And this was your mistake. WHY would you go to Walmart for contruction materials? All you are doing is feeding the ignorance and putting the folks who DO know what they're doing out of business.
"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in news:zv9ni.4292$s25.3982@trndny04:
Irregularly too!
Doing roofing job. Needed 26sq of Arch shingles. Checked out HD. Went to building supply
Saw a guy at HD the other day buying 13 sq and taking them with him. HD guy was standing right there writing down his order or I would have said something. It was "real fun" unloading my 80 bundles from the pallet on the boom. I'm wondering how the guy at HD got his up on the roof?! Maybe he saw the Red Green episode where Red builds a forklift using a pair of skis, extension ladder, duct tape and powers it with the truck winch.
snipped-for-privacy@nomail.com wrote in news:ho2p9352htsdb2e5bmankplba5nr469hpm@
4ax.com:
They spoke English???
I bet you live in a house, right?
I noticed that when I lived in an apartment, if I went to HD, I'd get stopped several times by employees, asking if they could help me. They always seemed to think I must be lost or confused. No matter how purposeful or confident I looked, there they were, asking skeptically, "Can I help you find something?". You could almost hear them thinking, "What's he doing here...this is *HOME* Depot, not *APARTMENT" Depot".
When I bought a house, that stopped. Now I can wander the store, looking lost, confused, obviously yearning for help, and no employee will come near me.
You sound like my know it all, rude brother-in-law. Bob-tx
Someone estimated over a million quarter-inch drill bits are sold each year. Funny thing is, though, no one WANTED a quarter-inch drill bit - what they wanted was a quarter-inch HOLE.
Now you didn't want silicone caulk, you wanted the leaks to stop. Had you simply asked for silicone caulk (without the convoluted, but uninteresting, story), the discussion would have been much simpler.
The Home Depot has candy, gum, and a hot dog stand that serves lunch ('round here, anyway). Menards sells food: barbecue sauce, Pop Tarts, etc.
That's why you should buy hardware at a real hardware store, to keep them in business for when you need quality and service.
Recently I was picking up small parts for a couple of projects at once. Walking through the plumbing department I had a couple of galvanized pipe fittings and a roll of yellow gas-grade Teflon tape in my hand.
As I walked by the guy stocking the shelves, without being asked, he politely asked, "Excuse me, but were you going to use those fittings for gas?"
As it happened, no, the fittings were for a garden faucet I was moving and the tape was for an air compressor line I was relocating. But the guy who stocks the shelves in the plumbing department knew and cared enough to check when he glanced up and saw the two together in my hand.
Besides that, I can pay less attention when shopping there, because they don't stock crap.
Their prices are usually 5-10% higher than the big borg stores for comparable items. But well worth it.
Having spent a number of years in retail, working for a couple different retailers, I can tell you the problem is not the employees. They are doing the best job they can for the pay they get and the training they (don't) receive.
Retail corporation see only one thing: $$$. Our culture's pay-at-the- pump mentality (I go in, get what I want, and leave with a minimum of interaction) has spread such that the service industry thinks we customers don't want help anywhere, anytime, therefore knowledgeable sales people are an undue burden on the profit margin. They see no benefit in paying a reasonably-sized, well-trained sales staff a decent wage (or commission) because they believe customers don't want help, they just want cheap.
And the fact that stores like Wal-Mart are growing while stores like Nordstrom, Men's Wearhouse and others with a reputation for high- quality customer service just proves corporations' point. In fact, I will hazard a guess that the fact you went to Wal-Mart rather than a hardware store (real or Lowe's Depot) proves the point as well.
You want customer service (and you needed customer service since the store didn't have what you were looking for), you gotta go to a store where people are paid to know their business. And those are increasingly harder to find.
Sure, but they really keep beating the drum about all of their expert employees.
Kyle wrote in news:1184786667.179545.82590 @z28g2000prd.googlegroups.com:
On one Forbes listing of the top ten richest people (in US maybe?), 5 of the ten were Waltons. Sickening.
I think its a matter of Luck of the Draw, i.e. where you live.... Let me give an example of our local Lowe's and HD. Our local Lowe's is staffed by knowledgeable staff in all but one of the departments I frequent. However, our local HD is nothing short of a waste of space (nobody knows a thing.... when you can even find one). Then we go to a town 40 miles from here and the total reverse is true as far as Lowe's goes... The Lowe's there is no better than the HD is locally and the 40 mile distant HD is, well, no better there than here....
I personally think it has to do with the competence of the store's management as to the level of expertise the staff of the departments display. Our local HD's manager has no idea of the application of anything sold in his store. He was, no doubt, a college graduate in business/management which meant someone dumber than he thinks that makes him competent to run a building supply business. On the other hand, our local Lowe's is managed by a gentleman that spent years as a contractor in the building trades before moving into management for a big box store.
I know you are talking about Walmart and me using Lowe's and HD as an example may not be the best to compare but I still think any store's personnel knowledge or lack of is a direct reflection on the competence of the management and their knowledge.
Regards, Stan
Somewhat, but it is not possible to find enough warm, moving, and trainable bodies to fill the positions. Especially at the wages they pay. Don't expect to find a well trained, knowledgeable person in plumbing for $9 an hour. Don't expect to find to cheap discounted prices if the help is paid $19 an hour. You get what you pay for.
Remember the Pogo quotation "We have met the enemy and he is us"
I don't get it.?
You are right and I didn't think of that. However, the department of the local Lowe's that I deal in the most (who's department head is extremely knowledgeable in that area) is a retired individual from that specific discipline and is probably doing it as a supplement to retirement.
And yes to what I would say would be a response to that... the majority of the department heads and underlings are not retired and this job is their bread and butter.
I guess it all boils down to the kid running the register at our local Mickey D's..... we had a storm while I was giving my order and a serge tripped their registers. They could get the cash drawers open to keep business going but no one could calculate change in their head so the whole thing came to a grinding halt until they could reboot their systems. I just stood their in total amazement because I assumed a reasonably competent 3rd grader could make change by that time in life's continuing education.
Well, they can always grow up and be politicians.
Regards, Stan
Galvanized pipe and fittings are for water, not gas.
I think this is really the key issue here. HD and Lowe's advertise heavily that they provide expert advice, and they should do so, otherwise it's false advertising.
On the other hand, Walmart's slogan is "always the low price" - I can't recall Walmart ever making claims about having knowledgeable staff. The presumption is when you go there, you'd better already know what you need.
Eric
Or more specifically for OP if indeed didn't know, galvanized is not used for gas because impurities in natural gas can react negatively w/ the zinc.
I would not expect that to last long. Big box store managers are required to be tyrants to motivate the barely above minimum wage employees to produce.
that they provide expert advice, and they should
Walmart ever making claims about having
already know what you need.
And its similar with the other big box stores. Take Best Buy, they heavily advertise that all their associates are knowledgeable when the reality is they are low paid and their training consists of going to a room before the store opens and being told what to push to get a small commission.
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