WC Winks Hardware

I don’t know what to say about this place; they are the ELVIS of hardware stores… not really a store though, more like a cathedral of hardware, parts and tools. I waste time calling, googling and whatever and I can’t believe I’m so dumb to blank out on these guys and not call them first. What’s wrong with me? In the past they have come through every time and the service and professionalism is way above that of Anton Chigurh. If I were dumb enough to contemplate marriage, these cats would all be welcome at the reception and I would be giving THEM gifts. And those angels at the register are lovely, magnetic beauties.

This place feels old school but in a good way. Take a ticket, wait for your number to come up, work with some incredibly knowledgeable folks, get your things and check out. Pretty simple! I came here to get hardware for our new kitchen cabinets and they have a great selection with great prices. The number system must really work for them because the whole checkout process utilized more current technology (i.e. iPads used to create specific barcodes for your order to simplify things for the cashier). Recommended to me by our contractor and he was right! Good people here.

Hand down favorite hardware store in Portland. Feels like an old fashioned store in the way you are treated and the store is laid out, and that’s a great thing. The place is put together with care. You might have to wait to have your number called for customer service in the back but they will help you get what you need out of their bulk containers, give it to you in a small paper bag, and print out a UPC on the spot for you to take to the front.

1^st Impression Review: Amazing.
I have never been to Winks due to their tight 5PM/​weekday hours. I work so my home projects are always weekend/​holidays. Anyhooooo… I found time to drop by Winks mid-​week to locate a replacement hinge for a kitchen cabinet. No small task that: the hinge fit a bi-​fold corner cabinet and needed a 130+ degree arc to work. And I didn’t want to re-​set everything so the hinge needed to fit the existing pockets and screw holes. I took my number at the counter, and was waited on promptly. The fellow knew, and exactly, where to get started. Back to the area behind the counter we go. It is truly impressive… just a maze of bins, esoteric hardware and God knows what. We stopped, he reaches up and explaining all the while pulls out a few hinges that might work. He compare, matches, etc… and settles on a hinge that should not only work, but work better than the original. He advises I buy a set to ensure they can be adjusted to operate in unison, shows me how the adjustments work, etc. etc. 20 minutes worth of great information and assistance. The hinges cost $ 14.00. I got everything I needed and wayyyy more.
By contrast: I bought the cabinets @ Home Depot so started the quest there. I spent 15 minutes looking for someone to help in the cabinet department. When I finally did they took one look at my hinge and sent me to hardware. There I wandered around and after 10 minutes located their cabinet hinges. The guy there knew nothing, and nothing appeared to visually match. So, back to cabinets, another 10 minutes waiting for the single guy back there to help someone. 10 minutes of him looking fruitlessly for the means of ordering replacement hinges, and finally the epic conclusion: 2 weeks, $ 10.00 each, + shipping and no certainty they’d work.
Please Winks: extend your hours!!! Then you get 5 stars!

I’m a professional designer, builder and woodworker, and I am picky. Over the years I’ve frequented Winks, the staff has impressed me time and time again with their knowledge and helpful attitudes without condescension toward customers that didn’t know what they’re looking for. This is an old school hardware store where they have just about everything hardware related.

Amazing selection, dedicated service, and jokers to boot. I could live here. Thank you for making life easier on us makers and doers.

Best hardware store, hands down. Friendly staff, lots of everything, and awesome location. Great for the DIYer, especially the more advanced folks. No weekend hours, but considering it’s location, that’s not an issue for me. This place will be seeing a lot of me

Easy parking, super helpful, had exactly what I needed. Pointed out the spring doorstop display to my daughter to keep her occupied while they got my screws. My go to place from now on

A great hardware store. A throwback to the days when people took care of each other and Customer Service was not yet dead in this country. Wonderful staff and great selection. My go-​to store when I need something, especially if it is a tad bit too unusual for one of the big Boxy type warehouses.

This is the best hardware store in Portland. Period.
This is an old school, walk past the front desk, you don’t ask them questions, take a number at the back counter, maybe wait a few minutes (maybe wait more), talk to one of their people at the back counter, type of hardware store.
Know what you want? Fine, they’ll get it for you. Need to trouble shoot a problem or figure something out, they’ll walk you through it. If they pull you back into their shelving stacks of fasteners to figure stuff out, it’s pretty awesome. Extremely knowledgeable staff, as friendly as a hardware store should be, just a good, old-​fashioned hardware store. Oh and they have a ton of stuff, I mean everything you would need from a hardware store. Fasteners are pretty cheap since they’re ordering in bulk. Very little of their stock is on the floor, fasteners really aren’t at all.
I really like this place.

Some of the best costumer service we have ever received. Quick and very suggestive.

As soon as you enter, walk straight forward towards the back and take a number. Winks is not only an excellent hardware store, but their EXTREMELY knowledgeable staff and old-​fashioned approach are the main perks of shopping here. Plus, most of what they sell isn’t out on the floor. Especially if you’re less-​experienced, like me, take advantage of the opportunity to pick the brain of someone who’s seen people through thousands of other projects!

As someone who is not particularly handy, this hardware store has been a godsend.
I love that they have screws and nails with different finishes on them, which was helpful when I was looking to match a brushed nickel clothing rack with exposed screws for my shop.
Another time when I was looking for some specific pieces needed to install an old chandelier, the guy behind the back counter spent 10 minutes with me making sure I had everything I needed.
They are closer to my house than Home Depot, I just wish they were open later!

Winks is by far the best hardware store in town. When you go in it is like fantasy land of yesteryear. Unlike most hardware stores where you are trying to find someone to help you out this is a place where you take a number and then you have an assigned shopper to help you take care of business. These people can help you match old hardware or measure the threads of a broken screw, the diameter, the link, match the finish define if it is metric or american standard so that when you take it home you know the new piece will fit into the old nut you already have. In my most recent hardware adventure I was purchasing a barn door track and hardware. Amazingly they had all the pieces in stock and were able to pull out two, yes two, 16′-0″ tracks for said doors. Unfortunately figuring out how to get them home in «Ye Old Lexus» was not an option. When I said, «I just needed to figure out how to get them home, Craig who was helping me, volunteered to deliver. I was blown away.. . He said it is no big deal we do all kinds of stuff to help people out. Although it was not a big deal to him it was a big deal to me and I am VERY VERY GRATEFUL! The reality is that he delivered them on site after work, on his own time, and even helped me carry them on site to where they needed to be. Again much appreciated since they are awkward and way about 40 lbs a piece. Suffice it to say I am a Winks customer for life and think Craig deserves a raise or at least a gold star on his name tag ‘er somethin’.

Amazing service! They seem to have everything as I found out today. I had cabinet hinges that the big box places didn’t even carry. They helped me find the part and I was able to fix each cabinet door for $ 4.70 each!

BUYER BEWARE!!! Their Return Policy Stinks.
I like supporting local businesses, but not all businesses are the same. Winks excels at having a lot of unique hardware and a fairly knowledgable staff… but you have to be careful. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Make sure that what you are buying is what you want and hope that it isn’t defective or the wrong size. This is the bad side of buying local when you have a problem.
I have spent a ton of money at Winks over the years, but will be quite reserved at what I choose from now on, sticking to the hard to find hardware I occasionally need.
I have bought dust masks over the years from different manufacturers, mostly 3M and never had a problem with them fitting. I was at Winks and decided to buy them there and found a 10 pack at $ 14 by FastCap. A few days later I opened the box and removed one of the items and it was way too tight. It left red marks on my face within a minute. I removed it and packed up it. So, I tried to exchange it with all of the original packaging and the receipt for something that would fit. To summarize, Winks basically said I couldn’t return it because I opened the package.
How do you know if something will fit if it is sealed and you have to try it on? For the price they charge for most things at Winks, you would expect a better return policy. They are quite expensive compared to other hardware stores.
As I said, BUYER BEWARE!!! Stick to screws and other hardware that you could care less if it fails at a few cents a pop, otherwise you’re likely to eat the cost.
Terrible policy.

Ive gone to Winks maybe 30 or 40 times over the years and this place blows other hardware stores out of the water for the most part.
If you have a project you are working on that is not simple and want to go somewhere and pick the brain of someone old and filled with a life time of knowledge then go to Winks if you want a toilet brush or some other dumb house hold crap then find the nearest is home depot.
They have a big back area and basement filled with good stuff. Stop in!

Yeah-​YAH, Bay-​bay!!! Can I just set up a cot and LIVE here?
Now THIS is the Hardware Store of my UTE!
All the little quarter sawn oak cabs with who knows WHAT inside of them???$$@@!!
You need a brass machine screw with a left-​hand FINE thread?
«AHHhh, HERE it is!!», will say your Magician-​like «Porter/​Guide» in a sweet as pie Aunt or Uncle voice, and sure enough, they have found it for you.
«We have it in ½, 5/​8s, ¾ on up to 2 inches… METRIC??? Let me take a look!!»
Nothing, I mean NOTHING shakes these folks and rarely do they have to shake their heads «NO!»
If you do NOT allow yourself an extra hour out of your life to browse EVERY aisle, its YOUR loss Dexter… I myself could have spent EASILY a few thousand dollars finishing off (and filling in) the last open space on my garage shelves and floor. If you ARE in a hurry, then scurry, and get a number at the Sales Counter, now, hurry up and look at all the stuff your gunna miss ‘cuz YOU gotta rush…
«Number 83!!!»
«SHIT!!! Can you take the NEXT guy? Here, here’s my number and I’ll take another!
You got #227??? Wanna trade for #83???» NOW go give the place a good looking over Pilgrim! Bring the kids so someday THEY will know of and MISS a place like «Winks»…
So fix that annoying loose handle on your Wife’s Grandmother’s sewing machine. She’ll love you for it, at least until the next credit card statement comes in… McGiver would go NUTZ here!!!

This is an old timey hardware store, with a deep selection of specialized items and a very knowledgeable staff. Very.
If you know what you need by name, they know where in the labyrinth in back of the counter to find it. If you can describe it or draw it they know the name. If you describe the problem you are trying to solve, they can suggest the items to do it.
Each employee carries a precision rule and caliper to measure the thing you are looking for, in their pocket protector! You can also bring an example and they can decode it to find more for you. I think most of the counter employees have worked there for over 20 years. That’s a good thing for you.
They are strong in every kind of industrial, commercial and homeowner fastener. If you are lucky they’ll bring you into the back, up and down isles of shelves packed with items. Who would have known these all existed?
When you come in, grab a number from the dispenser by the main counter in back. Busy times there may be a wait, but when you number is up (pay attention) you will get the best dedicated service in the world.

This place is totally rad. It’s a simple, old-​school, family-​owned (and staffed) place that has a terrific selection of hardware. This is not your average neighborhood store, it’s the place where, when your neighborhood store doesn’t have what you’re looking for, they send you.
I was in need some somewhat niche items, and they had exactly what I needed at a respectable price. The girls running the check out counter were talkative and helpful, and there were plenty of other staffers around to help me find what I was looking for.
What more can I say? Good selection, good prices, locally-​owned, friendly… the only downside is the location, but that’s mostly because of the cluster-​function created on Grand/​MLK by the Couch interchange construction, but once that’s done with, it’ll be all kosher.
Word.