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Non-Tech : Home Depot (HD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Captain Jack who wrote (1099)	11/5/2002 12:14:23 PM
From: Don Earl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1169

Jack, I've been doing what I'm doing as an owner builder, so some of the options available to a contractor are not open to me. There are advantages and disadvantages, but it's a niche I've found I like. I do everything myself as a one man operation except HVAC, insulation and some of the concrete work, plus a few days of casual labor for things like setting trusses. I only build one house a year, but where a spec builder would pay in the neighborhood of $70K in labor for a similar house, that all goes in my pocket as sweat equity before a spec builder would be looking to turn a profit. I ain't rich and I ain't hurtin', I'm my own boss, I can work my own hours, I don't have to jump through a bunch of hoops for special licenses, I have total control of quality at every step and I don't get burned out by doing the same thing for years on end. The down side is I don't do enough volume to get deep discounts on materials, and cash flow is all out in the building phase, without quick turns. Still, I'm able to build in enough extra quality by being picky and careful that when it does come time to sell, the house isn't on the market very long. My last house was on the market for 10 days and there wasn't any squabbling about the asking price. That's all probably beside the point, but I am in these stores on a regular basis, and when they drop the ball on inventory and service, I probably notice it more than most people would, and the nuisance factor has a larger impact on what I'm doing. My current project has been the worst nightmare at the retail level than anything I've seen in the last 10 years. I wouldn't build a dog house out of the lumber I've seen at HD on most shopping trips. It's worse than the stuff HomeBase used to stock as economy grade. It just plain isn't possible to see a pallet of studs, with bark on the corners of every one that isn't warped, without it being intentionally sorted that way at the mill and sold wholesale as substandard. What it comes down to is an obvious shift in attitude at the top, with a strategy to bump margins by lowering quality and service. In retail, that's pure suicide which will result in better numbers for one or two quarters before the traffic count falls through the floor.