set-up and a bunch of parents with their kids were watching the setup. I don't think they finished until maybe around 9:15am (setting up tables, getting the materials, kits, etc.) 4.) No Aprons available which was a huge bummer. Not sure why the didn't have any. Maybe Home Depot does not ship these aprons in advance and it's whatever is left-over from previous events. 5.) The Tables themselves are pretty tall and I think 3-5 year olds may be able to work on them a bit easier. If your kid is on the smaller side or younger, they may not be able to reach the table. I've seen other parents bring their own miniature table so their kid can work on the craft. 6.) Some parents just showed up and took kits to work on it at home which is not a bad idea in case you don't want to do it there. Overall, I think it's not too bad for a free event but I wish they were more prepared for it. One employee was also very rude at the event we went to and seem annoyed we were asking questions like "Where is the apron?" or "Do you have anymore hammers or screwdrivers?". She would just answer "No" and that was it. Ironically the younger employees were nicer and went to get more tools for us which made her interaction even worse.

Shout out to Aidan! I needed a voltage tester and multi…read moremeter that were locked up. Nobody in the aisles, so I asked Aidan at the pro desk / cust service if he could get someone to open up and get what needed. He paged, and nobody shows up. A few minutes later Aidan sees me still standing there and asks what i need. He opens up the cage and then cashiers me. It wasnt his job, but he solved my peoblem. Employees like Aidan are what fixes your bad customer service reputation.