On Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:18:51 GMT, Lew Hodgett cast forth these pearls of
wisdom...:



Since I know some HD employees who are in a position to have knowledge
of the situation, I'll stand by the comment that internal shrinkage is
a real problem.

Fair enough. But - I don't speak on the stories of other people. I have
seen the Home Depot shrink reports. Besides power tools, the two biggest
shrink items are patio sets and refrigerators. It's not hard to find -
it's posted in every store. One thing to remember is that "internal"
shrink does not mean employee theft. Shrink comes in a lot of forms, and
it includes damage, which far outweighs incidents of employee theft.


That's not to say that customers are not a major problem when it comes
to "5 finger discount" activity, but when employees are taken into
custody and handcuffed while on the sales floor, on a regular basis,
you have to wonder.

Your friends either work in a rather unusual Home Depot store, or they are
grossly misleading you. Evidence that they are misleading you (or at least
strongly suggests that they are) is that Home Depot would not arrest an
employee on the sales floor. This would be handled in a discrete manner,
out of the eye of customers. Not only is it bad for business to do this
publicly, but it leaves the store open to litigation that the chain tries
very hard to avoid.


BTW, this is not isolated to one store.

Well - it's not common throughout the chain.


I won't go into detail here, but there are some amazing schemes
attempted to steal from HD.

Sure - people can be very creative. Some don't even have to get creative.
It's not uncommon for customers to simply walk out with a product. The
alarms go off, and (especially when the store is busy), the associates are
so used to hearing them go off, that they don't even notice it. Out walks
the "customer" with hands full.

Some are even craftier. They have figured out the ways to defeat the hard
tags and the soft tags. When these guys walk out, they don't even set off
the alarms.

The really good ones know when the LPA is working and when he/she is not.
The LPA is the only one authorized to tackle (if necessary) a thief -
though most won't. Associates and managers are not allowed to apprehend a
thief, other than to ask the thief to stop. If the thief doesn't cordially
accommodate that request, they can't do anything except maybe get a license
number on the car they leave in.


--

-Mike-

"Mike Marlow" wrote:

I have
seen the Home Depot shrink reports. Besides power tools, the two
biggest
shrink items are patio sets and refrigerators.

That wouldn't surprise me at all: however, here in SoCal. the garden
seems to take quite a hit.

One thing to remember is that "internal"
shrink does not mean employee theft. Shrink comes in a lot of
forms, and
it includes damage, which far outweighs incidents of employee theft.

Okay, was not considering anything but internal theft in my
definition. Strictly speaking, that is an incomplete definition.


Your friends either work in a rather unusual Home Depot store, or
they are
grossly misleading you. Evidence that they are misleading you (or
at least
strongly suggests that they are) is that Home Depot would not arrest
an
employee on the sales floor. This would be handled in a discrete
manner,
out of the eye of customers.

Of course it is discrete, but they are still cuiffed and taken off the
floor during business hours.

Typically these are not associates on the sales floor.

Well - it's not common throughout the chain.

Can't comment outside an area that includes maybe a dozen stores, but
one thing is crystal clear.

The day Nardelli showed up, HD quite being a fun place to work.

It's no wonder Welch didn't pick him to run GE.

The morale of the staff has gone in the tank.

It's not uncommon for customers to simply walk out with a product.
The
alarms go off, and (especially when the store is busy), the
associates are
so used to hearing them go off, that they don't even notice it. Out
walks
the "customer" with hands full.

So I have been told.

Some are even craftier. They have figured out the ways to defeat
the hard
tags and the soft tags. When these guys walk out, they don't even
set off
the alarms.

So much for the loss preventation group.

Associates and managers are not allowed to apprehend a
thief, other than to ask the thief to stop. If the thief doesn't
cordially
accommodate that request, they can't do anything except maybe get a
license
number on the car they leave in.

I'm aware of that.

Lew

On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:30:46 -0500, B A R R Y wrote:

J. Clarke wrote:

And meanwhile the landfills fill up with unrecyclable junk mail.


My town recycles it, window envelopes and all.

That's a good thing, Barry..
But IMHO, it would be better to generate less useless packaging in the first
place..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Mike Marlow wrote:

Actually, internal shrink at HD is not much of a problem. The much bigger
shrink problem at HD is outright theft (people walk out with nice new power
tools and nobody can stop them)

I'm blown away by how often the door alarm goes off, and the staff waves
them on.

You'd swear the customer is paying for something and leaving with stuff
they didn't pay for. Of course, no one checks...

mac davis wrote:


That's a good thing, Barry..
But IMHO, it would be better to generate less useless packaging in the first
place..

Agreed!