ah... the joys of minimum wage. You do know what it means when an
employer pays minimum wage, right? The unspoken message is: "If we
could pay you less, we would"

That doesn't really attract quality help.

On the other hand, I HAVE been to some HD stores where there would be
just such a helpful "old timer" as you describe. It's rare, but they
do exist and it's usually a joy to speak to people who's vocabulary
consists of more than: "duuude" and "huh?"