While covering a completely unrelated story, this reporter came across a more compelling series of events. I live and work in Long Beach, Ca. I spend a lot of time working on things around the house. I often think that if I were not a caretaker I would probably be an interior designer or at least something like that. I enjoy working with my hands.



Because of my hobby, I tend to spend a lot of time in places like hardware stores. My favorite has always been Kings Harbor Hardware, right here in the south side of Long Beach. I visited it at least once a week for the last twenty years. I got to know the owner and most of the staff. They all knew me as Tibbs Gibson and each called me by name.

It was a decent sized store, that is until Home Depot moved into the neighborhood. Chris, the store owner took a big hit when that bahemouth of a store decided to take up residence in this part of town. Chris was forced to be very creative by holding special promotions in order to try and maintain their customer base. Many loyal fans of the local store stood by Chris and they only went to the larger competition when they absolutely had to.

I was one of those truly loyal fans.

One weekend I stopped by Chris's shop to buy some new door locks and I noticed that the store was holding some kind of Cleaning Solutions contest. Chris saw me in the small crowd and yelled Hey Tibbs, come on over here and take part in this contest! He informed me that he was conducting a test to determine which cleaning product for the bathroom would have the best results. I agreed to participate.

Chris gave a dozen or so regular customers three unmarked spray bottles of cleaner. Each was marked only with a Product A, Product B and Product C. Our job was to use each product over the next two weeks and to evaluate each one for their ability to clean and protect bathroom fixtures, glass and porcelin. Chris picked only responsible people. People he knew would actually use the products and provide him with their honest opinions. They also had to be available to return in two weeks and relay their results to the conclusion of the event.

Since each product was unmarked we had little to go on in trying to determine the brand name of each bottle. Product C seemed to smell familiar but as far as the other two, I didn't have a clue. When we finally got together on that final weekend I was surprised to see a small number of news reporters and cameras. As a credit to Chris's marketing skills, he had managed to blow up the event into something that was bigger than life. The cleaning segment was just a part of a bigger scheme. Due to my participation, I was obviously mostly interested in the cleaning products test.

As it turned out. Product B was the overriding favorite amongst those who participated. Product B was a cleaning solution called Repellent Wash by Tekon. The other two were from Simple Green and Clorox. It was kind of interesting that most of us selected the product that we knew the least about. I found out that you can get the Tekon line of products off their website at http://tekon.com or in a small number of local shops.

I found out later that Chris's plan was to show off to his audience that sometimes it's the small guy who is able to provide the better product or service. It was a dig at the huge Home Depot store down the street. I gained a new appreciation for the mentor of this small hardware location. I also found a new and better product to clean my bathroom. Funny how life works out sometimes.