Yikes - this was one of the worst shopping experience of my life.
I went to go buy some supplies to build a chicken wire fence around a raised garden bed I have in my backyard and I didn't feel like driving to the place I normally go to get gardening supplies. At first, I was impressed by how well stocked their nursery was. There was a huge selection of flowers and herbs out front and I thought - hey - this might actually be a pretty decent place to get gardening supplies from now on.
As soon as I walked further into the gardening center, I was disappointed. First, there were huge pallets full of products, piles of unsorted stock, and shopping carts filled to the brim with junk EVERYWHERE. You could not push a cart through the aisle because there were piles of junk everywhere blocking all of the shelves.
I saw there was a crate full of a measly selection of chicken wire sitting in the middle of one of the rows. I picked out what I needed and then paced around the gardening center to try to find either A) pre-cut wooden gardening stakes or B) an employee that could help me find wooden gardening stakes. I could not find either. I decided to wander around the entire store and after a good 25 minutes walking the perimeter of this massive store; I couldn't find anything or anyone. I went back to the gardening center, spent another 10 minutes wandering around and finally found them buried behind a massive shipping crate sitting in the middle of the aisle blocking access to them. I climbed around the back of the crate and grabbed the only two left. Of course - I needed at least six. So I wandered around again trying to find an employee - to no avail. Meanwhile, I heard another customer calling "Hey - is there anyone around?! Hello?!" It looked like she was not happy either. Finally, I stopped a guy who was clearly annoyed with me because he was in the middle of something and asked him if they had any additional garden stakes. "I just sold 8 of those and those are the last two." He started walking away for a second and then stopped, "Hold on - there might be some up on top. I don't know how I'm supposed to get them with this huge crate in the way that's been here for 4 days..." He then leaned in and said, "Hey - do me a favor. You're a young guy - go grab that metal ladder over there and bring it here. I have to go make a quick call." He pointed to one of those giant metal step ladder things that was sitting across the gardening center and then walked away. I was thinking - isn't this a huge liability anyway? Don't they normally restrict customers from using these things because if I got hurt moving this thing, could I not sue Home Depot? I grabbed it anyway and brought it over. I waited around for a good five minutes for him to come back before I climbed the step ladder myself and started grabbing some of the wooden stakes. He finally came back and offered to get them down but proceeded to complain about how customers "come up to him constantly while I'm on the phone." He finally grabbed a huge pack of them. He then asked how many I need and when I didn't respond right away, he said "Please - just tell me how many you need!" The whole interaction was very uncomfortable.
I then went to go find a staple gun in the tools section. After wandering around there for a good 15 minutes, I finally stopped a woman. I felt bad because it looked like she was running around herself trying to help other customers. "Hold on..." she walked a way for a second, asked a coworker a question, then grunted and complained about how she is "so over this place" and "they need to hire more workers." This was coming from a staff! I asked her where to find it and she told me "It's in Aisle 16" and then walked away.
Honestly, I was about to blame the workers for the lack of proper customer service but what that woman said really resonated with me. This is clearly a management issue and they are driving their staff into the ground by understaffing the floor on a busy Friday afternoon in May. It seems like this location is operating with the bare minimum and they don't have enough hands to even restock the shelves to meet the demand of customers. They are clearly understaffed and aren't giving their associates the tools they need to provide good customer service. I've worked customer service jobs before and I know what it's like to work under horrible management.
This location either needs to staff more people or close all together because this isn't working. It's unsafe when you have piles of unsorted stock laying everywhere and the employees are so busy doing a million things at once that they feel compelled to ask their customers for assistance.
I don't expect a lot from the Home Depot but from a company who touts "you can do it, we can help" as their slogan, I expect corporate to at least give their employees the means to actually provide that help in a safe, clean, and organized environment. read more