My Peeve About Hardware Stores

[Iplayfarmer]

I don't expect experts but I do expect they should be able to read the label and know that armored steel flex conduit is not PVC plastic!

Get me started on Big Box Stores!! My peeve there is not that the associates are ignorant or useless. I know that going in. My peeve with Big Box Stores is that the associates will pretend to know what they're talking about rather than admit they are out of their league. It's as if "I don't know" is not part of their vocabulary.

To expect that customers will not mess up the contents of hardware bins or expect store personnel to sort them out is truly misguided wishful thinking not at all congruent with reality, unfortunately.

I know. I don't actually expect anything to change, but that doesn't make it any less pleasant or convenient for me.

 

[mjncad]

Another gripe I have with D & D (Despot & Doh's - Depot & Lowe's) is that they got rid of as many cashiers as possible in favor of those worthless self serve checkout stations. When I go into either place, you are lucky to find a cashier at the lumber/pro checkout and the babysitter cashier for the self serve stations.

I won't use those self serve stations for the following reasons:
1. They don't work right.
2. I don't get a discount for doing a cashier's job.
3. And most importantly, they take a job away from someone.

I've had cashier's thank me for not using the self serve units, especially when they hear item number 3 on my list. If I have a few items and the normal cashiers are backed up, then I head to the tool rental to check out or the garden center during the warm months when its open.

Another time I was in Doh's to get sprinkler head nozzle for my Mom's irrigation system. Of course it was a Sunday, and the self serve stations were acting up. Rob the head cashier spent his time trying to fix the machine instead of calling for cashiers to get the growing lines of people taken care of. I finally yelled out, "Hey Rob, how about some of that Customer Satisfaction is our top priority that the sign says, and get some cashiers online!" A couple of guys about my age behind me commented that I must have been an officer in the military. I replied, "Nope I wasn't in the service; I'm just a cranky middle aged man with a low tolerance for incompetence."

 

[Soundguy]

I'm just a cranky middle aged man with a low tolerance for incompetence."

I heard that.

No matter what job you have... from picking trash to making precision parts.. just try to exercise it with a little competence.... It's the chronic underachievers that really boils me..

soundguy

 

[germ-X]

always a problem where i am. kids go in and grab stuff and told to put it back and just throw it in the nearest box. not easy to notice that one though.

 

[Scooby074]

Self checkouts... theres something that ticks me off/... For an item or two, then yeah, when they're working its not too bad. If i hear "unexpected item in bagging area" or "please wait for assistance" again i think ill lose it. I think they got it backwards, one or two self checkouts and 4 or 6 cashiers would be the perfect mix, not the other way around. I have to laugh when they say that customers prefer the self checkouts and that they are actually quicker????.... Then you get the people who are trying to check out a whole house worth of goods.... Tell me how a self checkout is faster than a trained cashier again?

For you guys like myself that hate lazy or incompetent people you should be thankful that Canadian Tire hasnt expanded down your way...i swear the kids that work there now would forget to breathe if somebody didnt remind them. Cdn Tire used to be a great store, really good service with older employees (especially in the auto parts section) and carried alot of made in canada goods. Now its staffed by high school kids and carries mostly imported junk. Way to ruin a company.

Sorry for the rant.. I just got back from the above store and im kinda ticked...

 

[mjncad]

always a problem where i am. kids go in and grab stuff and told to put it back and just throw it in the nearest box. not easy to notice that one though.

It's not just the kids as the adults are just as bad.

 

[mjncad]

Self checkouts... theres something that ticks me off/... For an item or two, then yeah, when they're working its not too bad. If i hear "unexpected item in bagging area" or "please wait for assistance" again i think ill lose it. I think they got it backwards, one or two self checkouts and 4 or 6 cashiers would be the perfect mix, not the other way around. I have to laugh when they say that customers prefer the self checkouts and that they are actually quicker????.... Then you get the people who are trying to check out a whole house worth of goods.... Tell me how a self checkout is faster than a trained cashier again?

I've had the cashiers tell me that they hate the self serve stations because they don't work properly.

 

[Scooby074]

Self checkouts and the like are always put in by management under the guise of making a better, faster, and more convenient shopping experience. With very few exceptions, I have yet to see the benefits to the consumer. If you ask me, its not about serving the customer like they try to spin it, its just one more way they can squeeze a little more profit out of the sale. Kinda like how some local stores are charging for plastic grocery bags to allegedly help the environment.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Kinda like how some local stores are charging for plastic grocery bags to allegedly help the environment.

The Green movement has been one of the best things to happen to "Value Minded" enterprises. It's the new buzz word for Cheap. This year a few of my vendors at work gave me cheap single page folded calendars made of cheap crunchy cardboard rather than the normal 12 page glossy calendars I've gotten in past years. The calendars were full of propaganda crap about how XYZ company cares so much about the environment, and that's why they're saving so many thousands of trees and energy to light so many households by handing out cheap calendars.

I did my duty and "recycled" every one of those calendars.

At least my hardware store that can't keep their bolts sorted still has nice calendars. I'm sure that somehow the mis-sorted bolts can be pitched as an environmental boone. They just need to get the right spin.

 

[ArTrvlr]

At least my hardware store that can't keep their bolts sorted still has nice calendars. I'm sure that somehow the mis-sorted bolts can be pitched as an environmental boone. They just need to get the right spin.

Do you realize how much energy (human calories) it would take for someone to go through all the bolt bins in this country and keep everything sorted out? My gosh, man just think if the person doing it was a (heaven forbid!) meat eater. All those cows being fed to feed the bolt sorters of the world, just the amount of methane gas staggers the treehuggers mind! And don't get 'em started on chickens and all the pollution they cause. And even if the bolt sorters were vegetarians, they would be eating up corn that we so desperately need for that good ol' E85!!

Proving anything can be spun. (Hope Al isn't a member here, he doesn't need any more ideas)
jp