Home Depot Rant #476,352,939

[Podunkadunk]

I've heard several people mention shopping at stores in their town that are locally owned. I've tried that, but it seems that unless I want to try and get there before 5pm during the week, I'm out of luck, because most of them are closed on the weekend.

My case in point, I was looking for stainless steel 4d 2" finishing nails recently. Of course Home Despot and Blowes didn't stock them. Each of the representatives that I had to pull off coffee break in the hardware section told me to try store "X" in town. This was a Saturday afternoon, around 1:30pm. I drove over, got out, walked to the door, pulled the handle and almost broke my arm...it was locked down tighter than my wife's wallet!

I told my father (who was with me), "this is why Home Despot and Blowes is putting ma and pop stores out of business". So I drove back to Home Despot and bought galvanized instead

Podunk

 

[irwin]

Good. They deserve it. From what I've heard, their CEO has run the business into the ground. He'll probably get fired and have to fall back on a little $100 million golden parachute...poor guy.
QUOTE]

I'm convinced. The reason for much of the poor service is poor oversight, unions, (I do believe unions have done great things..but they'll sic the lawyers on anyone who points out the obvious making it hard to get rid of dead wood) and top management making obscene money even when the company loses so much money it would fill a civic center..

 

[Bird]

I've heard several people mention shopping at stores in their town that are locally owned. I've tried that, but it seems that unless I want to try and get there before 5pm during the week, I'm out of luck, because most of them are closed on the weekend.

My case in point, I was looking for stainless steel 4d 2" finishing nails recently. Of course Home Despot and Blowes didn't stock them. Each of the representatives that I had to pull off coffee break in the hardware section told me to try store "X" in town. This was a Saturday afternoon, around 1:30pm. I drove over, got out, walked to the door, pulled the handle and almost broke my arm...it was locked down tighter than my wife's wallet!

I told my father (who was with me), "this is why Home Despot and Blowes is putting ma and pop stores out of business". So I drove back to Home Despot and bought galvanized instead

Podunk

Yep, that's long been a problem. Texas used to have "blue laws" that kept most businesses closed on Sunday, but now most are allowed to be open 7 days a week (there are exceptions, such as car dealers and liquor stores) but many smaller businesses don't want to be open on weekends while the big stores are, and I can understand that. I don't know what the solution would be, though.

 

[weldingisfun]

I've heard several people mention shopping at stores in their town that are locally owned. I've tried that, but it seems that unless I want to try and get there before 5pm during the week, I'm out of luck, because most of them are closed on the weekend.

My case in point, I was looking for stainless steel 4d 2" finishing nails recently. Of course Home Despot and Blowes didn't stock them. Each of the representatives that I had to pull off coffee break in the hardware section told me to try store "X" in town. This was a Saturday afternoon, around 1:30pm. I drove over, got out, walked to the door, pulled the handle and almost broke my arm...it was locked down tighter than my wife's wallet!

I told my father (who was with me), "this is why Home Despot and Blowes is putting ma and pop stores out of business". So I drove back to Home Despot and bought galvanized instead

Podunk

The mom and pop stores stay in business because of the contractors. The contractors do their buying M - F 7am - 5 pm while you are working at wherever you work.
The contractors won't put up with the bull stuff that make HD and Lowes so frustrating for the rest of us.

 

[podagrower]

So, down in my neck of the woods, they openend a brand new Lowes directly across the street from the Home Depot. The service at this particular HD was never bad, most of the people there actually seemed to care. With the new Lowes open, they had to step up a knotch.
"Would you like me rub your feet while you look at those tools, sir?" kind of stuff...
I went across the street and got
"Would sir care for a warm towel on his face while he shops?"

It will be interesting to see how this battle turns out.

 

[Bird]

The competition between Lowe's and Home Depot is interesting, to say the least. Several years ago when Waco had neither, a new Lowe's was built about 2 blocks from a McCoy's and I think they put McCoy's out of business. Later, Home Depot built a few store in sight of the Lowe's. Now Home Depot has built a new one on the other side of town and I haven't been down there since so I don't know whether it replaced the older one or is an additional store.

In Lewisville, the Home Depot and Lowe's are right across the street from each other.

In Denton, I guess Home Depot was there first, but Lowe's built a new store quite some distance from Home Depot, so Home Depot built a new store in sight of the Lowe's. The old Home Depot stood vacant for a couple of years before they found a new tenant.

And since my shopping sometimes is affected by emotion as much as logic (like most people I think, although not all will admit it ), I used to really hate to give Ace Hardware any business because of their use of John Madden for advertising and I can't tell you what I think of him. However, where I live now, we have a nearby Ace Hardware store that has an incredible inventory for the size of the building and they always have someone there ready and willing to help a customer, so it's a hard place to beat for both service and for finding things I can't find elsewhere. And they're even open on Sunday.

 

[EddieWalker]

I avoid the big box stores whenever possible... part of it might be due to my van being broken into twice while shopping at HD and the other big reason is that it just takes too much time to get in and out.

I have 2 Orchard Supply Stores that I frequent often... although the selection has changed since the merger with Sears/K-mart...

I also will go out of my way to shop at an Old Time family owned hardware store because I get great service...

I second Tom_H in recommending Grainger... I can order a case of light bulbs on a Thursday afternoon and they will be delivered the next morning...

I used to go to the Orchard Supply over Home Depot all the time in San Leandro. I figured Orchard was charging me a few cents more for most items, but there was never a line there, I could park real close to the entrance, there was always somebody there to answer a question or help me find something and they had a good selection. After Sears bought them, the tools included Craftsman brand stuff, which I thought was a good thing. I like Orchard and wish we had one here.

While at the Home Depot on San Leandro, I ran into a guy who was doing an inspection of the store. That was his job, he travels from store to store and reports on what he finds or observes. We talked a little, and I told him about some of the issues that I had with the store and why I rarely shop there anymore. He agreed with me and said that it was the worse run Hope Depot that he's ever been in.

Sorry to hear about your van getting broken into. I forgot about that aspect of shoping in that area. I would park in places that I thought it was less likely to happen anywhere I went shoping. Living here, I leave tools in the back of my truck while shoping, and don't even think twice about it.

Eddie

 

[MossRoad]

I've heard several people mention shopping at stores in their town that are locally owned. I've tried that, but it seems that unless I want to try and get there before 5pm during the week, I'm out of luck, because most of them are closed on the weekend....

Podunk

Our little stores are usually open on Saturday's until noon... or two, or four depending on business.

 

[ultrarunner]

Sorry to hear about your van getting broken into. I forgot about that aspect of shoping in that area. I would park in places that I thought it was less likely to happen anywhere I went shoping. Living here, I leave tools in the back of my truck while shoping, and don't even think twice about it. Eddie

I can't imagine what it would be to work somewhere where I didn't have to worry about things "Walking Away"

I've had to replace the door locks on my Van twice already because they wore out from being used too often...

I used to use a pick-up but not being able to lock things up got to be too much of a liability... I carried my string trimmer to my pick-up from the side of a house I was working on, turned around to lock the gate and the trimmer was gone... I was never more that 40 feet away and only had my back turned the time to walk back to close the gate...

Home Depot was 12 Noon on Sunday and I was parked in the first space nearest the front doors... several people heard and saw the guy break-in and the alarm sounded... he was so quick darting through the lot with my sawzall that no one could catch him...

 

[Skyco]

One curious thing I've noticed comparing Home Depot and Lowes- I'm in the car a lot so naturally need to use a restroom occasionally and tend to note where the clean ones are in the areas I frequent. Home Depot restrooms are the nastiest, way worse than Lowes. Wonder why that is?

Of course a clean restroom is preferable and I just have to browse a little and usually buy something....