Also part of the reality is that that local hardware store you referred to is now a coin-op laundry, because the store that used to be in that location wasn’t able to compete on price alone. So even if Kilroy… er, Mr. Roboto’s IBM-brain chose to shop at the local hardware store, he’d be shit-outta-luck because not enough “pathetic little pussies” had bothered to shop there.
Face it; the mom and pop shop usually isn’t an option for long after one (or more) of the big boxes move in.
Just to be the annoying voice of dissenting opinion, I’ve never had anything but good experiences at my local Home Depot.
When I remodeled my kitchen, the plumbing manager literally walked around the store with me and put everything on my list into my cart, gave me advice on choosing different sink components, added stuff I’d forgotten (or didn’t know enough about) to list, showed me which parts of a complicated compression fitting to use and which to throw away, walked me through cutting my copper pipe so I could bring in a sample to make sure I bought the right size fittings and when I had come back for the third time to get help on grinding the edge of the cut pipes so the fittins would fit, called out after me as I walked away “I’ll be here until 10pm!”
When I tiled my countertop, I took the tiling class at Home Depot, which was tremendously helpful. The people in the tile section helped me pick the right tile adhesive and grout. When I overcut the tile around the sink hole, they steered me towards a pair of tile nippers and took me back to the scrap tile area and let me practice before I bought them so I’d know what I was doing when I got home.
When I bought my lawnmower, the guy who helped me showed me what would need to be assembled/adjusted when I got it out of the box at home. He got me a gas can, showed me where the oil would go, how to fill the gas tank and how to prime it. When I said I wanted to open a HD credit card to get the discount, he told me to go over to the service desk to apply, and while I was waiting, he’d find a cart and load the lawnmower up and bring it over to me.
I have never taken a load of stuff to my car at HD without someone in the parking lot offering to help me manhandle it into my car.
I don’t usually go to Lowe’s, but I’ve had similar experiences there. Maybe I’m just lucky, or something about me screams “helpless female”, but seriously…I have never had bad service at either of them where I live. Maybe y’all should move here.
No further comment to the OP, but once I was in HD and asked someone where something was. The employee started to point in the direction of the thing I wanted and then stopped, saying, “Oh, we’re not allowed to point.”
Mr. Blue Sky, I don’t know about Home Depot, but a friend of mine who used to work for Wal-Mart said that if a customer asked them where something was, they were forbidden to just point them in the right direction. Instead, they were supposed to lead them to whatever it was. Pointing was considered rude, and they could be disciplined for doing so…never point, always show.
I’m sure that’s true- When I worked at Wegmans in the pharmacy ,if someone came up asking where the metamucil was, we weren’t even allowed to say “Turn around- it’s right in front of you.” We had to come out from behind the counter, go directly to the item, show them where it was, and ask if there was anything else they needed help finding. Woe to the person who answered “aisle 4” to the question “where are the douchebags?”
I have to agree. As a female who doesn’t really like hardware stores very much, I’ve had nothing but courteous service at my Home Depot. I don’t buy a lot, mostly plant stuff, but, yeah, I get great service.
I did a stint (8 months) at H-D, between “real” jobs. I can tell you that 99% of the people who work there are kind and helpful…but the customers always amazed me. For example, in the garden shop, we sold everything you needed to make a patio (stone dust, gravel, sand, edgestones, flagstones, etc.) The company had free flyers, telling you exactly how much stuff to buy, for a given area. Yet, these dopes would come in, and expect YOU to design, plan, and order their materials for them? A sample conversation:
(Me) : Good afternoon, sir, can I help you?
(Clueless Idiot): I wanna build a path!
(Me): yes sir, how long and how wide? Do you want to use gravel, paving stones, or flagstones? Will you be building it yourself, or do wish us to arrange a contractor?
(CI): Jeez, I think its …wait a minute, maybe 20-30 feet long?
(Me): Well, why don’t you take a look at this flyer…see what dimensions you need, then decide what type of paving stones you want, and we’ll go to the order desk, and arrange shipment!
(CI): Wait a minute! How do I know what area I want?
(Me): Well, sir, you multiply the length of your path, times the width, including the edgestones.
(CI): How do I do that?
Well, I was under the impression that 3rd-grade math included multiplication!
It was even funnier in the electrical department…we had women coming in who wanted US to unstall a ceiling fixture, light switch etc. One woman wanted to install a gas stove herself-I told her to call a licensed plumber! She could have blown her house sky high!
Sadly, I am forced to admit that a lot of people arevery DANGEROUS with tools in hand!
I suppose I should qualify my rant by saying that has been my experience here in Southern MD. We patronized the HD in Orange Park, FL, both locations, and got good service. However, I’m whining about what I have to deal with now.
Yep, we scream for only the best but the final decision making element is often price.
Spend enough time at H-D and require anything more than find it your self and pay, and you too will see - actually as FairyChatMom proves, even a simple transaction can be a PITA at H-D
I would just like to say that the Home Depot that saved my ass on senior design is now a thing of the past. I go in at 3am with an idea of what I want, and the guy on duty says “maybe you’d be better off with a widget.” Sure enough the widget was better and cheaper.
A few weeks ago I went in and asked where the pulleys were. The answer?
A couple of years ago, I had to get a replacement dot matrix printer for work. You would have thought I’d wanted an abacus by the reaction of the Office Depot guy.
I live across the street from a Home Depot but it’s never been convenient. The only alternative in the area is another Home Depot down the highway, sadly. Every time I’ve had to ask for help finding something, they have flat-out lied to me about where it is. First two times I fell for it. The third time I asked the guy to walk me over to it when he told me where to find it. He walked two steps an then ran and hid when I wasn’t facing him.
I understand the argument that paying less sometimes means less attentive service, but no place should have employees that flat-out lie to customers just to distract them long enough so they can run and hide.
Sorry, but I have to confess to having a good laugh over this one. The visual is just perfect. Sometimes employees have just seen Clerks one-too many times.
Let’s simplify things further – the free market doesn’t guarantee jack shit, despite the insistence of free-market advocates that it does. Hoe Depot’s craptastic service is merely another example of this axiom.
What do you expect the free-market to do? Hardware and lumber is a great example of the free market working to give the American public what it wants, low prices. Depot and Lowes both have a lower cost structure than local hardware stores, pass that lower cost to their customers, and have dominated the market.
In an rjung-market would people who want lower prices (the majority of the populace) be forced to buy at higher prices from local stores who provide personal service they don’t want? Yeah… that sounds like a really good way to run an economy. :rolleyes:
Want a free market guarantee? If you can sell the same thing for less, you will dominate.
Well, they make their employees take a drug test pre-employment. I guess they figure if you can pass an initial drug test, you’ll never use them again? (I never understood that logic to begin with.) I was going to apply at both places for a PT job because I wanted to work in the garden dept, but I found on the application they require drug testing so I didn’t. Not that I use drugs, but unless you’re actually driving the heavy machinery it’s none of their business. Not going through a humiliating pee test for the honour of getting a McJob. So I got a job elsewhere.
I needed some razor blades one time, and went to Home Depot. We literally spent about twenty minutes wandering the store trying to find them before we found an employee to help us. They were in with the painting stuff. Given that I use razor blades for all kinds of tasks, I figured they HAD to be somewhere in the general hardware stuff. It just seems like such a basic thing…
I’ve had plenty of incidents of service that pissed me off at Loew’s. Last time I was there, I was looking through the houseplants, and one of the managers came up and started asking me about everything I was looking at. Then asking me what kind of plant I wanted, etc. I made it clear to him I didn’t need any help (and the guy I was there with shrugged him off) but the guy just wouldn’t shut up. I ended up just taking the plant I’d picked out before the guy showed up and leaving, even though I needed a couple more. I’ll never understand why bored store employees think it’s OK to harass customers for fun, when they clearly want to be left alone.
I go to Home Depot most of the time because they have nicer plants than the Loew’s near me, but from my experiences they both suck equally bad. Fortunately most times the only help I need is someone to ring me out, and the self-checkouts are usually good enough for that.
