Here in Canada, Home Depot is not too bad yet but getting worse. There used
to be 15 cashouts in the local store, they are down to two regular and one
for lumber. They used to stock an suppliers entire line down to the last
little item, now it is only the big sellers. They squeezed in appliances and
dropped hardwood veneer plywoods and only carry some thicknesses of plywood,
mdf and other sheet goods. If you want other thicknesses, go elsewhere.

When I can, I go to the local Revy Store, unfortunately it is very small but
they can pack in almost as much merchandise as Home Depot, except building
materials which are outside and sheet goods which they don't have much room
for. They have cashiers and floor help and a bigger variety of many items.

We used to have 5 lumberyards and 3 hardware stores, now we are down to
Revy, and Home Depot with some Canadian Tires which don't carry lumber and
building supplies. The one good lumberyard closed its local store and moved
to its rural store where it still is if you want a 30 mile round trip.


"Ed Walsh" wrote in message
...
I long since stopped using the Home Depots in my part of Georgia. Same
reasons - less people, prices suck, inventory is really bad, and
salespeople are more often than not clueless about their aisle.

What's behind their downfall is the original founders are long gone and
the bean counters are in control and are setting the rules. We all know
how companies do when the bean counters run them. Interestingly enough I
scanned a report the other day off the net where a study was done on
customer satisfaction for a couple of hundred stores. Surprise - Home
Depot was next to last. Sorry, I don't remember who was last.

As someone has already said, the market place will take care of Home
Depot. Their stock is dropping, their employees are quitting left and
right. Eventually the stockholders will scream and boot the current
management team out when they will figure out what Lowes figured out a
couple years back - people will pay more for good service. Lowes is
eating their lunch is pretty much every area they compete.

"jj" wrote in message
...
I used to shop a lot at HOME DEPOT around these parts, because it was the
closet to me. But a while back they eliminated all of the checkers except
for one and have those stupid automated checkouts that are a pain in the
@#$!$. There is no such thing as a quick trip to HD any more. The lines
are often 10 or 12 deep. Now I just avoid HD and go to Lowes. A couple of
miles farther away but a damn site faster than going to HD.

Also, I have noticed a lot less employees on the floor in HD than Lowes.

The last time I was in HD (months ago) I mentioned to an employee how I
thought the store was going down the tubes. They replied I don't know the
half of it. They mentioned something about a new CEO. Sigh, probably
another example of a CEO ruining a company while at the same time getting
rewarded with hugh bonuses.

How's HD in your area?