New twist on Home Depot and Lowe's

[TractorLegend]

I would say we as Americans have slowly brought this on ourselves by killing the small "mom and pop" places that offered service and went for mega-corporations in the name of saving a nickel. Then the giants will reward us by cruddy service and raising prices.
In my auto repair world we have the same problem with parts stores...we spend untolled hours daily calling them back to get the right part when the wrong one was sent, finding out where the part is/ why its late, dealing with people with nary a clue about auto parts and the like.
Pretty soon all that will remain is Costco, Wal-Mart and KFC.

 

[KubotaSteve]

We had a mom & pop plumbing store near us that can't be beat. They know what they are talking about and are eager to help. I remember going there one day with my dad. He was looking for those compression fittings that are plastic that take you from copper pipe to PVC pipe. Dad couldn't remember the technical name and the guy asked if he could help. Dad said "I'm looking for the fitting...... You know the one for people who hate to use solder." The guy said what size pipe and ran back the isle and said how many you need.
That was service. We were in and out in the time it would have taken us to get in the parking lot and walk inside the store at Lowes.

 

[LMTC]

I would say we as Americans have slowly brought this on ourselves by killing the small "mom and pop" places that offered service and went for mega-corporations in the name of saving a nickel. Then the giants will reward us by cruddy service and raising prices.
In my auto repair world we have the same problem with parts stores...we spend untolled hours daily calling them back to get the right part when the wrong one was sent, finding out where the part is/ why its late, dealing with people with nary a clue about auto parts and the like.
Pretty soon all that will remain is Costco, Wal-Mart and KFC.

Ditto and DITTO. We've seen this time and again in our business.

Just bought a new range hood, priced at app. $130 at Lowe's 20 miles away. Called the local lumber yard and the best they could do was $150 and they had to order it. They are 3 miles away. I bought it from them. Why? Insurance, that's why. If I have a problem, they know me, and will make more of an effort to resolve. Furrows was the big box just opening 20+ years ago when we built the house. I bought some fill-in lumber from them, but the local yard came in within $500 of them on $15,000 of lumber...now I realize that's a pretty good margin, % wise, but it was worth it for service. They exchanged any really bad sticks, brought what I want when I wanted it, etc. The extra savings in large volume retailers is almost always realized at least in part by a reduction in service. There just isn't any free lunch. That's why I figure it's silly to shop purely on price and then complain when you don't get good service....service costs a business too, in time and training.

 

[EddieWalker]

Dumbdog,

I know you've already ordered you carpet from Lowes, and this may only apply to where I live, but I've found that I can get a better quality carpet for allot cheaper from a flooring store than I can at Home Depot or Lowes. I've never been charged for removing the old carpet and to be honest, I'm surprised to hear of it. Most homes here are on concrete slabs and it's the same price to install it on concrete as it is for wood. The most I've paid for installation is $300 for an entire house of 2,000 sq feet, minus two bathrooms,kitchen and dining room.

Since then, I've done a few more homes and they don't charge for instalation anymore. I guess it's just added into the price of the carpet, which is still cheaper than Home Depot and Lowes.

I've also found that I can get tile and wood laminate flooring quite a bit cheaper from a flooring store too. But grout and thinset is cheaper at Lowes and Home Depot. Go figure. hahaha

Eddie

 

[DUMBDOG]

I realize that I should have shopped around, but the time I had to do this was limited as we are heading out shortly. It was my mistake in thinking that this would be quicker.

Lowe's called this morning at said the carpet would be in at the end of this month. Good thing my brother has a key as we plan on leaving next week.

 

[ScottAR]

I too am in the auto parts world and reasons you stated is why my store is among the big fish in our small pond. Everyone has experience and we try to help each other. I work for the green colored chain.

Call down the street in either direction 'Zone or Advance and very likely your gonna talk to someone that doesn't know what they are doing....

Few weeks ago, A man came in looking for a trailer wheel bearing... I found a number on the race and pulled the bearing # out of my head. Matched the cone of the semi destroyed bearing perfect. I found a seal# in the catalog for a matching trailer set. He was surprised, apparently he had just come from one the other stores and they didn't find it.

He sez "I wonder if xxxx is cheaper?" I sez "They couldn't find it, that's worth somthing." He glared at me while he was paying...

 

[DieselPower]

Oh, don't even start me on auto parts stores. I don't even set foot in the "big boy's stores". I have alway's, do now and will continue to buy all my parts from locally owned stores of which I am blessed with still having some of close by. The only people that know what a widget is, even know what a paper catalog is (god know's if it's not in the computer there is no such thing) and amazingly 99% of the time have what I need for that 40 or 50 year old vehicle in stock. I recently got a timing chain and gear set for a 1950's wedge hemi block engine at AQS auto parts in Westminster. He had them on the shelf, box's might have been dusty but he had them. I don't care how much more they charge, it's well worth it to me.

 

[cp1969]

Home Depot paid off there short term Pres. 210 million dollars to go away plus his yearly salary,but may purchase any item from Home Depot for the rest of his life for free...

I guess $210 million just won't buy what it used to...hence, the need for free goodies for life. I could make a pretty good living with that deal even without the cash--just go in every day and pick up a half dozen appliances and sell them in the parking lot for 50 cents on the dollar. Literally, a license to steal.

There is some aspect to our economic system that I am completely unable to understand. Why would any company give a under-performing employee (that's all he is, in spite of wearing $2k suits) that kind of money to leave? Why not just demote him to clerk of the plumbing department in one of their stores until his employment contract ran out? At least you'd get $6/hr worth of good out the the worthless bum.

 

[randy41]

it was probably part of his employment contract. and i dont know about any of you but if i had 210 million (or half that after taxes) i wouldnt be spending my time shopping at home depot. i might be at the tractor dealer a lot though.

 

[cp1969]

it was probably part of his employment contract.

Duh!

I guess what I don't understand is, would that position go unfilled if Home Depot offered it at, say, $1M a year, with no contract? Something in me says they would have no problem filling that position. A million bucks a year will produce a lot of applicants for that job.

Somehow, these boards have convinced themselves that you have to pay these utterly ridiculous amounts of money to these people. You don't. There is nothing special about them, they pull their pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us, and there is nothing about them that gives them any better decision-making capability than 99% of the population. If they do possess extraordinary ability, let them start their own company and prosper. But companies don't need to pay anybody these kinds of salaries to people who carry a lunch box to work, albeit a diamond studded one. (not to mention the idiotic notion of paying someone to NOT come to work!)

Corporate boards have to be the most obvious example of 'synergy' at work, except it works in the opposite way of the most commonly recognized definition of the word.

Synergy (as applicable to corporate boards, committees, etc.):Any group of people responsible for making decisions will make dumber decisions than the dumbest individual of the group would make by himself.

There is no other explanation for the squandering of shareholder funds in examples like this.