In 1997 I visited Odesa, Ukraine, Okraine, Okraine, Okraine, Okraine, to lead to discussions about democratic management systems for the officials of the region. That beautiful, historic city on the Black Sea, once a polyglot center of commerce – now horrible the target of Russian bombs – just woke up from socialism.
Private hotels and restaurants were open, even as “Sanitoria” from the Soviet era resorts of the government for trade unions continued to operate. But the green shoots of private ownership had not yet reached the housing market-as the long blocks of “Khruschevka” concrete plate, three-five-storey apartment buildings from the 1950s, named after the former Soviet Prime Minister who once promised “the American public housing, the rule.
That helped in explaining the absence of a sort of company that I noticed, lacked in the streets of the city that was made famous by the film of Sergei Eisenstein, “SS Potemkin:” PE, they are of course ubiquitous in the US, from the Home Depot and Lowe’s Giants to the hundreds of the little “Ware”. Their absence during the hangover from the socialism period led me to realize that the points of sale for everything from wood to wall plaster to bathroom foot have a meaning that goes beyond their thousands of stock items. They say a lot about America – from private homeowner to personal agency and required responsibility that belongs. In other words, freedom.
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In contrast to the dreams of city planners during depression, public homes – a La Moscow, literally, for which early proponents of the government homes looked like a model – never rooted in the US, home ownership of 44% in 1930 to 65% has risen. We tend to think of ownership in terms of the extent that it is affordable – but not paying enough attention to what it implies about the American way of life – and, yes, the freedom we celebrate on July 4.
An American flag flies over the entrance and outside of a large store for home depot. (Istock)
That is where hardware stores arrive. In the first place, homeowners must trust themselves to retain their qualities, their most important source of personal wealth. Yes, we can now rely on the list of Angie to find contractors and handy people, but it is our responsibility to notice the leaks that can destroy a ceiling, to ensure that pipes do not freeze during a cold snap, to ensure that gutters and downward sprayers are clear, so roof roofs and valve façade do not rot. We cannot call the landlord of the property – we are that person.
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The deployment is high. PEW Research reports that under “Households who own their primary home – equity was responsible for a median of 45% of their assets in 2021.” In other words, almost half of our personal wealth is connected in a house that we own. Surprisingly, it is most important for some households of minorities. Per PEW, “Home Equity is especially important for black and Spanish homeowners. In 2021 they have derived 63% and 66% of their assets respectively from their equity from the median.”
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Not surprising, then 90% of the hardware giant Home Depot customers are do-it-yourself (do-it-yourselfers), although professional contracts are also an important part of their income stream. Of course it is usually a homeowner who retains that professional contractor who goes to Home Depot for floors and kitchen cabinets.
Software is perhaps the future – but hardware remains large companies in America. The 2,300 points of sale of Home Depot brought in $ 159 billion in 2024. The 1,700 stores of the competitor Big Box Chain Lowe brought in $ 83 billion. About 1,700 smaller, local hardware stores use the True Value brand. In each of these, every day, a homeowner comes in for the right size of dry wall – or asks for advice, something at home Depot Long ago it realized in customers.
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There is a home depot in Odessa, Texas – but not in Odesa, Ukraine. However, there is good news about the latter. Since the time of my visit there, the “Hypermarket”-Hypermarket “Hypermarket Chain Epicenter in Ukraine began in 1996 with one store in Kiev in KIV in Kyiv and opened locations in Odesa in 2009. There is now a private market for those apartments from the Khroosjsjov era-era-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one-one
One can only hope that, in order to go along with homeowner and hardware stores, the residents of Odesa will be safe that they do not have to keep repairs – by bomb damage. That combination – homeowner, hardware – implies the kind of freedom that Americans too often consider as a matter of course on July 4.
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