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

To: MaryinRed who wrote (1119)	11/25/2002 4:50:30 PM
From: Bald Eagle	Respond to of 1169

I wanted to buy 400 shares today, but messed up and accidentally bought 800. I hit the Netscape Stop button before the next page had come up, to toggle the dividend reinvestment button, then re-entered the trade, but both trades went through! Damn Schwab web site! They wouldn't cancel one of the transactions for me.One went through at 25.42 and the other at 25.43. Well, I only went a few dollars over my margin requirements, so I'm holding them all for now. I'm up 2 1/2 cents at the close :-)

To: MaryinRed who wrote (1119)	12/3/2002 5:01:42 PM
From: Bald Eagle	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1169

Check yourself out at Home Depot Tuesday, December 3, 2002 Posted: 9:32 AM EST (1432 GMT) ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The Home Depot's do-it-yourself clientele can now do it themselves at the checkout counter as part of a technology upgrade the company promises will make for shorter lines and faster service. The touch-screen checkout counters have been used in supermarkets since 1995. Nationwide, more customers are embracing self-scan checkouts at grocery and discount stores, prompting big chains to increase the number of do-it-yourself registers. But they'll be a first for a home improvement store chain. "It should add a lot of value to the company because it will reduce the need for additional personnel and increase their ability to service their customers faster," said Nathan Lewis, an analyst with Jackson Securities Inc. in Atlanta. Moving from full-time to part-time The technology also could help Home Depot with a proposal it announced earlier this year to shift more employees from full-time to part-time status, Lewis said. Four self-service checkout terminals are being set up in about 800 city locations to replace two or three employee-operated stations. The company also is buying performance software to assess cashiers' skills. Sixty percent of Home Depot staff are full-time. The other 40 percent are part-time. Company spokesman Don Harrison said the retailer's move to self-checkout is not an attempt to cut staff. "Nobody is losing a job or being displaced as a result of this," he said. "We can always use help back in the aisles waiting on customers. Will it mean a shift toward more part-time work? I don't know." Holding customers' hands The nation's largest home improvement store chain has partnered with NCR Corp. for the equipment and Microsoft for its Windows software. The technology is called FAST, for Front-end Accuracy and Service Transformation. The Home Depot self-checkout terminals walk customers through the process, with computerized voices talking to them as they scan their items. Customers can choose between English or Spanish. At one Atlanta Home Depot store, restaurant manager Mike Clark, 35, used the self-checkout to buy a snow shovel and a rake in less than three minutes. "I look at it like you are getting four machines for the price of one employee," Clark said. "It's very efficient." Optimal Robotics Corp. of Montreal sold the first self-checkout scanner in 1995, and has since put more than 5,000 units in grocery and retail stores.