Home Depot, you can do it, but good luck finding one of our employees...

Here is my first rant. It is a little long but it feels good to let this out. As you may notice I like tangents and will usually use parentheses to denote those tangents.

So, I just finished remodeling my bathroom. So, I had to take several (and when I say several I went to the Six Forks Home Depot so many times that one time when my wife an I were going to go to Miltons in the next shopping center over I pulled into the parking lot of the Home Depot and my wife asked "Why are we hear?" I starred at her for a second until I realize that gosh darn-it, we weren't going to the Depot).
But, on the times I did actually need to go to HD after the initial welcoming squad of employees hanging around the entry door it was next to impossible to find anyone to help me, I mean for F sake they have bright orange smocks on but they are still able to hide, how does that work? But as I searched the store and found people to help me I came up with the fact that really only three type of people work on the floor of home depot (there are of course cashiers but they know nothing outside the checkout line). The three people are...

The retired guy: "Jim" used to be a plumber or an electrician, or a carpenter, he spent 40 years working hard either for himself or other people and now he hurts. He has developed arthritis or suffered an injury and can't work any more, but, he hates sitting at home doing nothing so he got a job working in the department of his expertise at Home Depot helping others with advice based on 40 years of experience. Unfortunately there are less and less of these guys working at the Depot. They are staying on the job longer and making enough money to travel in there retirement years.

The Young Guy: "Dave" needed a job, he has rent and wants to eat and be able to drink with his buddies on the weekend and Home Depot was hiring. He can run a forklift, he can stock the shelves and he knows where stuff is. But he doesn't know what to do with anything in the store and he is the first to admit it. You ask him what you need to fix a particular problem he will say “I have no idea but Jim works this department I will go get him for you”. I have no problem with this guy and can spot them from across the store and if I am having trouble fining an item, or Jim, I will ask them for help.

The Manager Guy: This is the guy you need to avoid like the plague. "Mike" used to be Dave. He got a job at the Depot to pay the bills and worked hard and did hid job well. One day Mike's immediate supervisor quit and his job was left open. The store manager came up to Mike and asked if he would like to step up. He would get a raise and supervise a few people. At first Mike was hesitant but decided that he would love more money so he could by his friends more beer on the weekend. However, when Mike got into his new supervisor role he realized that he liked being in charge of people. Being the boss was fun and he decided to start trying to work his way up the ladder. Now, he walks around the store like he owns the place he asks customers if they need help. The problem is he doesn't actually know anything. All of the knowledge he has is based from one of two places 1. The book, Home Depot has a book (I have never seen this book and I am sure nobody will admit to it's existence but it must exist because all the managers give the same answers). This book has the most basic answers to the most routine questions and leaves no room for unseen problems. 2. Overhearing conversations between Jim and his customers, which is even more useless because it's second hand information. This guy needs to stay behind the customer service counter and not move from there. I once (years ago) bought items based on his recommendation and not one of them worked, I had to return everything and since they were opened I had to debate the return policy with the cashier thus a manager was called over. But, since Rick was the M.O.D. the fun part was the fact that I had to explain to Rick the fact that he told me to buy all the wrong stuff.

Now, I would like to say that I like Home Depot in general. Their selection and the products they sell are far superior (and usually slightly cheaper) to their direct competitor Lowes (which I am sure to rant about another time).