Wasteful Packaging

[Stuart]

Lucky! We have to tear the window out of the envelope and put it with the non-recyclables before placing the envelope in the re-cycled paper box.

[Mike Marlow]

On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:44:45 GMT, Lew Hodgett cast forth these pearls of wisdom...:

Actually, internal shrink at HD is not much of a problem. The much bigger shrink problem at HD is outright theft (people walk out with nice new power tools and nobody can stop them), product damage ("normal" shipping and handling damage, sub-contractor damage, etc.). If you could see the biggest shrink items by department at HD, you'd quickly see that it is not stuff employees walk off with.

[Mike Marlow]

On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:05:48 +0000 (GMT), Stuart cast forth these pearls of wisdom...:

It's a 60, 61, 62, 63, custom automobile. I got it one piece at a time. You might say I went right to the factory and picked it up - it's cheaper that way...

[Stuart]

Yes, I heard about that (urban myth?), a Cadillac wasn't it?

[Lew Hodgett]

Since I know some HD employees who are in a position to have knowledge of the situation, I'll stand by the comment that internal shrinkage is a real problem.

That's not to say that customers are not a major problem when it comes to "5 finger discount" activity, but when employees are taken into custody and handcuffed while on the sales floor, on a regular basis, you have to wonder.

BTW, this is not isolated to one store.

I won't go into detail here, but there are some amazing schemes attempted to steal from HD.

I'm sure other retailers have there own problems.

Lew

[Lee Michaels]

"Lew Hodgett" wrote

There was a theft ring that targeted Home Depot here years ago. They had somebody from the inside supply information as to when certain items, including appliances, were delivered at night. The theives than just waited and loaded up the items onto their own truck. The big boxes of merchandise never even entered the store. They were snatched from the back lot. It went on for several months before they figured out what was happening.

And yes, it was an inside job.

[Mike Marlow]

On Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:18:51 GMT, Lew Hodgett cast forth these pearls of wisdom...:

Fair enough. But - I don't speak on the stories of other people. I have seen the Home Depot shrink reports. Besides power tools, the two biggest shrink items are patio sets and refrigerators. It's not hard to find - it's posted in every store. One thing to remember is that "internal" shrink does not mean employee theft. Shrink comes in a lot of forms, and it includes damage, which far outweighs incidents of employee theft.

Your friends either work in a rather unusual Home Depot store, or they are grossly misleading you. Evidence that they are misleading you (or at least strongly suggests that they are) is that Home Depot would not arrest an employee on the sales floor. This would be handled in a discrete manner, out of the eye of customers. Not only is it bad for business to do this publicly, but it leaves the store open to litigation that the chain tries very hard to avoid.

Well - it's not common throughout the chain.

Sure - people can be very creative. Some don't even have to get creative. It's not uncommon for customers to simply walk out with a product. The alarms go off, and (especially when the store is busy), the associates are so used to hearing them go off, that they don't even notice it. Out walks the "customer" with hands full.

Some are even craftier. They have figured out the ways to defeat the hard tags and the soft tags. When these guys walk out, they don't even set off the alarms.

The really good ones know when the LPA is working and when he/she is not. The LPA is the only one authorized to tackle (if necessary) a thief - though most won't. Associates and managers are not allowed to apprehend a thief, other than to ask the thief to stop. If the thief doesn't cordially accommodate that request, they can't do anything except maybe get a license number on the car they leave in.

[Lew Hodgett]

That wouldn't surprise me at all: however, here in SoCal. the garden seems to take quite a hit.

Okay, was not considering anything but internal theft in my definition. Strictly speaking, that is an incomplete definition.

Of course it is discrete, but they are still cuiffed and taken off the floor during business hours.

Typically these are not associates on the sales floor.

Can't comment outside an area that includes maybe a dozen stores, but one thing is crystal clear.

The day Nardelli showed up, HD quite being a fun place to work.

It's no wonder Welch didn't pick him to run GE.

The morale of the staff has gone in the tank.

So I have been told.

So much for the loss preventation group.

I'm aware of that.

Lew

[mac davis]

That's a good thing, Barry.. But IMHO, it would be better to generate less useless packaging in the first place..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[B A R R Y]

I'm blown away by how often the door alarm goes off, and the staff waves them on.

You'd swear the customer is paying for something and leaving with stuff they didn't pay for. Of course, no one checks...

[B A R R Y]

Agreed!