Propane tank exchange services
During this past Labor Day weekend, I needed to get some propane for our gas grill. Normally I would just go down to Monnick Supply and refill my tank but they were closed due to the holiday. So I had resort to using the tank exchange.
Refilling propane is a much better value, not only is it cheaper but you actually get more propane. Thus prolonging the next trip to the store. The downside is that you have to go to specially stores that have the tanks. (Usually you find out that you need a tank at the worst possible time.)
Also, propane places will check your tank and can refuse service if it has expired. Whereas, in the tank exchange process, you'll never worry about old tanks. In Framingham, it cost $5 for the town to recycle old tanks.
So back to my experience on getting new propane. I stopped by Lowe's in Framingham thinking that they might have a tank exchange. Their website wasn't really clear if they had any services.
The garden cashier told me that they didn't have any propane tank exchange services. He then informed me of all the places that I could go; Home Depot in Natick, Stop and Shop in Framingham just to name a few. I asked him why they didn't and he told me because they were too close to the post office.
That kind of surprised me. I didn't know that the post office had that much control in what the store next to it could sell.
So there you go. If a Home Improvement store is next to a Post Office, you can bet that they won't have a propane tank exchange program.
I ended up getting my tank exchanged at the Home Depot in Natick. The whole process was very quick.