Home Depot Romex Packaging

[Mike Marlow]

Hey Guys:

Don't know if this ever got straightened out in the original thread, but at a point recently one of our esteemed posted that he had been advised that Home Depot was now selling Romex in 200' foot rolls instead of the customary

250' rolls. Apparently, one of his local suppliers (obviously known for his integrity and accuracy...), had informed him of this development.

Well, I looked at my local Home Depot the other day and what to my wondering eyes should appear? Nothing but 250' rolls of romex. Didn't see a single

200' roll.

Seems the fellow who informed one of the brethren here was somewhat uninformed. Though, if memory serves me at all (and that all by itself is a questionable feat these days...), the local supplier supposedly even called the Home Depot near him and confirmed this. No big deal really - mistakes do happen. I just wanted to follow up on this to make the record straight.

Seems to me the price was something in the neighborhood of $68, but that could be changed by now. Wire price changes are almost a daily occurrence now.

OK - back to that heated debate Robatoy is holding with himself over in that other thread now...

[nailshooter41]

OK now... MIke... hold up a bit. Proper posting etiquette is to BASH Home Depot. While you aren't really on anyone's ass, you didn't run anyone down either. Shame on you. And no comments about the kiddos with bad complexions?

;^)

Actually, it is hard for me to comparer anything between HDs these days. Some carry different brands of things, some will close out a products while other stores will continue to carry it, and some will discount products while others won't. Here, our HDs literally don't even carry the same merchandise.

I guess they are following the Walmart model, and that is they use the computer to target their market and order their products.

I am in a sad way, now as far as vendors go. I get my lumber, shingles and paint from those vendors specifically, but my local hardware store just closed. It was only about 2 miles from my house. Talk about convenient. Their service was just about nothing, but boy were they convenient.

Now when I need a saw blade, drill bits, anchors, a deadbolt, 6 feet of soft copper, etc., and all the other stuff I use I will be at the mercy of the big boxes.

Sigh.

At least we have those.

Robert

[Robatoy]

No I'm not.

[Lew Hodgett]

The city fathers cut deals with both H/D and OSH to put stores within a few hundred feet of my local hardware.

OSH lasted less than a year, and the H/D is rarely crowded.

The hardware now stays open longer hours, but continues to survive in spite of the non competitiveness of the situation (Tax breaks, sweetheart land deals, etc).

Of course it doesn't hurt that they are a repair station for many brands of tools as well as the master renewal parts supplier for a lot of wood working tools.

Want a ShopSmith? They have them on the sales floor.

Lew

[clare at snyder dot ontario do]

The big box stores have a habit od doing the "walmart thing" They sell something ridiculously cheap as a loss leader, or to "corner the market". Soon no-one else can afford to carry it and sell it, so Wall Mart (or HD, or whoever) is the only local source. Then they decide it's not worth carrying anymore because they are not making any money on it and it's against company policy to increase prices - ha ha. Suddenly what you used to be able to buy anywhere for $10, and yesterday could only buy at Walmart for $5, can not be bought for ANY price, anywhere.

I hate what the big box stores have done to commerce, on the whole. The lower prices (when they do exist) just are not worth it.

ANd now the beggars expect ME to operate the checkout too!! I still use a "bricks and mortar" bank and use the tellers, not the bank machine. If they are going to get the service fees, they're darn well going to provide service!

** Posted from **

[Greg O]

A local hardware store packed up and moved, right next door to Menards! (Menards is a big box store in the midwest) They moved there maybe 10 years ago so it must have been a good move for them. I wonder if they don't feed off Menards customers to some point. I figured they were doomed for sure! Greg

[nailshooter41]

You know, that is a pet peeve of mine also. I might be more inclined to use the self checkers if they even worked. But they are twice the time and effort as they just don't work for multiple items. I have yet to have that system work for me, and it has failed about three or four times.

When it does, they call someone over, and then that person resets the machine, they do the same thing they do at the regular checkout, and we are finished.

How is that an improvement?

Robert

[nailshooter41]

I am reminded of a great Simpsons episode.

Homer is in torment as he keeps hearing the voice of his conscience while doing something he isn't sure about.

He picks up a bat and listens a little more.

"Stupid left side of the brain... I have you now! I'm sick and tired of you interfering!"

He aims squarely for his forehead and smashes himself. Three, four, five times. He collapses in a heap. He moans.

"Guess I showed you", he says weakly.

"Not really" he hears.

"D'oh"

He falls over and passes out.

Robert

[Rick Samuel]

I'm in a small town 50 mi west of Austin, Tx. HD came in about 4 years ago. We have a great Ace Hardware, the staff can answer any question. I thought that Ace would go away. Thank heaven they didn't. The selection out paces HD by miles. Some times it takes a while, but true value does win in the end, HD isn't worth my time, most of the time.

[B A R R Y]

The first thing I thought of was zits...

As for store help, there's "B a r r y 's Fast Food Economic Index®".

I've noticed over the last 25-30 years that in areas local economy can be accurately measured based on the person taking orders, and the service received, at local fast food drive-thru windows.

The sliding scale, based on a simple order "A number 9 with a Diet Coke":

If the order taker can't speak a coherent sentence, is totally twitchy and distracted, and keeps asking you to clarify things, it takes forever to get the food, and the order is still wrong in the end, SELL!!!! You're at the top of a booming local economy! Bonus points are added if the person answers a personal Nextel walkie-talkie call (Where ya' at?) in the middle of your sentence.

If the person taking the order is well-spoken, educated, and efficient, and the order is filled fast and correctly, the economy is in the dumper. Negative bonus points if the fast food employee was the last person to show you a new home, unsuccessfully tried to sell you a variable annuity, or was the F&I person you dealt with when last buying a car.

Fill in the scale in-between, and use a decently sized sample, not just one or two experiences.

It works with Home Depot and Lowes to measure the health of the local construction economy.

[Leon]

Ironically true. The local HD that I go to has an exceptional location but service that has been piss poor at best. Naturally you see fewer and fewer customers in that store. Beginning on Good Friday I noticed what looked like a triple staff and people that actually made eye to eye contact and wanted to help. My son witnessed and mentioned this strange behavior last night.

[depictureboy]

[e-mail]...

I was in HD this am, I walked into the tool corral and this guy practically sprints across the main aisle from the checkouts asking if there is anything I need help with.

I remember in Rehoboth before the HD was built, I HATED going to lowes because the people were all cranky and you could never find anyone. Now its just the opposite.

[Swingman]

wrote

It's all relative ... if you go to the self-serve propane gas cylinder exchange kiosk first, the self-serve checkout inside the HD will then strike you as a quantum leap in time saving technology.

[hex]

Interesting metric. It follows along with what a friend of mine postulated about 20 years ago under the guise of maximal economy. For maximum economic output you want people working in jobs that maximally tax their abilities. You want the person behind the counter at McDonalds to be in a job that is just barely manageable for them. So when the economy is in the drink it's obviously not at max capacity and you end up with CPA's tallying orders not cooking the books.

hex

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