Consumer uses for UNC fasteners

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Does the average American consumer have any specific uses for UNC fasteners or do hardware stores sell them as a result of tradition and familiarity by customers? By specific uses I mean widely encountered situations with modern products - such as commonly encountered door knobs - rather than repairing a 1950s Chevy. I have been semi-reliably informed that metric fasteners are tricky to find in American hardware stores but are readily available from internet suppliers.

UNC and UNF fasteners have never been widely available in hardware stores in Britain although they were used in large quantities by the automotive and aircraft industries from the 1950s to the 1970s. Hardware stores moved almost directly from Whitworth and BA fasteners to metric fasteners. Many small independent hardware stores were still selling Whitworth fasteners well into the 1990s and BA fasteners are readily available from model making parts suppliers.

UNC fasteners are about as common as UNF or UNEF, here in the states. They're used in many different applications.

Finding metric fasteners isn't really that tricky to find. It mostly depends on where you go to find them. Whitworth and BA fasteners are pretty much internet only.

You missed my point. I'm not referring to the millions of fasteners used in the oil industry or machine tools for factories. The question is about consumer applications. Are there many situations where the average Joe specifically requires a UNC fastener or does he just need a nut and bolt combination of an approximate size for things like attaching shelves to brackets?

Certainly. A lot of home improvement situations require UNC fasteners. Suppose you want to mount a cabinet or shelf to a wall?

I know what you are getting at, but the average American doesn't want the hassle of substituting the wrong size metric hardware and having to make yet another drive out to the Big Box Home Improvement store to buy another set of hardware, or chance modifying what they have to take a different size screw. Buying stuff at Woolworths during lunch time disappeared in the States 30 years ago.

I wouldn't mind having a complete set of metric taps to complement my UNC/UNF/oddball set, but I doubt if I would really use it. I even have a bunch of small BA taps.

Modern consumer goods have a weird mix of metric and UNC hardware. If it is really cheap it probably has metric hardware. But, you wouldn't go to the hardware store to buy a replacement--you would call the number on the sheet of paper they supply for a free replacement, or bring it back to the store for a refund. Better stuff or consumer replaceable stuff like snowblower parts are all UNC. I've seen bolts with a combination of UNC/metric.