Home Depot boss responds to flood of comments

[Roy Clarke]

The UK has problems with the big sheds too, you're not alone. We're all our own worst enemies, we all want something cheap, and are then sorry when we get it. There is often a cost in time if you get goods cheap. We all feel the goods should come up to our expectations, but all we then get is disappointment. Everybody has the batch variation too, builders order lot of excess materials, skip the excess, and charge the customer anyway. Nothing wrong with that, the job has a better chance of success at a lower cost than having just enough.

The big sheds try to buy cheap, the manufacturer wants the order. After a while the sheds try to screw the price down, the manufacturer gives up, the sheds find another manufacturer. It's the materialist world, if you put quality at the top of the list you pay more per material unit, and buy inner peace.

Think how much some of the workbenches cost that are made by the people who post here, if you take the time into account.

I now expect the worst if I buy from a shed, sometimes I get a pleasant surprise :-)

[Paul Johnstone]

Interestingly, the baseboard comes from Chile. Hard to believe with all of the softwood we produce in North America that it could be cost effective to ship baseboards from Chile. Then again, much of the new hardwood flooring is coming from China, even though many of the woods clearly originated in North America. Makes one wonder.

Was the material prefinished? If so, that might be why it is made in China. That's why a lot of the furniture is made in China. If you finish a piece of furniture in the USA, you have to have a spray booth, respirator, safety equipment, etc. In China, they just spray outside without even a respirator and no care for pollution or the worker's health. I have a relative that works for the a furniture company and that's how his company makes things now.

[Al Willits]

""""""""""""
The UK has problems with the big sheds too, you're not alone. We're all our own worst enemies, we all want something cheap, and are then sorry when we get it. There is often a cost in time if you get goods cheap. We all feel the goods should come up to our expectations, but all we then get is disappointment. Everybody has the batch variation too, builders order lot of excess materials, skip the excess, and charge the customer anyway. Nothing wrong with that, the job has a better chance of success at a lower cost than having just enough.
""""""""""

Cheap? Maybe, but I'd bet most of who have been around a bit just want something that's good quality for a fair price.
Wandered into the local lumberyard last summer and asked for 3/4" oak plywood, was quoted a price over $200 a sheet.
I wanted A-2 and they just had A-1, but still $200 a sheet is more than I thought fair.
Found it for about a little over $100 at another lumber yard and it was A-1 and looked very nice from what I know.
Cheaper, but I doubt the quaility was any different, what I supect the difference is one was a well advertised place and the other wasn't, both have been in business many years though.

I think most expect a $20 sheet of plywood to act like a $20 sheet, and not be furniture grade.

Least you'd hope so.

Al...who just wants his moneys worth

[James Carmichael]

Dan (and Matt),

It's hardly headline news that big businesses are trying to make money. Shareholders demand that, or else they sell the shares and buy something else. In the extreme, the company goes out of business - bad for both shareholders and employees. Small businesses don't have shareholders - they have owners - whose main interests is ...... making money.

.

Amen, Dave.

Frankly, I find American consumers and stockholders (I am American, and am both) a whiny buch. I've been a software developer for many years and just recently jumped over to a non-profit organization. It has its frustrations, still, but not the same as working for public companies where eveyone is a slave to the quarterly filing, and focus on long-term goals for both customer and the organization is nill (lots of good talk about it, though).

If you want great service, go to a small business or specialty store, where they truly do value your business and care if you come back. If you want low prices and don't mind shopping and/or dealing directly with the mfr when there's a problem, go to a big box or online, but you don't get both.

As for the xCEOs big payout, if he was smart enough to get the contract, he deserves it.

[Gary Keedwell]

My take on this is that the new CEO will put things back to where it was in the 90"s so he can lore the customers back and then a few years from now he will tighten the money belts again so he can pull-out and get "HIS" golden parachute $$$$$$$$$$$

Gary K.

[Dave Avery]

Dave,

If a business is not profitable it won't last long and nobody is denying that. It's just that when the corporate managers choose to offer cheaper products or lay off the experienced higher paid employees.....well, they made a profit that quarter...and service did suffer just to make money THAT QUARTER. Wallstreet's expectations were met...but the decision wasn't made in the customer's best interest, and not necessarily the business's long term interest. I agree with you......Low price, high quality, best service....a customer can pick 2...unless, of course, corporate management picks 2 of the 3 for the FORMER customer.

Ken,

No real arguement from me. I said that HD will succeed based on how well they treat their customers and employees. If they do as you say, they'll continue the downward spiral. As you point out (I think), winning back customers that have been burned is X times harder than keeping them happy to begin with.

With respect to quarterly earnings, it's a fact of life for many big companies. The truely progressive ones - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway for example - eschew quarterly earning guidance because it focuses on short-term results. As more people figure this out, more people will behave similarly (or more people will buy Berkshire Hathaway stock). For an intersting discussion on the subject, Harvard Business Review had an article a few issues ago that's a good read. Best. Dave.

[Bruce Benjamin]

Yesterday I responded to the HD email address given by the HD CEO. Today I got a call from them thanking me for my comments and asking if I had anything to add. I talked to the lady for a few minutes with a few more specifics about my comments. She thanked me and said they are sending me a $10 gift card for my time. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. The fact that they are calling back people who send them email is a good sign that they take the negative comments seriously. $10 isn't going to change my mind about the problems with HD but I sure wasn't going to turn it down. Maybe if I wait long enough to spend it I will see some positive changes in my local HD. We'll see...

Bruce

[Joe Jensen]

I'ver read this thread a few times, and I've posted in it. It still strikes me that the old saying "you get what you pay for" still holds true. We consumers chase the lowest prices, stores have to cut everything to lower prices to stay in business, and then the quality and service suffer until you get where HD is today. WE are the root cause here. OUR obession with lower prices is putting service and quality oriented businesses out of business. I grew up in a small town. Walmart moved into a town 18 miles away, and now most of the local merchants are out of business. Whose fault is it? Walmart has a fiduciary and legal oligation to serve the best interest of it's shareholders. As long as they follow the laws, and serve the shareholders they are doing their job. It's the consumers of my hometown's fault. THEY chose to take their business away from their neighbors and give it to Walmart 18 miles away. Now they all sit back and bitch Walmart and how Walmart has ruined the town.

[Joe Jensen]

One more thought. Former Home Depot Chief Executive Robert Nardelli was a product of the revered Jack Welch GE school of management. GE has a very structured executive development that is supposed to create top notch CEOs. They rotate every two years. Light bulbs one year, medical equipment another, and then off to aircraft engines. IMHO all this does is create managers who run by spreadsheet. Nardelli had no idea what made HD great in the first place. Another failed former GE exec appointment was Mike Zafirovski as CEO of Motorola. Under his leadership Motorola languished and lost their image and position cellular. Mike Zafirovski is now CEO of Nortel God help Nortel....joe

[Dave Avery]

One more thought. Former Home Depot Chief Executive Robert Nardelli was a product of the revered Jack Welch GE school of management. GE has a very structured executive development that is supposed to create top notch CEOs. They rotate every two years. Light bulbs one year, medical equipment another, and then off to aircraft engines. IMHO all this does is create managers who run by spreadsheet. Nardelli had no idea what made HD great in the first place. Another failed former GE exec appointment was Mike Zafirovski as CEO of Motorola. Under his leadership Motorola languished and lost their image and position cellular. Mike Zafirovski is now CEO of Nortel God help Nortel....joe

I've worked very closely with GE executives in the past. Playing devil's advocate, Jim McNerney (he and Nardelli lost out to Jeff Immelt who was chosen to replace Jack Welch) has been very successful at both 3M and Boeing. While I don't like the results of what the GE culture breeds, broad generalizations are always dangerous.

Balance is the key. Those who focus on numbers and forget about customers and exployees will fail. Those who make customers and employees happy, but forget that there's a bottom line, will fail just as fast.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Balance is the key. Those who focus on numbers and forget about customers and exployees will fail. Those who make customers and employees happy, but forget that there's a bottom line, will fail just as fast.

Astute observation and very well stated!

[Joe Jensen]

I've worked very closely with GE executives in the past. Playing devil's advocate, Jim McNerney (he and Nardelli lost out to Jeff Immelt who was chosen to replace Jack Welch) has been very successful at both 3M and Boeing. While I don't like the results of what the GE culture breeds, broad generalizations are always dangerous.

Balance is the key. Those who focus on numbers and forget about customers and exployees will fail. Those who make customers and employees happy, but forget that there's a bottom line, will fail just as fast.

I can't agree more with what you said, especially the last statement. I don't doubt they were excellent at GE, at the top levels in GE managers run a diverse portfolio of businesses and nobody does that better than GE. I'm just not a believer in "general purpose" managers. Just because someone is great at light bulbs and locomotives doesn't mean they will necessarily be great at home improvement stores. They might be, might not, won't know until they try...joe

[Robert Mickley]

Well you can't have both
you either get quality
or you get low price

Which one is it going to be? I for one gave up on low price years ago go for quality, yes I have to shop two or three local hardwares, yes I spend some time on the phone. No i don't cuss cheap Chinese plywood when it warps while cutting it.

On the odd chance I happen to buy framing lumber I can bring it home stack it up and come back a couple days later and its not twisted and warped.

Face it they can spew their propaganda all they want. They are never gonna change.

I'm not going back to look but someone mentioned having two different baseboards. If you had bought that from a local mill or supplier you wouldn't have had that problem. I can go to my local mill and get profiles from years ago that they don't run anymore, but they still have all the heads. If i was doing a restoration I can go there and get molding even if they have to get the knives custom ground. Will it be cheap? NO it won't but the point is you get what you pay for

[Kevin Herber]

I haven't been going to HD as often as in the past. I read this thread a few days ago and found it quite interesting as I had noticed a decline in customer support.

A day or two after reading the thread I went to my local store and was approached no less than 5 times by employees offering assistance. I was pleasantly surprised.

Last night my wife's work group had a going away party for one of her co-workers. That woman's husband is a GM for one of the local HDs. We got to talking and I told him about this thread. He agreed that the new BossMan is serious about getting "back to the way we were". He is excited that the corporate emphasis is now on the customer. The bottom line will follow. They even brought in the original founder of HD to advise on what needs to be done and how to do it. The last 6 years corporate group is out and old blood is back.

I was impressed and will certainly be watching what happens.

Disclaimer: I know this sounds like a set up thread but I am not affiliated with HD in any way other than a customer who noticed, as we all have, the decline in service.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I posted earlier in this thread. The last 2 years, the only time I went into the local HD was to buy finishing supplies with the Christmas gift cards I got from my kids. Well, today I went in and had an interesting experience. No less than 3 employees walked up and asked if they could help. I saw significantly more employees walking the floors offering help. Finally one guy did help me and I asked him out of curiosity how long he'd worked for them. He said this time...14 days.....last time 20 months before getting layed off. I told him about this thread and what the new CEO had said. The guy helping me said "that's why they called and hired me back"....Further more he said let me show you a letter. He disappeared into the employee break room and brought me a letter he'd taken off the bulletin board in there. The gest of the letter.....the manager (Don't know if it was the CEO OF HD as I'm not familiar with his name) but this manager encouraged every employee in a 8 hour shift, regardless of their position or job, to spend 2 hours walking the floor to assist customers. The person writing this letter said.....if we don't take care of our customers, we won't have them or a business......Now if this same attitude holds for a while....maybe there's a chance!