On Sun, 15 Aug 2004 19:29:35 GMT, chuck yerkes
wrote:

larrymoencurly wrote:
"gfulton" wrote in message ...

...

I live near a Lowe's and a Home Depot in NW Phoenix, and the Home
Depot has been a lot better than the Lowe's. This Lowe's made pricing
mistakes the first four times I shopped there, but I thought it was
because of grand opening confusion, but since then they've made a
pricing mistake about every 5-6 visits, and their employees still
don't seem to be knowledgeable at all. As for returns, I've made only
two. One was for a pack of Dremel cutoff wheels that I didn't even
open (they were the thick ones, which don't last any longer than the
thin ones), but when they opened them to count them they dropped a few
and broke or lost some and tried to charge me for them. I asked for a
supervisor, but the first employee lied to him and said I had used
some of the product. I told him to take a look at the security tape
to see that their employee had opened the hermetically sealed package.

Another time, I returned some paint that had probably been mixed for
someone else because it was yellow instead of the brown I specified
(the dab of paint on the lid was brown), but they told me that I
couldn't return a custom-mixed color. (???) In each case I finally
did get a full refund, but I've never had such bad service, except at
Best Buy and CompUSA.


So you continue to shop at large stores who are so driven to keep prices
low that they hire people at the lowest cost possible leaving them with
those that can't get a job ANYWHERE ELSE that gives them a bit more say
in their schedule, pays more than minimum wage* with poor benefits.

And then you complain that it's not a good store.

Well no ****.

I've tried several of the locally owned hardware stores (often
franchises, but locally owned which profits mainly staying in my
community) until I've found the folks who are knowledgable and helpful.

Those invisible tips that make up for paying 10% more include things like:
"Oh, well if you're doing THAT, then you don't want galvanized - it
won't look good in a couple years. Use these instead and blow the extra
$0.30 for brass."
Or "try this is the brush and it works a little better. I been painting
for 30 years until I retired into workin' here."

And recommendations on a carpenter and a plumber.
Shall we discuss the lists of nightmare installs done by HD and Lowe's
"Contractors" (those willing to low bid and still give HD their vig).


*minimum wage:
"We'd pay you less, but they'd arrest us." (and yeah, sometimes the job
market dictates that they have to pay a little more, but by and large
it's the bottom dollar possible."


I like that Walmart has passed out handouts for employees teaching them
how to apply for food stamps and other state federal services. A House
of Representatives report showed that each Walmart job cost the
community $2000 in tax paid services.
But that lawn chair is only $2.49!

This is American twenty first century retailing! The only people who
don't like it are the people working in the Mom and Pop stores they
are shutting down! Mom and Pop need to get with the program and use
their vast experience working at The Home Depot! If lots of people
weren't shopping in Home Depot and Lowes and Wal-mart...they wouldn't
stay in business...it's Capitalism man...Capitalism at it's best!

Bill