Anybody know what happened to Home Depot?
Few years back I thought they were pretty good and the sales
people were knowledgeable and helpful.
Last few times I went to Home Depot, the sales people would sort
of look down or scurry in the other direction as soon as they
perceived that you might be looking for help.... and the
inventory (at least little nuts-and-bolts stuff) seems to have
gone downhill.
Too much competition? Bean counters running the show?

I haven't noticed any major changes at HD, but they did what Circuit City
did -- fire their semi-well-paid employees and replace them with lower-paid
employees. Circuit City service used to be mediocre, with spots of
brilliance (when I bought an Olympus E-500 in 2006, I got a woman who
actually knew what she was talking about), but CC is now downright lousy.

When Circuit City announced about a year ago what they were going to do
(they were "different" only in publicly announcing what other companies had
done in private), there was a great outcry, and I promised myself I'd never
shop there again. But once in a while they have something I want I can't get
elsewhere, or costs a lot more elsewhere. I just bought a terrific GE phone
system, and when I had problems with a battery -- that Thomson refused to do
anything about unless I returned the entire product -- the assistant manager
helped me.