My Peeve About Hardware Stores

[Iplayfarmer]

I don't expect experts but I do expect they should be able to read the label and know that armored steel flex conduit is not PVC plastic!

Get me started on Big Box Stores!! My peeve there is not that the associates are ignorant or useless. I know that going in. My peeve with Big Box Stores is that the associates will pretend to know what they're talking about rather than admit they are out of their league. It's as if "I don't know" is not part of their vocabulary.

To expect that customers will not mess up the contents of hardware bins or expect store personnel to sort them out is truly misguided wishful thinking not at all congruent with reality, unfortunately.

I know. I don't actually expect anything to change, but that doesn't make it any less pleasant or convenient for me.

 

[mjncad]

Another gripe I have with D & D (Despot & Doh's - Depot & Lowe's) is that they got rid of as many cashiers as possible in favor of those worthless self serve checkout stations. When I go into either place, you are lucky to find a cashier at the lumber/pro checkout and the babysitter cashier for the self serve stations.

I won't use those self serve stations for the following reasons:
1. They don't work right.
2. I don't get a discount for doing a cashier's job.
3. And most importantly, they take a job away from someone.

I've had cashier's thank me for not using the self serve units, especially when they hear item number 3 on my list. If I have a few items and the normal cashiers are backed up, then I head to the tool rental to check out or the garden center during the warm months when its open.

Another time I was in Doh's to get sprinkler head nozzle for my Mom's irrigation system. Of course it was a Sunday, and the self serve stations were acting up. Rob the head cashier spent his time trying to fix the machine instead of calling for cashiers to get the growing lines of people taken care of. I finally yelled out, "Hey Rob, how about some of that Customer Satisfaction is our top priority that the sign says, and get some cashiers online!" A couple of guys about my age behind me commented that I must have been an officer in the military. I replied, "Nope I wasn't in the service; I'm just a cranky middle aged man with a low tolerance for incompetence."

 

[Soundguy]

I'm just a cranky middle aged man with a low tolerance for incompetence."

I heard that.

No matter what job you have... from picking trash to making precision parts.. just try to exercise it with a little competence.... It's the chronic underachievers that really boils me..

soundguy

 

[germ-X]

always a problem where i am. kids go in and grab stuff and told to put it back and just throw it in the nearest box. not easy to notice that one though.

 

[Scooby074]

Self checkouts... theres something that ticks me off/... For an item or two, then yeah, when they're working its not too bad. If i hear "unexpected item in bagging area" or "please wait for assistance" again i think ill lose it. I think they got it backwards, one or two self checkouts and 4 or 6 cashiers would be the perfect mix, not the other way around. I have to laugh when they say that customers prefer the self checkouts and that they are actually quicker????.... Then you get the people who are trying to check out a whole house worth of goods.... Tell me how a self checkout is faster than a trained cashier again?

For you guys like myself that hate lazy or incompetent people you should be thankful that Canadian Tire hasnt expanded down your way...i swear the kids that work there now would forget to breathe if somebody didnt remind them. Cdn Tire used to be a great store, really good service with older employees (especially in the auto parts section) and carried alot of made in canada goods. Now its staffed by high school kids and carries mostly imported junk. Way to ruin a company.

Sorry for the rant.. I just got back from the above store and im kinda ticked...

 

[mjncad]

always a problem where i am. kids go in and grab stuff and told to put it back and just throw it in the nearest box. not easy to notice that one though.

It's not just the kids as the adults are just as bad.

 

[mjncad]

Self checkouts... theres something that ticks me off/... For an item or two, then yeah, when they're working its not too bad. If i hear "unexpected item in bagging area" or "please wait for assistance" again i think ill lose it. I think they got it backwards, one or two self checkouts and 4 or 6 cashiers would be the perfect mix, not the other way around. I have to laugh when they say that customers prefer the self checkouts and that they are actually quicker????.... Then you get the people who are trying to check out a whole house worth of goods.... Tell me how a self checkout is faster than a trained cashier again?

I've had the cashiers tell me that they hate the self serve stations because they don't work properly.

 

[Scooby074]

Self checkouts and the like are always put in by management under the guise of making a better, faster, and more convenient shopping experience. With very few exceptions, I have yet to see the benefits to the consumer. If you ask me, its not about serving the customer like they try to spin it, its just one more way they can squeeze a little more profit out of the sale. Kinda like how some local stores are charging for plastic grocery bags to allegedly help the environment.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Kinda like how some local stores are charging for plastic grocery bags to allegedly help the environment.

The Green movement has been one of the best things to happen to "Value Minded" enterprises. It's the new buzz word for Cheap. This year a few of my vendors at work gave me cheap single page folded calendars made of cheap crunchy cardboard rather than the normal 12 page glossy calendars I've gotten in past years. The calendars were full of propaganda crap about how XYZ company cares so much about the environment, and that's why they're saving so many thousands of trees and energy to light so many households by handing out cheap calendars.

I did my duty and "recycled" every one of those calendars.

At least my hardware store that can't keep their bolts sorted still has nice calendars. I'm sure that somehow the mis-sorted bolts can be pitched as an environmental boone. They just need to get the right spin.

 

[ArTrvlr]

At least my hardware store that can't keep their bolts sorted still has nice calendars. I'm sure that somehow the mis-sorted bolts can be pitched as an environmental boone. They just need to get the right spin.

Do you realize how much energy (human calories) it would take for someone to go through all the bolt bins in this country and keep everything sorted out? My gosh, man just think if the person doing it was a (heaven forbid!) meat eater. All those cows being fed to feed the bolt sorters of the world, just the amount of methane gas staggers the treehuggers mind! And don't get 'em started on chickens and all the pollution they cause. And even if the bolt sorters were vegetarians, they would be eating up corn that we so desperately need for that good ol' E85!!

Proving anything can be spun. (Hope Al isn't a member here, he doesn't need any more ideas)
jp

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Do you realize how much energy (human calories) it would take for someone to go through all the bolt bins in this country and keep everything sorted out? My gosh, man just think if the person doing it was a (heaven forbid!) meat eater. All those cows being fed to feed the bolt sorters of the world, just the amount of methane gas staggers the treehuggers mind! And don't get 'em started on chickens and all the pollution they cause. And even if the bolt sorters were vegetarians, they would be eating up corn that we so desperately need for that good ol' E85!!

Proving anything can be spun. (Hope Al isn't a member here, he doesn't need any more ideas)
jp

Right. I feel better now. I'm saving the environment with my bolt that's an inch too long.

Now I don't have to feel bad about burning fossil fuel indirectly with the electricity that I'll use with the reciprocating saw cutting the extra inch off.

 

[Soundguy]

Hacksaw! good exercise too!

soundguy

 

[jeffinsgf]

My local farm store (Race Brothers) does Grade 8 and Grade 5 by the pound. Stainless and metric are by the piece. Our Lowe's has added something in both the hardware and plumbing sections that should help this issue. They've screwed big buckets to the pillars near the binned parts with a sign that says if you've got the wrong item, put it in the bucket, instead of back in the bin.

 

[mjncad]

Self checkouts and the like are always put in by management under the guise of making a better, faster, and more convenient shopping experience. With very few exceptions, I have yet to see the benefits to the consumer. If you ask me, its not about serving the customer like they try to spin it, its just one more way they can squeeze a little more profit out of the sale. Kinda like how some local stores are charging for plastic grocery bags to allegedly help the environment.

Colorado's legislature is planning on introducing a bill to charge 6-cents for each plastic bag a customer receives from the store during checkout with 3-cents going back to the store. I already decline bags of any kind if I don't need them. Besides keeping them out of the landfill, I figure that I'm doing my minuscule part to save the store money and hopefully keep prices down. This applies to Mom & Pop stores mostly as Big Box Mart could care less.

With the Social Engineers in charge of Colorado's Gummint, I suspect this bill will pass the legislature and be signed by the Governor.

 

[mjncad]

Do you realize how much energy (human calories) it would take for someone to go through all the bolt bins in this country and keep everything sorted out? My gosh, man just think if the person doing it was a (heaven forbid!) meat eater. All those cows being fed to feed the bolt sorters of the world, just the amount of methane gas staggers the treehuggers mind! And don't get 'em started on chickens and all the pollution they cause. And even if the bolt sorters were vegetarians, they would be eating up corn that we so desperately need for that good ol' E85!!

Proving anything can be spun. (Hope Al isn't a member here, he doesn't need any more ideas)
jp

Since the USA has gone from a manufacturing economy to a service one; bolt sorters could be the cornerstone of the Social Engineers upcoming stimulus package to create jobs.

 

[mjncad]

Our Lowe's has added something in both the hardware and plumbing sections that should help this issue. They've screwed big buckets to the pillars near the binned parts with a sign that says if you've got the wrong item, put it in the bucket, instead of back in the bin.

Great idea assuming people read the signs by the buckets. How many languages are the signs printed in?

 

[Scooby074]

Colorado's legislature is planning on introducing a bill to charge 6-cents for each plastic bag a customer receives from the store during checkout with 3-cents going back to the store. I already decline bags of any kind if I don't need them. Besides keeping them out of the landfill, I figure that I'm doing my minuscule part to save the store money and hopefully keep prices down. This applies to Mom & Pop stores mostly as Big Box Mart could care less.

With the Social Engineers in charge of Colorado's Gummint, I suspect this bill will pass the legislature and be signed by the Governor.

Its 10 cents here. So instead of made in Canada plastic bags, they try to sell you made in china "cloth" bags for around a buck.Somehow thats "green". Im sure that the plant where they're made in china cares about the environment

I say, what about paper bags? Were closing pulp mills left and right so theres certainly the manufacturing capacity, they're recyclable and come from a renewable resource thats grown right here. But hey, what do i know

 

[Bedlam]

We tend to use both plastic and also the cloth bags.However usually never remember to get the bags to the store lol.
Just bought three of the cloth ones about 4 bucks each the first time out the side ripped out on one.I have some older ones my mom has bought and they are real material. well built and were less money when she bought them

Now that they are 'enviro in' it seems some have started to charge more and the quality if far less.
In the 'old' days as a kid i remember using cardboard boxes.

 

[Bird]

Do you realize how much energy (human calories) it would take for someone to go through all the bolt bins in this country and keep everything sorted out?

I have some idea because one of my brothers once brought me a couple of 5 gallon buckets full of nuts, bolts, and washers. They were so heavy I could hardly lift them, but I spent some time sorting stuff.

At the time, my brother worked for a company that sold and installed a great deal of all kinds of RV accessories, from generators, appliances, and air-conditioners to awnings, levelling jacks, etc., etc. Many of those items came with "universal" mounting hardware; i.e., lots of spare nuts, bolts, washers, adapter plates, etc. which were just dropped on the floor, later swept up and put into the trash bin. The boss said it would cost more to do anything else than the stuff was worth.

 

[Bird]

I already decline bags of any kind if I don't need them.

I do that frequently, and I realize the cashiers would be in trouble if they loaded bags too heavy for the old ladies, or so heavy that they tear and dump the contents, but it seems to me that nearly all grocery stores use far more bags than needed. We do use some at home for waste basket liners, and we keep some in each vehicle for litter bags, but we have a place to store the excess and periodically take them to the recycling box at Walmart.