On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 07:31:59PM +1000, John Smith wrote: > On 23 June 2010 19:04, ael <law_ence....@ntlworld.com> wrote: > > I have added a couple of Builders' Merchants recently, and tagged them > > as either hardware shops or DIY. Neither are really appropriate. > > > > A quick search on the wiki didn't turn anything up. Is there an existing > > tag? > > > > If not, is "building_supplies" more easily understood internationally than > > native english "builders_merchant" (modulo apostrophe/single/plural)? > > Sorry if I've misunderstood you, but hardware stores here sell > building supplies, they vary in size from a small store to massively > big warehouses. > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_store > > The only thing I see wrong with the shop=hardware page is it > explicitly states a small shop, but I disagree with that, they can be > quite large as well, even the image shown is for a big store, not a > small one.
I might be making too much of a distinction, but in the UK Builders' Merchants are a rather distinct entity. They typically are a large outdoor area storing bricks, tiles and much else with an associated building or buildings which can be quite small. However, the buildings can equally be large handling everything which cannot be kept outdoors. They target professional builders primarily with facilities for loading large trucks. They are not what is normally considered a "shop", at least in the UK. Mind you, their function is really the same as a shop but on a different scale, so as I say, I might be trying to draw too fine a distinction. The wikipedia page for hardware_store seems to describe something a little different: we have similar places in the UK that I would be happy to tag as DIY. To help draw a distinction, a Builders' Merchant would not normally provide shopping trollies, baskets, checkouts or anything beyond one bare desk where payment can be made. A DIY store would have all of these things and much more. ael _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
