A little venting at Home Depot...

John Emmons · 2005-07-14T16:46:54+00:00

I had to go to one of the local Home Depots the other day, well I didn'tactually have to but it was on the way home and I needed the stuff and Iknew that they'd have it and besides the girl who sells hotdogs outside iskinda cute but I digress...For those in the Los Angeles area this is the store on San Fernando road inthe city of Glendale, one of the worst stores to visit in my experience,small, crowded, understocked and understaffed even more than usual.Anyway, for whatever reason the place was packed, this was at about 3pm on aweekday, don't these people have jobs....?I pick up the 2 things I need and head to the cashier...and that's where thefun started. This store has 14 checkout lanes including 4 of the"self-serve" ones plus a commercial account desk and an extra register inthe "tool corral", now guess how many of these registers were actually beingstaffed?2...and at least one of the self-service machines was broken with no sign onit indicating as such. Of course there was the obligatory employee out sidethe exit door checking reciepts as people left. Does anyone other than merefuse to stop for that crap? "If you think I stole something, you betterhave some proof and you better go ahead and arrest me cause I ain't stoppingso you can "check my receipt" lady." But I digress.The lines were at least 12 people deep, so long that guys using the lumbercarts had to leave extra space between them so people could get thru thestore...the tool corral line was in 2 different places and heading for ashowdown as people who thought that they were in line found out that theyweren't.People were walking up and seeing the space left by the lumber cart guysthey assumed that that meant the line ended there and so they'd try to takeup residence, which made for some interesting confrontations.While all this was going on, there were 2 cashiers standing a bit down fromthe registers trying to entice unwary shoppers to sign up for an inhousecredit card, when the second one hit me up for...

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Woody 20 years ago

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.

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Duane Bozarth 20 years ago

Ted wrote: ...

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

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Doug Miller 20 years ago

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.

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Mark & Juanita 20 years ago

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 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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hylourgos 20 years ago

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

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nospambob 20 years ago

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O D 20 years ago

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.

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Larry Kraus 20 years ago

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.

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A little venting at Home Depot...

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