A little venting at Home Depot...

[Dave Balderstone]

You BOOB, you. Try to keep aBREAST of the threads here.

[Doug Miller]

In retrospect... no, probably not.

I have at least four within five or six miles, so my situation is a bit different. And most of them are closer to home than the local plumbing supply, too.

[Doug Miller]

Yeah, well... the last several times that I went to the Borg to get pipe cut and threaded, there was no problem at all: competent employee, machine worked fine, low price, close to home. That's why I went back this time.

[Duane Bozarth]

... ...[re: Borg vis a vis perhaps higher-priced distributor]...

W/ the Borg far away, it's an easy decision of course, but I personally still have a fundamental distaste for the Wally-World syndrome that destroys small town businesses. I'm one of the (apparently few) ones who will go out of my way to patronize our locals despite perhaps a slightly higher initial cost. In return, I get folks who know who I am, will do anything possible (and some that is nearly not so) to meet needs and don't send corporate profits to Delaware or someplace else far away.

[Doug Miller]

If it were "slightly higher" I'd patronize the local shop in most cases. But in this case, HD's price on the pipe is $8.95, they cut and thread for free, and they're three miles from home, whereas the local place wants $15.50 for the pipe plus another $3 to cut and thread - and they're six and a half miles away.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Drifting a little more off topic, but a funny story .

A fellow at work had an "interesting" childhood. Back in the '70s or so, boom boxes were the rage. He walked into a discount big box store to buy one. He looked at a couple on display, but they did not work. So, he opened up a pack of batteries, loaded up the boom box, then as he proceeded to the checkout he cranked it up loud.

The store manager yelled at him: "get the hell out of here with that thing!" So, he did.

[Chuck Hoffman]

It ain't just the BORGs that screw up customer service. I recently picked up a 5X5 sheet of Baltic birch from the (local, expensive) lumber mart because the stuff the BORG carries is warped beyond belief.

Anyhow, I was driving a small car instead of a pickup so I asked that the sheet be ripped into three pieces in order to get it into the hatchback. The yahoo didn't use a fence and had a co-worker to hand-hold the outfeed. Thru carelessness, they managed to really screw up the plywood but -- fortunately --I had built enough tolerance into my measurements that I was just barely able to straighten it out at home on my own table saw.

[Prometheus]

So, how much did it cost at Lowe's? Add that to whatever your 45 minutes plus the amount of time you spent finding out the other places couldn't do it at all was worth to you, and it's a good bet that the local plumbing supply house comes out as a bargain... I know that the cents add up at the big boxes, but it's a matter of time and supply as well, and you don't always come out ahead, no matter how low the prices are.

[Jason Quick]

The level of control these central HQs have over individual stores is a bit tough to wrap one's head around. This past spring, I commented to a HD cashier that it was uncomfortable in the store (hot & humid - it was pouring outside), and she told me that sometimes the store got that way, as the HVAC were controlled by a computer in Atlanta, and they sometimes missed the boat on local weather.

Apparently Wal-Mart does the same thing.

Jason

[Duane Bozarth]

...

This isn't at all uncommon...a small office building (10-floors of only about 5000 sq-ft/floor) in small city in TN where I worked was sold to a real-estate management firm -- they did the same thing from FL even for one additional relatively small building. It was really bad because they cut it off entirely on weekends and as a consulting engineer w/ offices there, hours were anything but regular. They finally fixed it so that one could call in their control computer two hours ahead and get the system on for a specific location...

[Dana Miller]

Once Wally World has run all the competition out of business, its just about impossible for them to truly lose a customer. Nowhere else to go.

Here's my theory. Retailers have come to the conclusion that their biggest enemy is NOT their competition. The largest threat to their profitability is their suppliers, and their customers. NO competitor can ever hurt you bottom line like the folks above and below you in the supply chain. If your supplier wants more margin, or if you customer demands more value, you're going to get hammered. Once the big box retailers figured out that they would maximize their profit by bullying their suppliers and customers they have turned big profits. Walmart and HD have figured out that once they've beaten their customers into accepting inferior goods with no service they can clean up.

The message I read between the lines at every big box store is "quit expecting service!". They can't deliver service, they won't deliver service. Everything about their operation is built around denial of service. They put brain damaged people on the sales floor for a reason. They want you to quit trying. Walmart may sell that their greeters are friendly, but they're not smart, or useful.

The guy at the door checking receipts: Last line of defense against the customer, the enemy.

[Gary]

[Dana Miller]

Now that Mom and Pop are out of business, the next target in their sights has to be either the customer or the supplier.

If the average chinaman wants to buy an SUV, the wages in china are going to have to increase by a factor of 10-20. Because that sort of wage is only possible if the workers organize, and union organization is a capitol offense in China don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen. We send about all the money we can to china that our nation has as excess. There's just not enough money flowing that way for them to afford those things. Their internal market might support that level of economy but China is already suffering from wage pressures which are sending work to the remainder of asia.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Boy, do you have it right. When Wal Mart came to our town, they hired an armed security force and redirected traffic from the small stores to the Wal Mart parking lot. They sent flyers to each house demanding we shop at Wal Mart and abandon the existing merchants.

Wal Mart (and most of the other big box stores) is giving people what they want. Low prices on mediocre merchandise. The suppliers to these stores make the final decision to move factories off shore. They fear losing market share so they capitulate.

I'd also like to see the stores close on Sunday so their employees could spend a day home with family, but 1955 is not going to return.

[Ted]

The one near me parks their delivery tractor trailer in front of the store most of time making it hard for people to drive around the parking lot. They also leave their shopping carts all over the parking lot taking up parking spaces.

[Upscale]

Life's tough. I've got an easy fix for you though. Park in a handicapped parking space. There, problem fixed. Glad I could help. :)

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I've never seen store employees spreading the carts around. I guess they want to make it easier for you to find one.

[Ted]

By leave the shopping carts, I mean they don't bring them back into the store. If a customer wants to use one, they have to get one from the parking lot. I have complained about it a few times, but nothing has changed.

That, along with not being able to fine people to help me, most of the registers not being used with long lines at the few that are open is why I go to Ace hardware instead if I can get what I need there.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Sp what you are blaming the store for is the clod that won't walk 30' to a cart drop and just leave them around the lot instead. It is not just HD, but every supermarket in the country that has that problem. Over a year's time it cost quite a bit to have the kids go out and round them up. It is built into the pricing.

Nothing beats voting with your money. I do the same when I can.

[Ted]

They don't even have a cart drop.