...this morning I had to go to two hardware stores before ending up at an automotive parts store where the 19-year old lady behind the counter had to actually put down her iPhone for a minute and look on her work computer to find a tin of general purpose grease on a back shelf. All shops together had summer bicycle chain grease, winter bicycle lock lubricant (sic), special bicycle ball-bearing grease (sic), €14 for a small pot, motorcycle chain grease: 4 varieties but no general purpose grease on display.
I had half a mind to ask if they could look on the computer for a litre of blinker fluid or summer de-icer. I bet they'd have checked.