Tags Ace Hardware

Tags used to be my go-​to place. But since the store was sold, I notice a big difference. They no longer have as many sales associates on the floor, and the recent hires aren’t very knowledgeable about their merchandise.
I went there yesterday to buy some stackable shelves. I asked the sales associate where I could find them. She maintained they didn’t have any. Instead, she tried to steer me towards the screw-​in kind which was more than I needed. After looking around for a few moments, I found exactly what I was looking for. Hmm.
Then, when I went to to the register, the young woman seemed totally flustered by a simple request. All in all, it a very unsatisfying experience. Sorry, Tags, I really miss you.

As many of the reviews of this Tag’s indicate, this store used to be a place that was worth going even though they had higher prices. They had excellent customer service, were wonderful members of the community and have a very convenient location. I’ve been a customer of Tags Ace in Porter Square ever since I moved here 5 years ago. I probably should have written a review back then to thank them for their help and kind service on a number of repairs I’ve done to apartments I’ve lived in.
As you might be able to tell, things have changed. Sometime recently they have undergone a change in ownership and the Tag’s that was once so kind, caring and giving has changed in a number of small but significant ways. I’ve noticed a slow exodus of some of the best staff members of the store and most recently I was stung by an absolutely unacceptable experience for a community store.
I have run the Somerville Birdhouse Project for a number of years and every year Tags has graciously donated the service of a couple ladders for a few hours on a Saturday morning so that we could hang community made birdhouses from Girl Scout troops, school-​kids and community members in Davis and Union Squares. This year when I went by Tags to alert them of our upcoming project and request the use of their ladders for a few hours, I was met by a staff member who was befuddled at the request. He indicated that what Tags has done in the past is no longer how Tag’s necessarily operates and told me how they have new ownership. He then told me he’d consult the owners and get back to me on Monday (it was a Saturday). On Wednesday of the next week, after not hearing back, I called again to the store and spoke to a different manager who understood the request well and said that he saw no problem with the request. He then told me he’d pass the message to ownership and make sure the ladders were available on Saturday for our project. He said that if there was any problem at all with the request (which he reassured, should not be so) that he would call and alert me.
On Saturday morning when we came by Tag’s to pick up a couple ladders for a couple hours, the store was flummoxed at the request and refused to help out the project or honor their employee’s word to donate ladders. This was a pretty significant loss to the project and fortunately we were able to adjust to it, but what it did indicate pretty clearly is that we’ve lost a gem of a store in the community — one that cared about the community in which it resided. Now I am happy to alert all of my friends and community members to go back to the chain stores with better prices and similar service.
Sad to lose a great store in the community.

These guys have been around for a long time. The place is a little dishevled and reminiscent of a rural hadware store. They have a pretty good selection of the sort of things renters tend to need. The staff is courteous and helpful.

Tags is such a great store! The selection of home goods for kitchen/​bath etc. is fantastic.
I am an avid baker and continuously find usual tools in their inventory. The hardware department is fantastic too. They have great customer service. I am so glad that they are always accommodating and available to answer my questions!

poor customer service. poor selection. avoid this place. go somewhere else if you need hardware supplies. this is a generic Walmart.

A+ stellar service. For reasons I won’t mention we were at a certain big box store and Tags in the same day and I can’t measure the gap between service in both places. Seriously, these guys deserve your hardware store business!

Thank you to the wonderful staff at Tags! As usual… They go beyond the call of duty all the time, and today! Manager Jennifer is awesome! She has helped us out so many times, trying to seek merchandise difficult to find, helping to organize deliveries to our home, etc, etc. What more can anyone ask for?!
The products are SO great. They always have the latest trends in each department. I just love this hardware store. Some people think it’s pricey, but I have purchased something at Tags, come home to look online, and realized the prices can be much cheaper at Tags!
Eat fresh pop corn on weekends, or just enjoy the aroma.
Go here, and you are well taken care of!

I’ve been a longtime area customer, though the prices are higher, for the sake of convenience and because of the feel of a small business this has. Well, turns out the small business feel is only a feel and not in execution. Tonight, I called before their closing time to ask to hold an emergency toilet plunger for me at the register and got there 8:02, 2 minutes after they officially closed. The guy who took my call was apologetic and understood but the folks who manage the business would not let me in, several people filing past me as I stood there with a 10 year old in tow. I really liked the small business feel of this place but something called customer service and common courtesy that marks a great small business is missing. Sorry I’m not going to be using this business any longer.

Oh tags, let me count the ways I love thee.
1. Free popcorn
2. mostly helpful staff (not register staff though, they are kind of oblivious)
3. good selection
4. did I mention the free popcorn?
Yeah its a little more expensive than amazon but you gotta love that local hardware shop smell. (wait… is that the popcorn again?)

WHOA. This is a hardware store? I like. Customer service? Not so much. Nevertheless, I’ll be back!

I never thought I’d come to love a hardware store so much. Tags is one of the best parts of living in Porter. Amazing selection! All high quality stuff. They have everything… literally, everything. Home improvement tools/​kitchen appliances/​room decorations/​ETC.

For a long time I thought this was just a store for tools and building supplies. Not so! The main floor is full of every kitchen tool and gadget your heart might desire — great for we home chefs, aspiring or otherwise. Good for bathroom supplies too. Think Bed Bath and Beyond, only locally owned (Ace is a coop of independent stores, not a chain) and more finely curated.

I’m probably the last person who should be impressed by a hardware store, let alone enjoy shopping in one, but this place is awesome, especially the first floor. Maybe that’s because the first floor is actually more akin to Bed Bath and Beyond than a hardware store. They carry really nice (though sometimes pricey) housewares: cookware, kitchen utensils, bathroom stuff, home storage, and dishes. More traditional hardware-​store fare is downstairs. I always find what I’m looking for here (and often end up leaving with 1 – 2 things I didn’t plan to buy).
The staff are extremely helpful – almost a bit much at times. You are guaranteed to have at least one person ask you if you need help while you are shopping here. Ordinarily I don’t like being barraged by salespeople, but the people that work here are so gosh darn nice that I don’t mind. They seem genuinely interested in helping out, and when you actually do need help with something they’re extremely knowledgeable.
Bonus: they have a student discount!

A mighty fine hardware, kitchenware and bathroom supply store. And it’s right across the street from the Porter Square T stop. I don’t think I’d recommend another shop to anyone living in Somerville. This is THE place.

As someone else wrote, Porter Square is SO lucky to have Tags/​Ace Hardware. It is a great store and has most everything you need and anything they don’t (which you can find on the online Ace Hardware website) you can order and it will arrive in 2 days. The staff are helpful. Only downside is closing at 8pm. they should be open 2 more hours, but I will still give 5 stars!
If you are cold in winter and you do not wish to remove your air conditioners or compact window fans, cover your windows with a .5 mil, 1 mil or 2 mil thick «Plastic Drop Cloth» (clear plastic tarping) using duct tape or packing tape around the outer edge of the window indention, and get a space heater (convectional or directional) from companies like Lasko.

Extremely rude customer service. Don’t bother getting «Ship to store» orders here from
if you don’t want an eye roll and a «talking to». Mollie, an employee at Tags, basically guilt tripped me for placing a «ship to store» order to be picked up at Tags. She told me that I «wasted my time» and that «the store didn’t get any money» if I had a ship to store order, and basically made me feel like I was a bad customer for doing something that Tags’ parent company, Ace Hardware, offered as a service on their website. I go to Tags pretty often (I live in the area) and after this I don’t think I’ll be shopping at their store anytime soon if this is how they treat customers. Perhaps they should give their employees a training in good customer service and teach them not to sigh and roll their eyes every time a customer tries to buy something!

I don’t think this Ace Hardware store is really so qualitatively different from other Ace Hardware stores I’ve been to. It’s certainly a higher-​end Ace. But it’s very much of a piece with the Ace brand in general. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been to an Ace that didn’t have housewares, kitchenware, and bath accessories.
What’s the biggest standout for me is the fact that this is the best hardware store in the general vicinity. The employees are helpful and knowledgable. The cashiers are nice. The clerks are nice.
The only problem I’ve had here is a 50% failure rate on the keys I’ve had made.

I went here about 10 times the week I moved into an apartment in Porter.
All the employees were helpful and they had everything we needed (paint, brushes, mailbox key/​lock, hangers, spare key for the apartment, etc.)
I’m sure it’s more expensive than going to Wal-​mart, but if you don’t have a car it’s more than worth it.
And they were giving out free popcorn and always have free suckers;)

Surprisingly cool shit… for a hardware store.
But, I wasn’t here for home improvement necessities. I was here because I saw a gigantic «we sell Timbuk2 bags» poster in the window. Medium-​sized selection of messenger bags, backpacks, wallets, & those plastic flexerito thingys (timbuk2 enthusiasts, you feel me on this, right?)
I picked up a «catapult”– a small messenger bag-​type that you sling across your back as you ride your bike. Seeing as how I don’t messenger & I don’t bike, this well-​padded accessory will be used to hold my iPhone, lipstick, wallet, & tiny moleskin notebook. (It’ll be our little secret, but I’m considering wearing it to the side like a fanny pack; it didn’t look completely ridiculous… I think…) With my school ID, it came out about $ 3 cheaper than on Timbuk2’s website.
Love the colorful housewear – reminds me of Pier 1.

A decently stocked hardware store that nonetheless has a few kinks in its garden hose.
The top level of Tags is more of a HomeGoods type place, with pepper mills, bric-​à-​brac, brass clocks, earthenware crocks, picture frames and all manner of other knick-​knackery. OK as far as it goes, but I need a bunch of washers, a friction wrench and some CLR.
Downstairs we go.
A more typical den of home improvementery, the downstairs hardware warren is tightly laid out and well stocked, though they seem to be out of just what I need every time I go there. (Though this is a very personal reflection, it’s happened enough times that I feel it warrants a mention). My only real complaint is that on the bottom floor, unlike the top, they do not seem to have associates in any great supply eager to help you.
I stood on the floor for fifteen minutes, while not one, but two staff members alertly helped an attractive woman with a totally banal plumbing question (which ended up being a more extensive plumbing lesson) while I stood there with my thumbs in my nose waiting to ask whether they had any more CLR in stock. (They were out of it on the shelf). I mean, I get that not every day a hot chick comes into your store, but that’s no reason to duplicate the opening scene of Extract.
This isn’t a one-​off, either. On several occasions I’ve been ignored by multiple staff members before I finally found one willing to help me out.
Anyway, they’ll probably have what you need, and they’ll probably help you find it. Just don’t be in a hurry.
Pro tip: Try going in on a Saturday morning, and avoid the 5:30 — 7:30 pm M-​F time slot — everyone and their hipster cousin is going there after they get off the T.