"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
Doug Kanter wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

Every worker on the site
was wearing steel-toed shows, safety glasses, and a hardhat. Building
trash was picked up off the decks and put in barrels, the crane
operator
had two helpers, the sidewalk was properly controlled. *This* was the
site of a GC who wanted to keep his workers' comp premiums low.

On the other hand, there's Home Depot. I was there two nights ago with
my
500-foot-long list of things for the new house. I turned down the tile
aisle
and saw a guy about to cut some tile for a customer. I wandered over
because
I'd never seen one of those machines in operation. The professional
sales
associate wasn't wearing goggles. The customer said "Hang on a
second....what about goggles?" The PSA says "The machine pretty much
just
throws off water." Pretty much. He starts it up, moves the tile to the
blade, and a small chip zings over his shoulder and makes a little
"clack"
as it hit the girder of the shelves behind us. :-) The guy just kept
going.
The other customer and I just looked at each other and shook our heads.




Maybe your Home Despot sales clerk was a high-tech worker until last
year, when his US employer took advantage of a tax credit to ship his
job overseas. So the fella took advantage of one of those Bush
retraining programs.

We have a wonderful local hardware store that I am fearful will be hurt
next year when a Home Despot is scheduled to open a few miles away. But
maybe not...the store survives on providing knowledge and service, and
you won't find much of either at the big box stores. A couple of weeks
ago, I was up there buying four sacks of fall lawn fertilizer, and got
to the cash register when I realized I had forgotten my wallet. "No
problem, Mr. Krause...just pay for it the next time you are in..."

Try that at Home Despot.

There are two real hardware stores within 5 minutes of HD here. They're both
busier than ever. I use them on weekends, but during the week, they close
early, so HD gets the money.

There was a third store that was the best I've ever seen. It was a 3 minute
walk from my first house. The owners (husband & wife) taught me everything I
know about house maintenance, and probably saved me a few thousand bucks & a
lot of time I would've wasted trying to get advice at Hechinger's.

Unfortunately, the store was on the border of two neighborhoods. There are
black people, and then there are black people whose minds are stuck in the
1960s and who think Al Sharpton is god. That last type - they'd come to the
store and say "You made me these keys yesterday, but I don't need 'em. I
want my money back." They'd get REALLY ****y when he'd point to the sign
saying "No refunds on keys". He'd politely explain that if the key didn't
work, he'd be happy to make them another one, but that usually didn't
satisfy the "customer". I was there one day when a woman of grandma age said
"You cracker asshole! You got a real problem with black folks, don't ya?"
The owner of the gun shop next door heard the ruckus and stopped over, just
in case.....

Once, he explained to another key return customer that he was a licensed
locksmith, and that if he took the time to examine returned keys, he could
probably find a few that he could reuse, but with a busy store, that wasn't
likely to happen. The customer said "That's bull****!" and stormed out the
door. Another time, I watched as a woman pulled out one of those
multi-compartment drawers full of assorted washers, let it dump on the
floor, smiled, said "Oops!" in a really snotty way, and walked out the door.
My son was with me that day. He was 4 at the time, so he was close to the
ground. He sorted out the washers and put them back in the drawer.

Finally, the owner and his wife had enough and closed the place.