Our Ace when we lived in Dana Point was not far from us. Spent 1000's of dollars in there for fasteners and other bits. They were fairly close to the harbor so they carried a lot of marine supplies, glass and window screen section, pretty much everything you could need except for lumber. What they weren't was cost effective or even competitive since the only competition were the big lumberyards for contractors that almost no homeowners used which were only open M-F anyway. Even then, there wasn't a lot of cross-over since the lumber yards didn't carry much in the way of hardware other than for builders.
The uproar and handwringing that went on including "sign this petition" to keep various closer cities from allowing them to build a Home Depot, Lowes, or similar when it looked like it could happen or would happen was fairly amusing. Ya'll had a 40 year run of having a lock on supply and charging "fuck you" prices for everything and now you're sniveling? And not just "fuck you" prices, ya'll got the "fuck you" prices for being in a coastal city, then "fuck you" prices for selling to the boaters 1/2 mile away in the harbor because there is no West Marine close enough yet, and then "fuck you" prices for being the only hardware store within 20 miles. Yeah, cry me a river.
They had what you needed most likely but you paid for that convenience.