Home Improvement Rant

Jayhawker

I am redoing the bathtub enclosure in our bathroom...tore the walls down to the studs and under the 50s vintage drywall I was pleased to find things level and square with no mold or not...just a matter of hanging green board, taping, mudding, sealing and prepping for tile....the adventure begins...

Thoughts for today; If nothing in life is a sure thing, it IS a sure thing that when I have to go to Menards I am going to walk out pissed off...

Going to Menards is like descending into the third or fourth circle of hell...you have all these lost souls wandering around looking for help and all the minions wearing Menards shirts are doing their level best to avoid making eye contact with any of them. Eventually, you give up on a particular item with the realization that they probably don't have what you're looking for anyway and none of the associates want to admit it, which is why they are avoiding you in the first place.

So what corporate buttwipe laid that place out? You would think that dry wall tape, joint compound and the tools to apply it would be fairly close together, probably in close proximity to the dry wall... wouldn't you?..,Nope! You end up doing laps for a for a couple of hours until the wife collapses in a recliner they have on display.

Here's some advise for Menards in a quest to improve your sweaty ball-sucking customer service....Build a corral at the entrance to the store and place 20 or 30 associates inside. When a customer enters they select an associate that will stay with them throughout their shopping trip...

Let's contrast this to a visit to True Value in the little town of White Cloud....we enter the store, go over to the plumbing section and in less than a minute there is a personable hardware store guy there who answers all our questions, throws in some stuff we hadn't thought of and tells us what we need to do and what we need to buy when we come back...

There....rant over....for now...

10canyon53

No Menards around here, but Home Depot and Lowes are the same story.  One time I was in Lowes attempting to find something in the plumbing aisle without any luck.  Could not find a Lowes associate anywhere.  Two attractive young ladies walked down the aisle I was on and in about 1.23 seconds there were two Lowes associates there asking if they needed any help.  I knew one associate was sufficient to help them so I hijacked the other one, much to his annoyance I think.     Walk into the local Ace Hardware on the other hand and you have to beat the associates off with a stick.

jbohio

I'm with you, Jayhawker.  A trip to Menards is usually a half day ordeal.  A frustrating one, at that.  The other two, just as bad.  I never, ever find everything I'm looking for in one trip.  A recent trip to Home Depot was exactly what you described.  I needed x, to go with y (forget what it was) an hour, and 3 laps around the store later, I found someone to ask.  Yeah, x is in isle 38, dude tells me.  I say, but, y is in isle 12, what the heck? They go together.

I'm buying more and more stuff at the excellent local hardware store.  Even if they have to order it in, it's worth it, to spend the extra money, in time, fuel, and frustration saved.

jbp-ohio

Before you head to Lowes, look up what you want on their website. If it is in the store it will say, ''free store pick-up'' and will show the aisle and bay it is in and how many are in stock......

https://www.lowes.com/pd/USP-DTB-G185-Triple-Zinc-Metal-Post-Connector/3376812

There are 42 in stock, aisle 16 bay 20............

jbp-ohio

Menards?? You get what you pay for.... It's Wal-Mart with lumber............

Old Ron

Around here Ace is no walk in the park. I usually get a young guy that knows nothing of what I am talking about. All I wanted was a reducer fitting ........he came up with no less than 6 fittings to put together to reduce it. I shook my head & said why not use just this one .......well that has to be flared sir ...... I replied yes I know & thank you now go stand by the popcorn.

jbp-ohio

It's just another Wal-Mart. The prices are cheaper and so is the (usually) quality..........

earlyagain

Sounds just like Home Depot here. 

Make_My_Day

I don't know what other people do, but when I am in Lowes, Home Depot or ACE hardware, if I can't find something on my own I search out a one of the employees. If I can't find one, I'll go to a cashier or someone in another department and ask them to send someone to my location. It's not that hard to get help if you ask for it.

mitdr774

Within a few miles I have all three big box and a couple small hardware stores.  At the big box stores you usually need a stick to beat off the employees trying to help while the smaller places have maybe 3 employees in the whole store.  I avoid blue and orange as much as I can due to crap selection and mostly only imported tools.  Green has more stuff thanks made here at better prices than a lot of the imported stuff at the other places.  I find the quality of the lumber to be better as well.  My wife left her previous dead end job of 9 years to work at our local Menards.  She has been there for almost 3 years now and has been slowly moving up in the front end.  While pay isn't the greatest, it is not bad for retail around here.  We don't rely on her income to live anyways.

Make_My_Day

cpj said:

Getting help isn’t typically the Issue. 
Getting COMPETENT help is the problem. 😬

That is true for the most part, but when I go shopping for something I usually know what I'm looking for and just need the directions to it, but if I need  technical help I ask for someone from the section that I am looking in. Although sometimes there is a few minutes wait for someone to show up, I usually get the help I need. I really can't complain that much about these places from my experience. Maybe the problem is regional and not system-wide.

CHIRO1989

One of my sons works at ACE, he is genuinely embarrassed by his lack of knowledge, but, stuff is organized by aisle at least so your in the neighborhood, the amount of rudeness he endures because he is not a journeyman electrician/plumber/mason/HVAC is amazing, having the same last name as me and his mom cuts him some slack, until my friends an fellow Lions start asking him for flux capacitors and windshield wiper fluid

kansashunter

I have a small chain lumber yard locally that is ok but their prices are double or more depending on what you are getting. They give contractors a discount but not me so if I need much I have to drive to the city. They have all 3 with Lowes being the closest. The help in Menards has always been the best by far, always willing to help and most of them seem to know what they are talking about or finding someone who does. Maybe the manager makes a difference but if I need much I drive past the other 2 to go to Menards. 

zorba

The ACE that I walk down to is on the small side. They don't have the selection Homeless Despot or Blowe's has, and their prices are higher. But they're within walking distance, and I'll swear they have almost as many "associates" as the big guys do, but concentrated in a small area!

I recently found the "old" hardware store, a short drive or a very long walk away. They've literally been in the same location since 18-something or other, and they're far more "industrial". They're fantastic for anything that's not the usual "Home Improvement" fare, and they have several guys hanging around the cash register when I go in. You need them, you'd never find what you need by yourself, its a maze and a warren of rooms stretched between 3 different 2 story buildings. I bought some all-thread rod from them recently - any size I wanted, any length I wanted, and all available in HDG, Stainless, or Nickle plate. Some of it has obviously been there for decades - oh, the nylock nuts? Let's go over to the other building...

Best of all, their prices are generally far better than the "big guys"...

Farm Boy Deuce

We just have Lowe’s and Ace for big box stores. I avoid both. Ace has pretty terrible selection and Lowe’s is, well Lowe’s. 

There is is a small chain lumber yard that has most of what I need and just down the street from them is a locally owned hardware store/ six day week flea market. That place is awesome. 

For bigger projects I just use Locke’s. They have HVAC, plumbing and electrical under one roof. Three different sets of counter monkeys too, competent ones. Their prices are generally higher, unless I ask them for a cash ticket for my company. 

Fastenal is also just down the street, the company I work for has a national contract with Fastenal and a program that gets employees the same price. I ah e started getting a lot of stuff from there. 

Jermanator

You should have called. I know where stuff is in a Lowes, Home Depot, and Menards better than the employees. Making 2-3 trips a day, every day for 20 years-- grabbing materials for crews, I know where everything is.

tennmike

No Home Despot nearby, but there's a BLowes and two other locally owned places close that generally have what I want. The locally owned places are higher priced on some things, but they have what I want when BLowes doesn't. In Lowes, you're pretty much on your own, which, in my case, is good. I was in Lowes this week for a couple of items, and one of the employees asked if he could help me find anything. I'd just pretty much cleaned out the small diameter stock (1/4 and 5/16 inch O.D.) of copper tubing and was headed for the tools to buy some sanding discs for my little 4" disc sander. The store associate, young guy maybe 22-23, asked if I needed any help getting copper fittings for the tubing. I told him I was going to be making bullet jackets out of the tubing, and they didn't require any fittings. He turned kinda pale and left in a hurry. Checking out, I did notice some strange looks from some of the other associates. News travels fast, I guess.

Used to be a MAGNIFICENT old hardware store across the river in Kingston, TN. That place had stuff in stock dating back to the very early 1900s. The old guys that ran it were a hoot to talk to, and it was worth the trip to go up there and look around. All kinds of neat hardware that wasn't made anymore along with the newest stuff, all stuffed into an old two story wood building. It burned down several years ago, and that was one sad day.

Make_My_Day

Farm Boy Deuce said:

Fastenal is also just down the street, the company I work for has a national contract with Fastenal and a program that gets employees the same price. I ah e started getting a lot of stuff from there. 

I love Fastenal. They are mostly for contractors but I have found that their selection of Metric and SAE stainless steel hardware is excellent and if they don't have the size I want in the store, they can get it in 24 hours.

Michakav

jbp-ohio said:

Before you head to Lowes, look up what you want on their website. If it is in the store it will say, ''free store pick-up'' and will show the aisle and bay it is in and how many are in stock......

https://www.lowes.com/pd/USP-DTB-G185-Triple-Zinc-Metal-Post-Connector/3376812

There are 42 in stock, aisle 16 bay 20............

EXACTLY what I do! Most of the time I just order it for pick-up if I don't need it right at the moment.

10canyon53

jbp-ohio said:

Before you head to Lowes, look up what you want on their website. If it is in the store it will say, ''free store pick-up'' and will show the aisle and bay it is in and how many are in stock......

https://www.lowes.com/pd/USP-DTB-G185-Triple-Zinc-Metal-Post-Connector/3376812

There are 42 in stock, aisle 16 bay 20............

That is what I normally do when I have to go to Lowe's.  Last time I was looking for a specific electrical box and took the printout from the website with me.  The associate (who actually worked in and was responsible for that section) tried to tell me the computer was wrong and that they did not have the item.....until I pointed it out to him on the top shelf in overstock .....right where the computer said it was.  That was the only reason I needed his help.  As a non-employee I could not climb their rolling staircase.  The local Ace Hardware is a locally owned franchise and is pretty well stocked.  The associates also tend to be older guys who actually know enough to be helpful.

Jay

The little local ACE has been there for decades, still owned by the same guy. He’s in his 90s now and is there every single day. Not a big store, but if you need something oddball, they probably have it. I actually get more annoyed there because the employees won’t leave me alone. I know where everything is and what I need. I can get it done faster if they just leave me alone. There’s a bigger True Value just down the street from ACE. They have better selection and a little lower prices, but don’t have the weird stuff ACE usually has. 

Jay

If I have a project going and need stuff from Lowe’s, I’ll sometimes get on their website and order everything for in-store pickup. They email me when it’s ready. Pull up to customer service, verify and pick up my order and I’m gone. 

zorba

I got into an argument at Blowe's or Homeless Despot one time over toilets. They had their toilet display on an eye level shelf - which meant I couldn't see the inside the bowls. Nobody around until I climbed their rolling stairway to look for myself!

"How can I see what I'm buying?"

Jay

I bought I bought a flea trap at the little Ace one time after some kittens my ex brought home had fleas. The coupon that was in the box for replacement sticky pads expired almost 20 years before I bought it.. 

mitdr774

Probably better than any new flea trap you can buy today though.

coolgunguy

As cpj said, finding help isn't the usual problem in our Menards... it's finding somebody, ANYBODY that knows a little about what they're talking about.  Each department has "the guy", and then a few other folks who may or may not have learned something in their department du jour since switching over from their last department... I don't expect a card carrying electrician or plumber to sell me what I need, but... they should probably know at least as much as I do about the things they're selling. 

jbp-ohio

coolgunguy said:

As cpj said, finding help isn't the usual problem in our Menards... it's finding somebody, ANYBODY that knows a little about what they're talking about.  Each department has "the guy", and then a few other folks who may or may not have learned something in their department du jour since switching over from their last department... I don't expect a card carrying electrician or plumber to sell me what I need, but... they should probably know at least as much as I do about the things they're selling. 

If they knew anything..... they wouldn't be working in a Menard's.

tennmike

zorba said:

I got into an argument at Blowe's or Homeless Despot one time over toilets. They had their toilet display on an eye level shelf - which meant I couldn't see the inside the bowls. Nobody around until I climbed their rolling stairway to look for myself!

"How can I see what I'm buying?"

Probably had to put them up on a shelf to keep kids, and 'The People of Walmart' from using them if they were setting on the floor.

zorba

That's a good point, never thought of it that way!

Fisheadgib

Make_My_Day said:

Farm Boy Deuce said:

Fastenal is also just down the street, the company I work for has a national contract with Fastenal and a program that gets employees the same price. I ah e started getting a lot of stuff from there. 

I love Fastenal. They are mostly for contractors but I have found that their selection of Metric and SAE stainless steel hardware is excellent and if they don't have the size I want in the store, they can get it in 24 hours.

We have a Fastenal here and I have an account with them but ours only sell stuff in commercial quantities. A few years ago I needed seven 3/16" pop rivets to repair a commercial oven and the smallest quantity I could get was a box of 500.

mitdr774

tennmike said:

zorba said:

I got into an argument at Blowe's or Homeless Despot one time over toilets. They had their toilet display on an eye level shelf - which meant I couldn't see the inside the bowls. Nobody around until I climbed their rolling stairway to look for myself!

"How can I see what I'm buying?"

Probably had to put them up on a shelf to keep kids, and 'The People of Walmart' from using them if they were setting on the floor.

Come on now, how else are they supposed to leave a "dry dock"??


A big issue around here, and im sure a lot of other places, is that its hard to get people willing to work retail.  You end up with a lot of people that need a job, but cant get hired anywhere else.  They lack motivation and generaly dont seem to care much.  This does not apply to all, but around here I find a lot of the non management employees fit into that group.