Threeducks wrote:

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:

"Threeducks" wrote in message


I've yet to get any better "service" at a mom and pop store. Instead
you get less selection, same or less knowledge and crummy returns
policy. There is a Home Depot two blocks from my house.

Sorry to h ear that. Not every mom & pop can be forst class, but many
are.

And many aren't. Just because it's small doesn't mean it's good.

No, but small and bad often leads to "out of business"

Large and bad doesn't.

I have
returned tons of stuff. Once I was there and the guy in front of me
returned half a deck worth of lumber, no questions asked.

And we all pay for that. Many people buy and return tools because
they are too cheap to rent them.

Guy I know did that. Got a bunch of plywood for a project. Couple
boards in, realized that... no... it makes no sense , but...
the plywood wasn't QUITE 8' tall. 7' 10.5". Perhaps that's why it
was cheap. I've also seen 2x4's that were stock size, but still green.
Not just wet, still oozing sap. 2x4 is 2" x 4" before it cures. And it
shrinks as it cures. We understand. Selling the post-cure size
pre-cure is just wrong. But it's how they get cheap lumber (perhaps
without know it - they just buy a deal from a mill).



They will carry the better brands that will get the job
done the right way.
Closed on Sunday. Open until 2pm on Saturday. Close at 5pm during the
week. Yeah, that's convenient to someone who actually works for a living.

Yeah, we have one of those here. Mainly sells to pros (who's living is
to build things). Kind of a PITA. So I tend not to get stuff there
when it's not a huge project (eg. it can fit in the back of my friend's
truck). I go to a different local store.

HD and Lowes carry mid line and lower brands. If you
lived near Coastal Tool www.coastaltool.com or a similar store you'd get
the brands professionals use, good advice, and the supplies that go with
them. Most big cities have a similar store.
I'm in Detroit, we have plenty of tool stores here. In many cases
you're further ahead just to order from amazon.com.

They sell top brands too. Just bad versions demanded by their lower
cost points. Plastic gearing, thinner fences. Same brand, just an
"-HD" model.

The HD near my house was built on a lot full of garbage. As part of the
deal, they cleaned up all the garbage, capped the dump and built a park
on half the land (to the tune of a couple million dollars) with the
store on the other half.

The publicity is good for them. It may be the only way to get into some
areas because others don't have the capital to do something like that.
The
town thinks they got a good deal when what they really got is another
giant
retailer. We all pay for it too.


Yeah, we're all paying for the extra tax revenue and jobs created by
Home Depot.

Tax revenue? Quite common (esp with walmart) is tax breaks.
And the $16,000/year jobs that then put the employees on medicare and
food stamps? Yeah, that's sweet.

We can move to well documented Walmart cases, bill:
| 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!

Right, if it's based on fair playing fields and competition.

Walmart, who refused to pass a resolution that it "not buy products made
with slave labor"... admirable.
Who pass out tactics to deal with recognizing and stopping any union
activity (workers rights, man, it's All American. or do you want to go
back to 6 day weeks of 12hrs/day?)

Pure capitalism would embrace paying their people just enough to live,
put them in Walmart Villages and pay them in WalScrip.

As it is, the VAST AMOUNT of money spent at large box stores LEAVES.

They don't buy locally, by and large. Displays are shipped preassembled
from CheapLabor Central to your community. Lights and supplies are
trucked in.

Guy who owns the Ace Franchise in town gets his display signs made down
the street at the (local) printing shop. The cash he "rakes in" is
spent locally.

There's a balance of economies.

As walmart is repeatedly sited, yet keeps going, it's clean that they
need a big ass "wake up" fine. Perhaps they next time they fire a group
of employees as a result of meeting at one of the employee's houses (on
their own time), fining them 2% of their net worth might pause that
practice.

No, these "jobs created" often cost your town/county and state MORE tax
money. The kids with no insurance get taken to an ER at 2AM when they
are sick, rather than to a doctor 3 days before. Guess what an ER visit
costs. Guess WHO it costs when the family makes $18k/year?


We are not a capitalist gov't. We are a representative democracy whose
businesses run on capitalism. Corporations are not people, through the
last 2 years has given them more rights that people. Ever seen a board
of a corporation go to jail because of their illegal actions? hell,
how often do rights of incorporation get revoked? Not uncommon as the
robber barons of the 1880s led to the Sherman Anti Trust act.


So don't use poor stores.
If you have a complaint, talk to the owner.
I've gotten my market to carry items that they didn't carry before by
chatting with a manager or the owner (and sometimes not).

Or stand around and watch your town become a community of service
workers working at the strip malls. Sorry, the local plumber had to
lower his rates because none of his customers could afford to pay him.
He'll put off buying that new truck from another local merchant for a
couple years. That washer can be fixed. Cut back a little on food
luxuries and building that deck, skip some movies. Fortunately, TV is
cheap and we can watch GE and Viacom and Disney tell us how wonderful
out lives are and how great things are. Ignorance really IS strength.

The race towards mediocrity.