Is Home Depot shafting shoppers? "Home Depot is a consistent abuser of its customers' time."

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Any idea what HD pays their managers?

>

[clifto]

I have to say that the Menard's stores near me have people who go out of their way to make sure you're finding what you're looking for, almost to the point of wishing they'd ignore you.

Almost. :)

[Kyle]

shoppers?

[snip]

There are two market forces at work. One is that many a homeowner prefers the convenience of going to one store to find what they need for their household projects as opposed to going to three, four, five different places. Two is a large-scale retailer is often positioned to undercut the prices of smaller, locally-owned stores - e.g., Wal-Mart killing the small businesses across America.

This trend towards fewer employees as a way of saving the company money is nothing new: Macy's was doing in back in the early 1990s when I was a manager there. The belief is the customer doesn't want employee help and the staff is the easiest place to cut overhead costs. I know a salesperson who, when Macy's converted their employees from commission to hourly pay went from making an equivalet of $13/ hour commission to an hourly rate of $8.25/hour. He left pretty quickly, as did most other competent salespeople.

What HD, Macy's and myriad other large retailers fail to understand is many customers will not even notice slightly higher-than-average prices if they get exceptional customer service from well-trained, knowledgable staff. It's what keeps places like Nordstrom and the Men's Warehouse and other clothing retailers in business. And it's what will set apart local hardware stores from the big box places.

[mm]

You can't really expect to have choices in a small town.

Don't know about hardware stores, but my home town of 50,000 had 3 lunch counters, only one nice place for dinner, and a Dairy Queen.

It had one high school.

If you had too many stores, it woudn't be a small town. :)

[mm]

I'm like Goldilocks. I don't like it when I can't find anyone, nor when they are always talking to me.

I really don't like it when someone greets me at HD at the door to sell me a credit card.

First, she ruins the fantasy I'm having about all the great hardware I will but and build great things with. Or at least I forget what I came there for.

Second, the rates are outrageous and she'd do me more good working on the floor. They have someone there about 2/3rds of the time.

[user]

Microsoft, and with Vista

[HeyBub]

You're right. Even considering inflation, Vista costs more than Windows 95. But with the greater productivity of Vista, users make more money and, hence, can pay more. The additional cost is still a lower percentage of their disposable income than was Win95.

Even so, Vista is not the same product (like Kerosene or nails).

[AZ Nomad]

Vista hasn't greater productivity. Quite the opposite actually as vista users will spend most of their time staring at the hourglass whereas a windows 95 user could get some usefull work done with a pentium I.

Unless, of course, you supply Vista with at least 6 ghz of processor, 4GB of ram, etc.

[Larry Bud]

LOL!!!! I didn't know Bill Gates was holding you down making you purchase Vista!

[mm]

OK, that's better. Thanks. (I still wish she wouldn't talk to me.)

[mm]

I really like that. I'm trying to learn how to do my soup cans at home.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

How about one of those laser things for installing things nice & level? You could buy one at Home Despot.

[rivahrebel]

I find that basic hardware items are unavailable at my local HD's. I guess the lack of ability to make big profits on such items as steel rivets keeps HD from stocking them. It's really bad when it's easier to start out shopping at a small hardware store 15 miles away rather than checking at the local HD about 2 miles away because usually the HD either won't have or doesn't stock what you need.

[Drastic91]

I have a love/hate relationship with Home Depot. I love it because it is convenient and they carry many common items that you need for a home. I hate them because of the service that they provide. I asked a guy where I could find three prong outlets and he commented that I could have just broken off the third prong and it would have worked. Not all of them are that bad but its hard to find good help. I tend to go to Lowes when I am shopping for anything that I feel would look good in the home such as lighting and crown moulding. I go to Home Depot when I am fixing a wall or repairing pipes.

[Matt Barrow]

>>>

That you blame the problem on the customers.

So typically American.

[Deke]

Put my vote for the store doing it right.

Their only reason for existence in this world is to turn a profit.

There is little profit in a box store hiring employees to answer dumb consumer questions. Let the consumer hire a professional to train them.

I'm on home depots side in this battle.

[roundturn]

I used to like the Home Depot stores also, but after I started going down to the stores looking for sale items from the weekly flyer and finding that they would have to raincheck or special order almost everything that I was looking for I just started going down to Lowe's with the home depot flyer for a price match because they actually had the items in stock. I expect with the housing slowdown Home Depot will start to feel the pinch and eventually go the route of the old HQ Wearhouse chain. Some people will say no way but when you see them starting to scale back on employees then it won't be long before they start shutting down less productive stores but they won't call it that they will call it consolidation of market area. I'm quite happy with the service I get at my Lowe's store people are always asking me if I need help and assisting me with my purchase. Lowe's seems to have their act togeather by actually providing what you want when you need it. Home Depot just puts out commercials.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

>>>>

Think harder, and spend more time reading newsgroup questions. Here's what you'll find out:

- There are people who have never set foot in a hardware store or specialty store (appliances, lighting, plumbing, etc), and it's NOT always because all the specialty stores have vanished from their towns. They seem to believe that if the employees aren't wearing little aprons, then the specialty stores must be intended for contractors only.

- There are people who think that if they have a problem with Home Depot, the solution is to go to Lowe's. Or, complain about it here. Some people are not capable of devising another solution.

- There are people who apparently don't know that you can open the yellow pages phone book and find businesses in it. Right here in this newsgroup, I've seen people say "Thanks. That's actually a good idea. I'll try it". Are we dealing with children here?

So, tell me: Who do YOU blame for creating humans who are so unresourceful? Advertising that makes the big box stores seem like the only source for every damned thing? Maybe. But, I choose to lay much of the blame on parents. I would like to hear YOUR theory, though.

Hint: Since the year 2000, there have been two reasonably accurate surveys in this country which indicate that about 54% of the population is stupid and docile.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

In addition, they have been conditioned to think that the big box stores have the best prices for everything. That is far from the truth. Their service is often second rate also., if you need appliance repair or fast delivery.

Going back 10 or more years, the local appliance store was often priced higher and maybe even a little arrogant. Most of those dealers imploded, the rest formed buying co-operatives and now compete very nicely with price and usually have superior service.

[George]

But what about the extensive spin they do that all of their employees are experts waiting for us to pull into the parking lot?