Ace Hardware & the Case of the Missing Tape

So remember those speaker wires? They may be relatively cheap to replace, but the thing is: I didn’t want to have to re-run all that wire. Because as it is now, it’s run through a series of clamps nailed into the back of the entertainment center-thingy which keeps all my wires neatly organized, and then run under a couple of floor strips, underneath a couch, underneath another floor strip, then around & along a wall to the speakers. So I figured what the hey, I will probably need some butt connectors (stop laughing) in the future, and some electrical tape, so I went to Ace to get the stuff necessary to repair the wires.

I hear, after all, that Ace is the Place (since 1974).

First aisle I come across is the Tape. Figured I didn’t really care about the particular order of things I got, just so long as I got everything on my short little list (note: butt connectors [stop laughing], electrical wire, double-sided tape to reattach the floor strips to the, uh, floor). So yeah, Tape aisle, here I come.

I get there, I take a look around, I see… tape. All kinds of tape! Duct tape! Duck tape. Plastic tape! Masking tape. Cloth tape! Wood tape. Double-sided mounting tape, even! I see all kinds of tape! Except of course, for electrical tape. Can’t find it. Search high, search low, can’t find it. Oh well, I figure, I’ll probably find some with the electrical connectors. Which, I did.

But here’s the thing: They don’t put Electrical tape on the tape aisle, but all the other kinds of tape? What’s so special about electrical tape, then? I mean, if you can’t put it on the “tape” aisle because you say it belongs with the electrical stuff it’s going to accompany, then why have Duct tape on the tape aisle? Why not stock that with the ducts? And Masking tape? Why not with the… the… masks? Oh wait, it’s for painting, right? OK, then how about with the paint supplies then, instead of the tape aisle? My point being, there’s absolutely no reason they could give as to why the electrical tape doesn’t belong on the tape aisle that doesn’t also equally apply to every other kind of tape they have in stock, that they still see fit to give a facing to on the damned Tape Aisle. So why not put the electrical tape there, too?

Stupidity, I figure. That and just to piss me off, maybe.