My wife and I decided to get some plants and do some gardening, and she said that Lowes has a good garden section and the plant that we wanted. We headed over and looked around and couldn't find what we were looking for, despite the fact that the website said this location has what we need. We asked 2 people. The person at the register was just useless and instead of saying "I don't know" he started point us to go outside and look at the stuff in the parking lot. In the meantime, we asked another person who was walking around with a "Customer Service" vest. He said that he has never seen what we were looking for. While my wife was listening to these two clowns, I found them. They were on the shelf and where they were supposed to be. Strike 1.
We picked up what we needed and headed inside the store. I noticed a congregation of 4-5 employees all chatting and blocking the isle. As I went through the crowd, one older employee said "Ah you got such and such from the garden". I said yes, we looked and found it ourselves. He was somewhat offended and said he'll be out in a couple of minutes. What good will that do for me? I already found what I wanted myself. As I got farther in the line I heard him making a snarky comment and they all laughed. Whatever. About 10 minutes later, we were passing through the masonry department and I saw him chatting with another employee. So his couple of minutes is more like 10 or longer. Strike 2.
We're doing some gardening and I needed a dirt sifter (something to pour the dirt in and separate the rock from dirt, like a dish with a screen under it). So we went to the Customer Service and talked to one of the two people standing there. An older lady started helping us. After explaining what I needed, she said there's no such thing. I said I beg to differ, I have seen it and if you want to go way back, prospectors used to use such devices to sift the dirt and separate the rock and gold. They also use it quite a bit while digging for fossils, etc. So it DOES exist. She said "Well that's in a perfect world...". So while my wife was listening to this lady blabbing about nothing, I pulled up my Amazon app and searched for "Soil Sifter". What do you know... $27 from Amazon with 1 day free delivery. So I showed it to her and she said "Oh well that's Amazon, you can get anything from Amazon". So it DOES exist, I said. She wasn't happy. Strike 3.
We finally picked up some bricks and headed to the register. The only one open was a self check out. Everything had barcodes, but not the bricks. So another older lady came to help. She looked it up manually in one book, then in another one and finally pulled out the BIG BINDER as she called it and started going through the pictures. So I said I'll go and take a picture of the tag and come back. Masonry department is almost at the end and opposite of the registers, so I walked all the way down again (passing the customer service people) and took a picture of the tag and came back. By the time I arrived, she found the picture. 73 cents... The register has no way of searching for an item. It was the most comical shopping trip ever. Strike 4
To top things off, we started to dash out and get the heck away from that nightmare place, and was bombarded by the Humane Society people asking for donations. I told my wife we need to get away or I'll go out of my mind. Didn't want to talk about animals, adoption, donation... just leave. The young lady was disappointed that we didn't want to tell her which one of us was a "Pet Lover" but I had to drive off and put that place behind me.
My observation: This place will not last much longer. 2 employees in the garden area, 4 inside chatting, 2 at the customer service, one at the self check out and a couple more running around doing nothing. That's 11 employees that I counted vs. about 6 customers in the store. Lack of service, integrity, helpfulness and caring will be the downfall of this store and possibly this company. Will not go there again, unless if I know that they have it, where it is, how much it is, has a barcode tag on it and will dodge out from the garden area so I don't get solicitation about anything. read more