Have you ever considered it’s not the Home Depot itself, but the community you live in? The labor pool is apparently skewed such that those available/qualified as aisle monkeys at your local Home Depot are slack-jawed idiots.
Where I shop (Monrovia, CA) the Home Depot is large, well-organized, and the staff are helpful. And it’s open till midnite. (Before 9-11, it was open 24 hours!)
The lines are still a pain in the ass, though. But at least if my left-handed smoke bender doesn’t have a bar code attached, there’s a book in which the clerk may look up the price at each register.
And I’ve learned that regardless of the store, make sure your items have bar codes before you get in line at the checkout.
Now you want to bitch about lines, let’s talk Costco.