Home Depot still doesn’t get it!

Does "big box" retailing mean that good service, decent employee training, information system and good business sense are impossible? Not necessarily if you follow Costco, but this world is certainly not the same everywhere. What follows are my observations following a recent visit and purchase at the Home Depot. To start, their retail floors are badly understaffed and whoever is available to service the clientèle is clueless. Most often than not, department managers are older men who struggle with an arcane store computer system and can’t seem to put one and two together. They are simply not recruited and trained as they should. Instead of paying Robert L. Nardelli, its former CEO a $210 million severance package Home Depot should put that money into a state-of-the-art computer system that would increase the productivity of its associates. Their promotional offers and rebate system are all deceptively presented and are a lot of work to get (the store must expect a massive breakage in that area) as the philosophy seems to focus on making it difficult for the consumer. We just placed a large appliance order from them because they’re located not far from our home, but the whole process was torture and my word of wisdom is “stay away from them” when you can!