On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 21:45:11 -0400, "Kyle Boatright"
wrote:


HD is based here in Atlanta, so the local media gives them a fair amount of
coverage. Some of the things which have come out in the last few years is
that the folks at the corporate office have more or less taken the power
away from the stores. Once upon a time, the store managers had a lot of
latitude on what to stock, how to price it, etc. Today, virtually all of
that is controlled at the corporate level.

Even so, with computerized inventory, they should always have almost
full inventory

(unless something unusual happens. I met a guy today who wanted 40 of
the all rubber elastic cords. He had about 20 in his cart, and he was
looking up at the big boxes 8 feet up to see if there were more. But
there weren't, it seemed, so he was going to another store to buy
another 20. He said he had a long truck, and he needed 40!

In addition, it has become much
easier to get a job in one of the stores because the company has moved away
from hiring experts for the respective departments (i.e. someone with
plumbing experience in the plumbing dept.).

I never noticed that they had that to begin with. Except one guy.

While HD hasn't devolved into
*just another retail store*, it isn't nearly as service and customer
oriented as it was a few years back.

The bottom line is that HD isn't what it used to be, although I still prefer
it to Lowes and (uggh) Wal-mart.

I agree with your uggh. The HD guy I talked to today confirmed that
Walmart is really opening a store only a block from the new HD, both
only a mile from where I live. I was able to boycott Walborg when
they were not nearby, but boy was it nice to be able to go to HD twice
in one day today, because I found something else I needed and it was
no effort to get there.

BTW, I don't prefer HD to Lowes, but there are a lot more HD's. I
only know of 3 or 4 Lowes in extended metropolitan Baltimore, but I
know of 4 HD's within 6 miles of me, and more farther.

I don't like Walmart because I think they abuse their employees, and
lie about it, and intimidate them so few complain.

When did Sam Walton die? They have been selling Chinese stuff for a
long time, I thought.

I used to work for International Paper by the way, but only for 2
months or so on one computer project.