Walmart going after Home Depot?

[cm]

I was doing paperwork with the news on yesterday and thought I heard them talking about Walmart going head to head with Home Depot!??? Did I hear this right? I just caught the end of the story.

cm

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Not sure how any company could have a strategic plan like that, considering that the hiring process involves rolling dice and hoping you get employees with an IQ higher than that of a serving spoon.

[RayV]

When did they raise the IQ requirements?

[cm]

OK now ya did it.... Here's my HD idiot story. I was up in Las Vegas servicing a Home Depot store as a staple gun rep. I was cleaning up the display and an HD employee walked up with a customer in-tow and said the customer came in with a jammed staple gun. I glanced at the gun and told the employee to give the customer a new one and that HD would get credit for the broken one. Very simple/fair resolution right? Not good enough for the HD employee. He wants to fix the staple gun..... He points it at his face so he can see what is jamming the gun. I say, DO NOT FIRE THE GUN TOWARDS YOUR FACE. What's he do? He pulls the trigger, luckily the gun is still jammed. Then he takes a writing pen and tries to free the jammed staple and points it towards his face. I tell him once again, DO NOT FIRE THE GUN TOWARDS YOUR FACE....He pulls the trigger again!!! I guess they call it DUMB LUCK because the gun was still jammed. I grabbed it out of his hands and handed the customer a new gun.

cm

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Was the staple gun defective? If not, I think it would serve the customer better if you'd taught him/her how to unjam the thing. This way, there's no need for a trip to the store in the future. Or worse, having to stop work on a project because the store is closed.

[dpb]

...

I don't think so (heard right, that is... :) ).

At least the only thing I've heard about is sorta' the other way 'round--HD is talking of buying a bank a la WM...

[scott21230]

Home Depot is already the Wal-Mart of home "improvement".

[Me]

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in news:GbFEg.7886$ [e-mail]:

Which store? They both employee idiots.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Both.

[mm]

Since it was Las Vegas, maybe he was intentionally playing Russian Roulette?

[F. H.]

Came within an inch of needing a seeing eye dog when I wandered to close to an employee teaching another employee how to properly carry rebar. He had about a dozen draped over his shoulder and shifted them straight backwards (without looking behind him). Only a very quick move saved me.

I just looked and the trainer and shook my head. She just shrugged.

[F. H.]

Business section todays LA Times:

1. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, on Tuesday posted its first quarterly earnings decline in a decade, a result of costs associated with the company's decision to exit the German market.

1. Home Depot Posts Strong Profit, Sales. It tempers its forecast for the rest of 2006 and will boost spending to maintain market share.

[Stormin Mormon]

Next time holler OUCH as loud as you can, and whack the end of the rebar.

[JimR]

[snip]

And here's another one -- I was in HD to buy a nail set, among other things. I told a young, new hire in the tools department that I wanted to buy a nail set. He said, "They don't come in sets, sir, you have to buy them by the pound."

The next time I was in HD he wasn't there anymore.

[OldRoads]

Not all HD employees are idiots. Anyone can come up with a story about some random dope at any retail shop. A lot of the HD employees here in Massachusetts are unemployed high-tech workers. A job at HD for these guys can help them get through a tough time and they can even get a little health insurance with it. The fault with uninformed employees at HD lies with the company itself. They need to provide better training for their people.

V> > OK now ya did it.... Here's my HD idiot story.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Like most stories, the truth is in the middle. Sure, there are good and bad. Some are just not trainable though. Varies from store to store.

[Larry Bud]

Most employees don't work every waking hour the store is open. Your story, however, isn't fair. You admit he was a new hire. New hires have to learn somehow, and if he doesn't yet know the terminology of the 100 thousand products they sell, it doesn't necessarily make him an idiot. Come back in a couple months, and if he's been told what a nail set is 5 times and he still doesn't get it, THEN he's an idiot.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Sorta kinda maybe. When I managed a small, locally owned stereo store, new hires were under orders to spend their first week doing absolutely nothing but learning to operate equipment, browsing the stockroom, reading owners manuals, asking questions and listening to systems. There was no way we let these people near customers. When I go to the supermarket looking for canning jars, and a child takes me to the canned vegetable aisle (where there are no canning jars), I wonder why more retailers don't insist on a learning period.

[larry moe 'n curly]

The employees at the Home Depot closest to me are pretty good. OTOH the Lowe's close to them is full of idiots, including the managers. Last year in July, when I needed a window A/C, it took three Lowe's employees to find any, and another time when I couldn't find the copper fittings in the plumbing dept. (they weren't next to the PVC and iron ones), a person who had been working in that dept. since the store opened asked another employee, "Do we have something called 'copper fittings?'" More recently, they lost an appliance sale because they were completely clueless.

[HeyBub]

I wouldn't think so. The start-up and logistic costs would be astronomical.

On the other hand, Wal-Mart IS going into the E85 business (the 85% Ethanol fuel). They would have very little competition - and of course very little market for a while). And this is not a miss-heard statement nor a rumor.

See: