A little venting at Home Depot...

[Woody]

I guess I'm in the minority.

I never really figured out what was so great about the true old style "mom and pop" shops any way. I'm old enough to remember them. Some of the things I remember were poor selection, 20 year old goods, high prices, often as not a bad attitude from the owner. And god forbid you want to return something. I remember one 'm and p' shop, where I occaisionally was forced to go into, where the owner would follow me around the store so making sure I didn't steal anything. Apparently he did this with every young person at the time. They have been out of business for 20 years,. Good Riddance!

HD isn't perfect, and there are some smaller (i.e. regional) lumber/hardware chains which I perfer to shop at, but there is a reason people go to HD to shop.

[Duane Bozarth]

Ted wrote: ...

I don't believe a HD would build a parking lot w/o at least one...

[Doug Miller]

The HD store in my neighborhood doesn't _have_ a cart drop. So, yes, I'd blame the store for the carts that are scattered all over the lot.

[Mark & Juanita]

You know, I used to feel the same way about that and the slovenly habits of some shoppers. Now, however, it seems that some of the big box stores make it a 1/2 parking lot hike to the nearest cart drop. At some point, there is a threshold at which the store is encouraging people to abandon carts in the parking lot. Just another decrease in available service, this was originally not a problem because people actually helped one carry stuff to your car. Then, when the inconvenience of carrying things out was placed on the consumer, the cart racks were well spaced and convenient. Now, it appears that the cost of cart racks and associated parking is making customers do more work on their own by reducing the number and increasing the distance of the cart racks.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[hylourgos]

Hey Doug,

That's a rather high price from the plumber's supply, you might check around. When I was shopping for 3/4" pipe for clamps, I looked at the Borg vs Plumbers Supply and encountered a similar problem with the threading: the Borg threaded for free, but charged over $10 for 10' sections; the Plumbers Supply charged only $7 for 21' sections. They would thread, but really didn't want to and charged something like $5 per end.

I learned from the pro shop that (at least here in TN) they sell only

21' sections, and most all their clients have their own threaders, so their policy makes sense.

My solution was to buy a cheap threading set (Homier sells one for $20 that has 4 sizes and works fine) and save on the pipe by buying 21' sections at the pro shop. It was a good investment and I've used that threading set several times since.

Something to consider for next time...? H

[nospambob]

[O D]

Strange you say this about supermarkets. I have always said that if the supermarket charged a $5 deposit on a cart you will not find ne that is out in the parking lot. You can bet your bottom dollar if one is left unattended in a lot . someone will bring it back for the $5. That would help keeping them in the store where they are needed and then returned for someone else to use. And I guess it could help the store on ins. when one of those carts run into your car. Guess with inflation starting to rise, lets make it $10 deposit. If we go much higher there might be hijacking in the lot.

[Larry Kraus]

Aldi's supermarkets have their carts stored outside, linked at the handles by 6" lengths of chain. You insert a quarter to release a cart, get your quarter back when you plug in the chain again. They have NO carts left in the lot, and low prices.