Metropolitan Lumber & Hardware

They are always late with delivery dead lines. Never persistent. The sales rep’s aren’t so helpful. They say they have the lowest prices, but are far from that.

Prices not for the average consumer, staff not very helpful unless you’re a contractor making bigger purchases.
No prices marked on any merchandise — when you get to the register, prices are sometimes 50%-200% more than what you’d pay at Home Depot. I think they jack up the prices because contractors mostly shop here. When I went in to purchase a 25 ft garden hose (the ones that you can get on Amazon for $ 17, or Home depot sells them for $ 20), they wanted $ 40! The person behind the register just shrugged when I said I can get it for half price online.
A Dremel drill kit cost $ 80 — the same one could be had at Home Depot or Amazon for $ 56.
I wouldn’t shop here unless it’s absolutely necessary.

This store is a public menace. They leave the fork lift on the sidewalk and my husband tripped today. When I called the store and spoke to Ken he played the «this is the first i’m hearing of this» defense. No one on their staff was able to apologize or provide reasonable answers or customer service. Horrible. A neighborhood hardware store isn’t supposed to be WORSE that the big boxes. I take silent solace that Home Depot or Lowe’s will one day put them out of business. Justice will be served. Karma is the ultimate b-​i-​t-​c-​h.

I will give this place credit for consistency, they consistently hire miserable self hating people whose goal in life is to take their anger out on the rest of the world. Maybe management should put prozac in the water coolers and give everyone a break. Perhaps the problem is that management mistreats their employees and locks them up in the basement when they are done with their 20 hour shifts and gives them protein paste to eat (ground cockroaches) while they sleep on their horse hair beds. This still would not justify the way these assholes behave.
Try Prince lumber or Lumber Boys or City Lumber or Midtown Lumber or the Home Depot or anyplace else.

This place was a lifesaver for me. That being said, I don’t think the impressions everyone has on here were wrong at all. If you’re in the market for exceedingly gracious customer service this is probably not the place for you. But if you’re looking for knowledgeable people who can help you and you’re willing to play by their rules, it’s a godsend. At least it was for me.
After a failed trip to a Manhattan Home Depot, where they didn’t carry full sized sheet rock, much less more specialized materials like mass-​loaded vinyl, I decided to give these guys a try. I decided they were worth a shot based on another reviewer who pointed out that this place caters to commercial contractors so doesn’t necessarily have much incentive to placate naïve DIYers, but does have the knowledge and stock to help you if you come in knowing what you need.
I therefore researched the hell out of what I wanted and swaggered in there ready to give my best impression of being in-​the-​know. I didn’t fool anyone. The unimpressed guy behind the counter immediately convinced me that mass loaded vinyl was going to be a very expensive way of not meeting my needs. But he then gave me some pointers on what would work (sound board, at less than 20% the price) and directed me to head across the street to get it cut to size, since I would otherwise be working with a handsaw at home.
Long story short, I think if you come in here with a reasonably solid initial idea of what you want, take it upon yourself to approach someone for advice, and then are open to and appreciative of what they have to tell you (even if it doesn’t come packaged in conventional customer service obsequiousness) these guys have stuff to offer that other manhattan hardware stores don’t.
That being said, I will warn the women out there that some of the male employees will definitely let you know that they’ve noticed your gender. This was never in an intentionally rude way, rather in that meant-​to-​be-​complimentary-​way that is a mix of chivalrous and condescending. I didn’t personally take offense at it as it seemed well-​intentioned and frankly in this situation I clearly was out of my league, so the condescension was merited on a knowledge-​basis (though not of course a gender one). For me this didn’t stop my appreciation of the help I received, but you do probably want to be prepared.

Worst hardware store I have ever been in. Rude idiotic employees. Completely disorganized. Never again.

So this place isn’t for everyone!!! It is not a DIY, home crafters, warm and fuzzy customer service mecca… They typically deal with contractors and constructions crews. If you know what you are talking about they will give you a little respect. I find amazing things here that you can’t find anywhere else. You just have to know what you are looking for, and be willing to wait to get a price on it. They tend to be higher on most things, but for something that you can’t get elsewhere, or just to see what is out there, I recommend this place. As an artist and designer, it is a great resource for industrial fittings, connectors, and raw materials.

I am in NYC renovating my apt. in Hell’s Kitchen and had to go to a lumber store. Just left the Metropolitan Lumber and Hardware after buying two shelves, blue painter’s tape, and some drop cloth poly, …and to this point… still thinking that this store must have very high employees’ theft. The guy who sold me the stuff pulled me on the side, literally in the room full of copper plumbing stuff and said: «give $ 20 and I will give everything you buy for free». I was shocked at the least and said: oh no, dont worry about it and tapped his shourlder. He said, «sure?». I said sure and I went back to the cashier area with him and he scanned the stuff. I paid the stuff full in cash with the woman cashier, and got back to the guy to claim my stuff. What a weird day!

Awful. Can’t believe they are still in business! All of the staff is busy talking with each other or looking at the cell phones. None of the items have prices!!! YOu have to take each item up to the counter to get a price – wtf?
Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.
I want to give the non-​home depots a chance, but this place is not even trying.
Read the other reviews they are spot on.

Customer service skills zero! I found this vendor as a distributor of the Quiet Rock product. Not knowing much about it, I called for information. I was directed to Milton (major attitude from the start) who sent me back to YouTube to look at videos to learn more about the product. Cool, no problem. I watched the videos and was ready to order the product.
I call back the following week to make an order and this guy talks so nasty and is so short with me as I am giving him the order that I had ask what the hell is his problem? I am a customer and did he really want to take an order from me? He said no and don’t call there anymore! LOL!
Does he really think he was hurting me? Business must be very good at Metropolitan when you can choose whose green money you take! I wonder if the Manufacturer knows that this distributor refuses to sell their product?!

Absolutely terrible customer service. I have been to this location at least 10 times in the past year because they are the only hardware store near my studio, and every single time I have been sold the wrong item. The salesmen have almost zero knowledge about the materials and tools they are selling you. Even if you come in with a full understanding of what you want/​need, and ask for it, they will give you the wrong thing. You have to triple check on every single detail, from whether or not they gave you the right price, to if it is even the right item. It is insanely frustrating, especially when it comes to purchasing lumber or sheetrock.

Their website says, «Never Be Afraid of a Do-​It-​Yourself Project. We’re Here to Help!» I can’t imagine anything being farther from the truth. The employees don’t want you to buy anything. They don’t want to talk to you. They don’t want to do anything that will distract them from listening to the radio or ogling the pinups they proudly display around the checkout.
The only positive thing I can say about this place is that they carry some specialty products you can’t find at Home Depot in the city or even Lowes in New Jersey. If you want to find that product, get any information on it, or actually purchase it, good luck.
While I sincerely hope this review discourages others from setting foot in the store, I know it will do nothing to improve the store itself. Judging by the dot matrix printers and 1980s CRTs these guys use, they surely have no idea how to find Unilocal

They are simply HORRIBLE. I was looking for a couple of shelves. Walked in and asked the guy at the counter where I could find them. He told me to ask the sales associate who was vacuuming the floor. I found the shelves but there was no label with the dimensions and I did not have a tape measure. I politely asked the guy with the vacuum cleaner if he happened to know the dimensions of the shelves. He said: «How do I know? You made me stop vacuuming and now I have to look.»
Zero manners. Zero service. HORRIBLE.

I would give 0 stars if I could. This place has workers withnthe worst attitude that don’t want to help and pass you off to other workers. If u can get a workers attention they I’ll tell u the are busy and can’t help… WTF? Not only is the service bad but these guys are bad neighbors and typically double park their trucks on both sides of 11^th avenue causing near traffic accidents and blocking traffic leading to the Lincoln tunnel. F*Ck u metropolitan lumber.
Ignore Joelle B’s review of this place. She has a total of 2 reviews on Unilocal and they were both positive about 2 locations of Metropolitan Lumber.

Definitely not a big box hardware store. The aisles are narrow and dirty, just like they should be, there’s a huge selection, and people are around to help. Unfortunately, these people are not very helpful. Even if there are 5 people within your sight, you will actually have to shout to get one’s attention. When you do, they will just tell you to be quick because they’re closing in an hour and a half. Um, yeah, ok…
I came for baseboard molding and a big piece of cut plywood and bought neither. The molding had to be cut to size (obviously) and the guys stop cutting whenever they feel like it (in this case, 3pm). And the plywood was stupid expensive. No thanks.
However, I’m glad Met is here. If I can wake up earlier, I can get some molding cut, and I can also get all the hardware stuff I need without setting foot into the Big Box Hardware Store From Hell.

This store sucks — totally. Insulting, rude, fat assed, tired old relics at the counters that only want to see how rudely they can treat people. I am a small landlord in midtown Manhattan and own a 4 story building. I live on two floors and the other two floors each have two apartments. I have wonderful tenants and really like to make their apartments pleasant places. I went into Metropolitan Lumber today with the intention of ordering new kitchen cabinet doors for the rental apartments since I just bought and installed new dishwashers in all the units.
The area where the cabinetry is on display had this old turd behind the desk reading a comic book. He wouldn’t even let me finish asking a question before he condescendingly remarked «Oh, we don’t have anything like that here». (Mind you, I walked past a moderate display of cabinet doors in my way to the counter.) On my way out I walked past at least 6 equally scummy looking guys standing around in the check out area. This is a BIG store, and I was the only customer (which told me something).
I left the store and drove to the Home Depot at 3^rd avenue and 58^th Street. In short, they are coming on Monday to take measurements and begin the makeover for my rental units. This will be close to a 6 thousand dollar sale for them, and I also bought new faucets for all 4 units which I will install. When Metropolitan Lumber goes belly up I will be standing outside laughing my ass off. What a riot to think of those assholes trying to get a job in the real world. I would much rather have given my business to a neighborhood store, but thanks to these chimps that was impossible.

Yes it takes some getting used to but there are lots of people to help and you can get wood cut to order across the street in the yard. This is a very old school way of doing business. I went two days in a row and was very glad to have the trained help that is lacking at homedepot and to not have to trek across town for a box of nails. If you go to the yard look for the rats… they run the place.

Decent selection of wood and tools but is typical store crammed floor to ceiling down narrow rows. Also, if you like being treated like an idiot, this is the place for you. Employees tend to act like everything they do is a chore and take a number to get help. I will go here if I absolutely have to.