For most of my jobs, the customer prefers to buy materials from the Depot. Cool with me, as they usually have the lowest prices.
So today, I am at the depot with a cart, as we call them, loaded with plywood, fencing, drywall mud etc a normal load.
So I go over to get some screws, and when I come back, some asshole has thrown all my shit on the floor so he can steal my cart. Empty carts were 30 fucking feet away.
It is not fun loading 4x8 3/4 t&g ply by yourself, or 60 pound buckets of mud.
Now, as I hope some contractor/tradesmen type dopers will attest, when one has a loaded cart full of lumber or whatever, and we leave it to go get hand carry type stuff like screws, nails whatnot, nobody fucks with it. It’s an honor system, but it works.
That guy needs to be beaten severely, preferably with something metal that has to do with doors. A big hinge, maybe. Or one of those things that connects to the ceiling and automatically yanks fire doors closed. Yeah. Those things are cool.
I had someone steal my cart full of stuff at Costco once. I had to walk all the way back to the front of the store, get a new cart, and retrace my steps reloading it. Sheesh!
Damn near same thing happened to me, at the exact same store, just this past weekend.
I got a milkshake on my way to The Depot. Brought it into the store to find a trash can. Grabbed a cart on my way in. Found trash can, walked five feet away from empty cart to toss in soggy cup of milkshake. Turned around to witness some Volvo-drivin’ soccer mom walking away with my cart. Had to go all the way back out to the parking lot to find another.
It happened once at Target during the Christmas Frenzy shopping season. Only that time the cart was fully loaded. Found it in the back corner of the store, my stuff still in it. Some jerk decided my cart was in their way and decided to relocate it for me.
This is why I NEVER leave my purse in the cart. Ever.
As I entered Menards last week, I had to walk around a woman standing just inside the outer door. I politely said “excuse me” as I passed her.
As I get inside, there is only one cart left after the two guys ahead of me take theirs. I am five feet from it when she runs to the railing and grabs it from the outside, saying “this cart is mine!”. I took it anyways, because I was only five feet from it! I got less than a foot when she appeared in front of it, trying to grab it out of my hands.
I looked down at the wheels, which seemed a bit jammed up when I pushed it. The left front wheel was immobile. The right rear wheel was missing a rather large amount of rubber and didn’t actually touch the floor. The axles of the other two were wrapped up in plastic bags.
“Ok fine, you can have it”. I give her a dirty look and start walking away from it.
“What’s wrong with it?” she says rudely. Now seriously, I gave her the damned cart. What is her problem?
I found an empty one in an aisle. I checked the two lanes in each direction for an owner and found none, so I took it. One of the few carts with smooth running wheels. Ah, poetic justice.
Big hijack here. I just got back from HD two hours ago and thought of starting a thread, but then I saw this one and figured I’d post here instead.
What the hell gives with the mumblers and self-talkers at HD? Every time I go there, while I’m picking out some item from a wall rack of choices, some nutjob drifts into the vicinity mumbling and/or talking to himself. Not crazy-man ranting, mind you. Just guys talking plumbertalk (or paintertalk, or lumbertalk…) to themselves.
These Bozos need to interact with the rest of society more. Or stop sniffing the contact cement.
I was at HD with my dad a few years ago, and we were waiting in line. This asshole in front of us was swinging around these bigs boards and almost knocked me over. He didn’t even bother to appologize.
I thought this was about the rude HD employees, about whom I just sent a letter to the manager. Might as well throw them in too, eh?
Actually, things have quieted down since I sent that letter…but here’s what they were doing:
Last summer I called the then-manager about the reset crews working well into the night and early morning. (Note: the wall behind my back yard is the only thing separating my street from the Home Depot’s building and lots.) He got them settled down–until a few months ago, when they started up again.
I kept a diligent log of their nocturnal baloney–crashing, banging, running loaders around, beeping, blocks of wood, sheet metal, hollering, and so on)–and found that they were consistently working until one-thirty in the flibbin’ morning! Given that they start again at 5:30am, it didn’t leave us with much of a sleep window.
I haven’t had a response to the letter yet. But I was thinking of checking on local ordinances re: noise.
Uh… Sorry, didn’t know you were listening. You see, I don’t plan the project out in advance like a good little girl. Nor do I write up a list. Nope, I wait until I get to the big orange box, then I plan the silly thing out in my head. Walking around, seeing what products will work, mumbling a lot, mentally making and revising lists. All that fun, crazy stuff.
Are these people talking on cell phones using one of those earbud headsets? When I first saw someone using one I didn’t see that he had an earpiece to his cell phone and thought he was just some creep talking to himself.
Home Depot is Highly entertaining. I always get my propane tanks filled there (OK, swapped out ) and from my experiance, you have a 1 in 3 chance of seeing a parking lot fight.
Take (1) Ford f-150 pick-up with boards sticking out of the back (usually painted white). Add (1) Chevy pickup (faded red). Add one open parking space 20 feet from store (while 50 spaces stand empty 50 feet from the store. Add hot sun. Stir. Count to 10 after they leave their trucks and then dial 9-1-1.
I didn’t know people did that. Didn’t they think about the fact that it’s a hell of a lot more work to completely unload someone else’s cart than it is to walk 30 feet and grab an empty one?
dwc1970, no these are not cell phone talkers. They are self-mumblers.
Here’s another HD phenomenon which, I suspect, is very much a NYC outer-borough thing: Home Depot as poor man’s Disneyland.
I’m talking about entire families (usually consisting of 2 parents, the husband’s brother, 6 kiddies and, of course, befuddled old grandma) wandering the aisles causing no end of bother for the other customers. Usually it’s immigrant families obviously working on their own home-improvement project.
A subset of this phenomenon are the Hasidic Jewish couples (with maybe grandma and one or two kids) who can be found in vast numbers at most NYC HDs between 9pm and midnight.
We have a 24-hour Home Depot near us, and since it’s the only other place open after 10 pm or so besides Wal-Mart, it’s become the teenage hangout of the area. Weird. Go into Home Depot and nearly get killed by all the teenagers goofing off, mock-fighting, etc. Not buying anything, mind you. I’m surprised the store allows it. Although maybe they figure pilferage isn’t a big deal since what does HD have that teenage kids want, other than stuff they’d have to do <gasp> WORK with?
