I once had to tell a cashier at a McDonald's how much change to give me. She couldn't figure it out so asked me how much she had to give me. I told her (honestly), but also feel sad at having to do that.
Recently bought some wine at a local QFC grocery. If you buy more than
6, they give you 10% off. For some goofy reason, if they don't ring the wine up 1st, the register can't just figure the 10% off the wine only, so they had to enter the discount separately. Wine total was something like $79.85, the cashier actually had to go get a calculator to figure the 10% discount. I know what you mean, I felt sorry for her.Dan
I've followed this thread pretty closely and I'm puzzled. Aren't there ANY Home Depot employees and or members of their management reading this that can refute even SOME of the negative comments that have been posted? Or, do they all agree with the general conclusions espressed that HD's product selection, overall performance, etc. has really degraded. Hmmm?
Some folks just don't have any math ability. I've been truly blessed, perhaps gifted. I can do 3 figure multiply problems, calculate 9.75% sales tax and add that to the total in my head. In college I aced every math course I took and sometimes never bought the textbook. I took accelerated math courses too--an entire course squeezed into 5 days. My grandfather was the same way. The math ability comes in handy with woodworking. BTW, my history and reading skills suck.
You can be assured I won't be in either the self-serve or the manned checkout line at a BORG often enough to be an issue in their traffic count! :)
Of course, it's easier since there isn't one within 60 miles but I wouldn't go if it were as long as the _real_ lumberyard that we've dealt with for 60+ years is still here--and hopefully it can make it another 10 or so and I'll no longer care much in all likelihood. There, there are no such things as "check out lines" and such so there are no moronic checkers. A good ol' order form is written out that has whatcha' took on it, and the end of the month a copy of them shows up in the mail--a check goes back next time go to town.
My guess is that anybody under the age of 40, never learned how to "make change" when they were in grade school.
Ain't calculators grand?
Lew
Lew Hodgett wrote in news:CazAg.4372$0e5.2886 @newsread4.news.pas.earthlink.net:
I have a computer program that will do it for me. It gives you the fewest number of coins possible, too. (It was one of the first things I wrote in my CS classes, but that's beside the point.)
Puckdropper
Then do as I do. Walk around the line and out the door. Easy eh?
Only works up to a point. If you need something, then you need it. Leaving, and driving somewhere else will inconvenience you a great deal longer than being given the once-over by an attendant.
I don't know where you get that from. Simply buy the thing and leave. Skip the twit at the door. He is no more than an annoyance.
Exxon is Esso in Canada and England. They are one of the older Oil Companies around
Exactly so. If he wants to follow me out to my car he's welcome to, but I'm under no obligation to stop for him, show him my receipt, or queue to leave the store.
I know who ESSO is, they were ESSO when I was a kid, but haven't seen that named used in decades.
... snip
Where I grew up they were ENCO stations --- likewise haven't seen that name in decades either.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
It isn't at all... We've got Menard's, and he leans on the local government to keep everyone else out. But, they're the same story as the rest of them.
But I keep wondering when I see these threads about the HD and Lowes- Where I'm at, there are Farm and Fleet stores peppered around, and in other areas, there is Fleet Farm, which I'm led to understand is almost the same store. Now, they don't stock lumber, so I can't get that there, but for general hardware and tools, they've got people who stay right in their areas and know where things are at, and will order anything they don't have on hand for you. They carry Delta, Porter-Cable, DeWalt, Milwalkee, etc.- and tend to have a better selection than the smaller tool stores, even up to some fairly big iron. They still sell fasteners out of bins so you don't need to buy
400 screws when you only need two, and there are always at least 8 checkout lanes open. Prices usually match or beat Amazon, and they do warranty work in the store's shop if they can, and exchange things without much hassle if they can't.Now, I don't know if that's just a local chain- but I wonder if a lot of people are just missing it because it has "Farm" in the name. Really a good place to get your woodworking stuff, and decent service- as well as an excellent paint department. Might be worth a look if they're around and you're just choosing between Home Depot and Lowes.
I try to support the local guys as much as possible, but the Do It Best in town is never open, and the local lumberyard kind of went to hell when they moved to a new bigger location and started selling everything they could think of, so the Farm and Fleet is where it's at. At least it's supporting people who seem to care about what they're doing- unlike the big box stores (which I have frequented in the past, and now know they aren't worth a two-hour drive)
Here's the problem with Menards, though- they'd be all right if John Menard had the slightest concern about his business practices, but he's a rotten neighbor. The distribution and manufacturing centers are local to my area, and he's constantly in trouble for dumping toxic waste into the local ecology, from burning huge piles of PT lumber to pouring tens of thousands of gallons of paint where they ended up in the river. The employes in that manufacturing compound are (on average) paid less than the average late-night stocker at WalMart and work in unheated/uncooled buildings with uncountable OSHA violations. The guy just finds it cheaper to keep paying the fines than to fix the problems, and does whatever he can to make sure he can keep raping the area.
Now I'll grant you that all that is pretty much SOP for any large company I'm familiar with, and I'm sure HD and Lowes are guilty of many of the same things, though they may be doing them in other countries- but it's still really tough to support that kind of behavior, especially when the guy keeps doing it in his own home town.
That, and they're forgetting who they are- I went there today to get a couple of things and walked into a coffee shop, and then passed a huge section that looked like a Pier One store before I even found any tools or building materials. Not what I like in a hardware store- especially one that fights like the devil to keep any and all competition out of 100 mile radius of headquarters.
Yep, numbers driven short term profit fixation, at the expense of long term health of HD and long term profits. After this CEO gets short term profits way up, he will make 20 million or so for himself after many employees are laid off, then sales will start falling off after customers grow tired of HD's crappy customer service, then the CEO will leave with his golden parachute, stores will close. Then Home Depot will have an epithany: "hey let's hire more employees to better serve our customers! Let's be customer service focused!" (gee, like you USED to be) So then they'll start hiring more people again, customer service will get better, customers will come back. Then after everyone is happy, another CEO will come along to slash the number of employees, to raise short term profits, etc........so on and so forth..............corporate bullshit 101.........pencil necked geeks with their excel spreadsheets.
...snip
Not a whole lot of places with the name "Farm" in them here in Tucson (at least that I know of, would love to be told differently.
Where I grew up in Colorado we had something called Ranch Wholesale that was an excellent source for tools and hardware at reasonable prices. The local COOP was always pretty expensive but well-stocked. The local small lumber yard is still in business (I went to school with the owner's son, who, with his brother, now runs the place). Good service, good conversation, as Dad says, "their prices are a little higher, but they know what they are selling, will listen to what I need it for and make sure I get the right thing" Beats the heck out of the Borgs' business models.
My Lowe's story for the day: went to get some stuff I needed for the yard today; took along a $10 off for purchases over $50. When I got to the register, I had 4 things in my hand: the $10 off card and 3 gift certificates (they are sold by our school through a fund-raising program in which the merchants who participate donate a percentage of the purchase price to the selling organization). Cashier rang up the purchase and applied the three gift cards, *then* saw the coupon (I did mention it was on top of my stack of cards, didn't I?). At this time, there was $19.95 left: "sorry, I can't ring up the discount now because the amount has to be over $50 for the system to accept the discount and I've already applied gift cards, so I can't take them off. Let me find a supervisor" Turns out I had to go to the service desk, have one of the items be "returned", then have the card applied to that amount. Now, it seems to me that an intelligently written POS (that's Point of Sale) system would look at the
*purchase* total when applying discounts for which conditions apply, not at the current remaining amount. But then, that's just me. As I expected, I spent about 15 minutes in the return line (I was first in line) waiting for the right manager with the right override card to be able to apply the right amounts. Once that nonsense was sorted out, the girl with the shiny stone stuck in the side of her nose pulled the cash for the whole refund, then applied the amount to the new purchase with the $10 discount applied and handed me $10.78 in change. I tried to tell her that I should only receive $10 if this was properly applied, but she insisted that the change was correct, "it must be due to the tax". At that point, I gave up and left.Now, in their defense, a month ago, they did replace some mini-blinds we bought from them over 1 1/2 years ago that had broken their retraction cords and went out of their way to interface between us and the supplier, so sometimes they do get it right.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+Dave Balderstone wrote in news:040820061610387086%dave@N_O_T_T_H_I_Sbalderstone.ca:
I tried that with no luck at the Best Buy on 23rd and 6th Ave in Manhattan. They got a bit nasty and referred to a notice on the door that warned about the right to inspect bags upon leaving. What do you do in that case?
Walmart does the same thing. It's not an inconvenience and only takes a second. What was REALLY annoying is that I was setting the alarm off. After a year I finally discovered that my shoes were setting off the alarm. A Walmat employee deactivated them for me--no more problems. Our local HD does not inspect sales slips nor packages on the way out.
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