How Home Depot loses a $7000 sale.
I started out in the tile section, but the selection was pathetic. I asked the fellow there if it was possible to order a black mosaic tile. He took off for a few minutes and came back to tell me no.
Next I went to the sink department. The selection was pathetic. The $400 kitchen sink I bought for the last house I built, and put on a cart to take with me, is now a special order item. The same for the bathroom sink. There wasn't anyone within 100 feet of the section, so at least HD didn't tell me no on those items.
Next I went to the kitchen cabinet department. The selection was pathetic. A sales person was busy pushing a ladder past me. So busy in fact, he didn't have time to acknowledge my presence. I did find a display of special order items, but by that time the guy pushing the ladder was long gone.
Next I went to the carpet department. The selection was pathetic and I think I'm being kind when I say pathetic. I've seen better quality carpet in low income housing. I did finally hit the jackpot in finding a sales person who knew something about special orders. He showed me what was available and I found one I liked. I told him I needed it installed about the 10th of next month. He told me it takes a minimum of 4 weeks and he couldn't promise installation within 23 days. (While on the topic of installation, he did mention that the quality of installation is guaranteed and only 25% of their customers require having the screw ups corrected.) He told me part of the reason it takes so long is they have to schedule someone to come up to take measurements. I had taken a floor plan with me, with all necessary measurements to the nearest half inch. He told me they couldn't accept my measurements and would have to take the extra time to send someone out. I asked him if there was anyone around to make executive decisions. He told me the person I would need to talk to was not in the store, and the only person around was the store manager. I had him call the store manager, who told him to tell me I would need to talk to the person who wasn't there. I thanked him for his time and told him I would make the $4000 purchase from a carpet store that was only too happy to accommodate my needs.
$200 tile
$500 sinks
$2500 kitchen cabinets
$4000 carpet
$7200 sale walked through poor management.
I did buy $500 worth of joint compound, glue, paint and a few other misc. items I was able to find in stock without any help. I also bought some lights at Lowe's because the selection at Home Depot is pathetic. It's fairly easy to understand why same store sales are in the dumpster and the average sale is about fifty bucks. There isn't a single person in the store from the manager on down competent to handle big ticket sales.
On the bright side, I guess shareholders can get a warm fuzzy feeling from the knowledge that top management is sucking down $30 million a year compensation packages while following in the footsteps of K-Mart. |
