Maybe it's me, but....

I hope you’re right… I’d like to see them keep those jobs. Seems that jobs are a hard thing to come by these days….

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17) †

???
Associates APPROACHING customers…AND asking if they need help?
Man…its like Bizarro Home Depot….
watch out for a rip in the space-time fabric, or someone around there trying to divide by zero.

-- "Democracy is by far the worst system of government. Except all the others that have been tried." ~ Winston Churchill

You were obviously in an alternate universe. Did you experience a 2 or 3 hour loss of accountable time? This is indeed a strange mystery of time and space. bbqKing.

-- bbqKing, Lawrenceville

It used to be very busy with contractors at Home Ddpot about 7:30 am every Monday morning. The last few Mondays we stopped in for job supplies, the parking lot has been 90% employee cars. Hopefully income tax returns will kick up the remodeling jobs.

-- Ron,R.A.Shepard Woodworking,Massachusetts

I saw on the news yesterday that HD is laying off 7,000 workers and closing dozens of stores.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

don’t get to used to that it will not last with all the jobs being cut.

-- Roper - Master of sawdust-www.coloradocustomworks.com

I’m thinking it was an alien abduction. Be wary of the little orange men!

Could they have assisted you if you needed it? Maybe my projects are getting more advanced (maybe not) ... the occasion to have my questions answered is a thing of the past.

-- Just 'cause a cat has kittens in the oven, it don't make 'em biscuits.

I am in HD so much they know not to talk to me. I had the same guy once ask me 3 days in a row if I wanted a HD commericial card. I even had my teacher ID badge hanging on my shirt each time. On day 1, I politely said no, the school already has one. On day 2 I reminded him that he asked my the same question the day before and he apologized. On day 3 I wasn’t so nice. I said “I know you ask a lot of people, but I am here 3-5 times a week and other associates recognize me, why can’t you?! If you ask me again I am going to talk with joe (the mgr) about assigning you to custodial duties in the men’s crapper. ” I think he got the point, especially when he discovered that I frequently spoke with Joe the mgr about damage and clearance items for the school.

Our local hardware stores are also usually filled with more employees than customers. The twist, however, is that no one seems to be in their department at any particular time. If I had a nickel for every time someone has told me “sorry, I’ll go grab someone who works in this department” I could afford to stop buying from the bargain bins! ;)

-- Don't tell her I'm in the shop!

As annoying as this may be, they are just trying to make a living and keep their jobs.

My husband used to comment that he thought that I could get a job at HD. I would remark that they would have to assign someone to pick up the trail of bodies of the ones that annoyed me that I left behind. It would take too much patience to deal with that many people who don’t know what they’re doing and need help. I’ve had some really great people help me out, and some really not so great. The good ones probably can’t take the sillyness after too long, and the les than good ones probably get lost in the isles.

-- "They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." ~ Edgar Allan Poe

I frequent HD a lot. lately I’ve noticed I can’t walk 20 feet when another employee asks me if they can help. This behavior is about a month old. I wonder if the policy has changed and they were told to do this or if they are hoping good reviews might help them keep their jobs after they got the notice that layoff’s were imminent?

I’ve also noticed through the years that some HD’s have happy employees and some don’t. I’ve asked them about this and it appears that management varies from one place to another.

my 2 cents.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://gagnerwebsite.com/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

Could it be that it only “seems” like more employees because there are less customers? People have zipped their wallets shut so maybe it just appears to be more employees. We all need to shop more so those employees can keep their jobs and we can go back to complaining about a lack of customer service.

-- Like a bad penny, I keep coming back!

I went up to the design center near the doors once and stood there for several minutes while the two Borg employees at the desk sat and talked to eachother. They both glanced at me when I walked up, then went back to their conversation. I finally went to the front of the store to customer service and asked for the manager (who wasn’t available).

Usually most of the employees actively avoid eye contact, but recently I’ve noticed that they are “checking in” with customers more. Must be a policy change – maybe they were losing too much business to the polite folks at the Blue Box.

-- http://www.peteroxley.com -- http://north40studios.etsy.com --

According to Home Depot they are laying off those in the Expo furniture stores and closing them. I did not see anything about the regular stores though

-- www.cabinfevercreations.com