When the Going Gets Tuff...They Fail

Just a rant...

I'm flabbergasted at the big box stores and their slow response to the change in business volumes. I'm doing some projects around the house which requires me to order stuff from Home Depot and Ikea. I can't believe how disorganized they are. Ordering from Home Depot takes 4-5 days to get the "ready pick up email". Go there and I've waited for my order up to 50 minutes. I watch the workers bring one order at a time (even if its a paint brush) to the waiting vehicle. Common sense would dictate you'd put a bunch of orders in a buggy and wheel it to the waiting vehicles. They are all individually bagged and labeled anyways.
Ikea won't even let you order because they are too busy. "Try again later".

Are the managers even working? Or are they hiding? I never blame the workers, always management. I've been in management all my life and was responsible for adjusting to sales fluxuations. I would have got tossed if I failed at reacting to increase business and thus losing it. Their excuse is they are getting 1200-1500 orders a day and can't keep up. I can understand a week or two of a **** show but after 7-8 weeks they still fail? The suits at the top are not qualified to handle any kind of disruption. Seems like if its not smooth sailing they all go missing. What a bunch of losers!

Rant done.

Welcome to the New Generation. We have lost common sense

Three Home Hardware's in town and getting through is a joke. I call a little mom and pop shop 10 kms away and they answer by the second ring, have your order ready in the time it takes to drive there AND they still take cash !! **** the big box stores - support the little guys - they're the one's that need it !!

Semi related rant.. My wife went to Her Mom's today and was taking a surprise breakfast for them to share. She called in a pickup order to Cracker Barrel yesterday and scheduled a pickup time for 8:45AM. Paid in advance with her CC. Went this morning to pick it up, and when she arrived, was told "OK, we will start on it now"...She waited a half hour for her order, which totally screwed up her scheduled plans for the morning. (So, why advertise for a scheduled pickup time??) The damn place was lucky I was not there with her.... My Lady is very polite and non confrontational, so she waited and got the order. I would have been inside and very loud about it while demanding a CC credit!......

Stanton said:

Three Home Hardware's in town and getting through is a joke. I call a little mom and pop shop 10 kms away and they answer by the second ring, have your order ready in the time it takes to drive there AND they still take cash !! **** the big box stores - support the little guys - they're the one's that need it !!

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Mom and Dad shops maybe a little more expensive. But for what they carry and for what they have to pay out is totally understandable. I try to support those as well, I dont like big box stores. They only thing they have to offer is a job for someone that needs one. Unfortunatly. The box stores in the city here have desimated the mom and dad stores. There all but a memory. .

I’m done with Lowes. Two weeks ago I went and they had one entrance in and one exit. They were supposedly limiting the number of customers in the store, but that is the most people I have seen in there ever. Huge signs blocking half the isle telling you to stay 6 feet apart, plus the same stuff being played over the PA system. I couldn’t get more than 3 feet From someone. It was a disaster. I drove 30+ minutes, and it won’t happen again. I was already fed up with the lack of help in the contractor loading area. Or asking anyone a question about literally anything. We have a small hardware store half the distance away, but they are higher. What I can’t get there I can get from another location 30 minutes away. If I order enough stuff I get free next day delivery. I set up a charge account with them when we remodeled last year. Lowe’s and Home Depot are, in my opinion, bottom of the barrel these days and a last resort.

I see Home Depot as the main guilty party here. Typical example of "wanting it all" then not being able to handle "it all". They succeed in driving all the really great long time Mom and Pop hardware stores out of business then cannot even come close to delivering service or product because now some bean counter in Atlanta dictates what a store in small town Oregon should carry!

Big Bad Dad said:

Semi related rant.. My wife went to Her Mom's today and was taking a surprise breakfast for them to share.

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We're getting a little off topic BUT...
I have a 95 year old aunt who lives 450 miles away - on her own and she has no children. She has a lot of friends but in this time nobody is visiting. I called her yesterday and asked if she'd like me to buy her dinner from one of her favorite chicken places. Of course her biggest curiosity was how I was going to do it but once we got past that she said no "I have plenty of food in the house" so I waited a bit and then she said "is it a breast, with fries, ...". Anyhow, I placed the order at 4:00 for a 5:30 delivery. It was at her door at 5:30 on the nose !! I'd mention the chain here but they're only in Quebec, Canada.

Darius said:

I see Home Depot as the main guilty party here. Typical example of "wanting it all" then not being able to handle "it all". They succeed in driving all the really great long time Mom and Pop hardware stores out of business then cannot even come close to delivering service or product because now some bean counter in Atlanta dictates what a store in small town Oregon should carry!

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When Home Depot first came to my area in about 1999, I took a contractor job doing window and door installations for them for a few months. I noticed that while we were having a mild winter, the heat was always blasting and the store stayed probably 85+ degrees inside. Hot enough that people complained, including me. The manager told me that they could not control the heat or thermostat settings, as the HVAC was controlled by a computer in their HQ at Atlanta, and that's what the computer was setting it on. (We are in Virginia.... In what world does that make sense?)

No store can put another out of business but their customers can.

I always support the local business as much as possible. We have an incredible lumber yard that is locally owned that I use, for hardware we have a couple of old fashioned hardware stores around or I will use Ace since most are local owned franchises. I also have a couple of good local autoparts stores around along with a speed shop about an hour away that is great, it is also located in the area of a huge monthly cruise and is a major sponsor of it. I still use Summit some but will use them when possible too. I also try to support local restaurants as much as possible and avoid chains both at home and when traveling. I think after this there will be more support for local businesses that survive, at least I hope that is the case.