| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Jay |
Posted - 01/07/2008 : 3:37:26 PM
This story might not even be worth writing. Or reading. That's why I'm doing it.
So I got this fishing rod building kit, and I need some two-part epoxy to attach the cork handle to the rod blank. So, here, it's a nice day, I wake up at noon and figure I'll tank down to the ol Home Depot and grab me a rat-tail file and some two-part, slow-curing epoxy.
Now, to take a quote from the worst possible source, Larry the Cableguy, "That Home Depot's a big store in there..." and yeah, it is. I march around the whole damn place, looking for the rattail file and I find it easy enough, but now for the two-part slow-curing epoxy. I march some more, and it is not near the staples or near the cutting tools, not near the flooring or the garden center. I march around some more, feeling douchier by the second. I peer about, scanning both asiles and all shelves, reading signs and such. No luck. I run into an elderly gentleman who was busy wrestling a twelve foot 8-inch PVC pipe out of the rack and into his cart. I mean, I litterally walked right into him. I apologize and try to help him with is soon-to-be potato cannon but he just stares at me like I'm a turd or something. I get angry.
I march more, quicker, angier, and spy an orange-vested employee. "Hey!" Shouts I, "Hey!" and he waddles over. I tell him what I need and he waves me to follow him. I do.
We walk through a maze of asiles. All types of hardware. Flooring to sinks to ceiling fans to drainage covers. And no two-part slow-curing epoxy. "He must be the new guy," thinks I. The machine in my head that turns bad situations fun started up.
So he takes me up to some kind of service counter which at the moment is devoid of anyone. He picks up a phone and mumbles something. We stand in awkward silence. I cough, he coughes. I peer about pretending not to be bored and angry. At last, another bearded employee comes charging around the corner, looking a little red-faced. He looks to me first and says, "What do you need?" Only it wasn't friendly, his undertones said, "What the fuck to you want so badly that you need TWO goddamn employees to help you with you tall, skinny curly headed bastard?" I say, "I need two-part, slow-curing epoxy."
"Oh." He says. His name is Phillip. Phillip looks confused. I didn't know that glue was such a mind-fuck. He picks up a phone and calls someone, asking "where's some two-part, slow-curing epoxy?" and nods, then asks me, "What for?" I say, "Personal Reasons." This, of course, gets a priceless look. He says thanks into the phone, hangs it up and takes me to the glue. Funny thing is, none of us ever saw it because they had one of those staircases on wheels sitting directly in front of the glue area. Phillip asks me, "What do you really need this glue for? You aren't huffing it, are you? Cause if so, I'm gonna tell Michelle to not check you out." I laugh to myself, because me being myself I'd already checked out Michelle at the counter.
"No," says I, "I'm glueing a barn together." Phillip nods his head as if it's totally logical, scratches his scalp a little, and says, with conviction, the funniest thing I've heard all day, just about:
"You'll need more than one tube, I think..."
I bite my tongue. I say, "No, just one will do. It's small." Phillip nods and trots off, turns a corner and disapeers into his natural habitat.
Anyway, I walk up to the counter and pay for my shit, thinking that if all the employees looked like Michelle I wouldn't care if they didn't know their asses from their fingers, I'd be buying hardware every damn day.
Moral of the story, don't go to the God Damn Home Depot, it's a big store in there.
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| 17 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Zachmozach |
Posted - 01/09/2008 : 7:50:34 PM
I agree there has to be a line. The consumer has a definite responsibility but at the same time if all that grandma sold was apple pie and yes it's not really healthy but if she was also wiping out the rain forest to by purchasing from orchards planted where rain forest was recently ripped up that adds a whole other dilemma.
I got thinking about this more and I think a key point is that in a classical capitalist economy consumers really would control the market completely but I think that's changed and leveraged a little more to the sellers advantage. It's not that consumers really have much of a decision now to go buy earth friendly building goods or materials because home depot pretty much corners the market in that area. It's gotten so bad that it seems to me that corporations are actually the ones creating what people need to consume by limiting choice and advertising etc.
Plus the biggest thing is that corporations are legally treated like people. However they are far from it and shouldn't be allowed to exist unless sanctioned for short periods by the state IMO. |
| Hopeful Rolling Waves |
Posted - 01/09/2008 : 10:15:33 AM
 |
| gnome44 |
Posted - 01/09/2008 : 08:51:19 AM
Yeah, I kind of agree with you on some points.
My recollection of Smith (please correct me if I'm wrong) is that his checks weren't totally applicable here. His concern was with people selling tree bark as baby food, or rat poison as medicine. If you're going to hold Home Depot morally resposible for what they sell, then you should hold Grandma resposible for selling apple pie at the local bake sale because butter is high in saturated fat (very unhealthy)...she's being immoral because she's selling something that is attributed to heart disease.
I'm mostly kidding here...but you have to draw a line somewhere. Home Depot is responsible for selling things that aren't complete junk. Or things that weren't created by torturing children in Asia.
And, Home Depot is being somewhat ethical. They made sure Jay wasn't going to huff the epoxy they were selling to him. Kudos Home Depot!
Obviously there's a line that needs to be drawn at some point as to what a company (or a person) is morally resposible for. I just get annoyed when people are so quick to blame "The Big Corporation" (I'm not accusing you of doing this). It's like when people complain about "The Media" this and "The Media" that. If it weren't for the vast hordes of morons that watch shows like "American Idol" and "The Simple Life", then networks wouldn't carry these shows because Nike couldn't advertise. Is NBC morally resposible for only airing educational and uplifting programming? No. They can air whatever they want. And if we don't like the crap on CNN of FOX then we can just stop watching it. "The Big Corporation" will give us whatever we want...which is what they can make money on. "We" obviously want this kind of stuff. "We" should be morally resposible for not wasting our time with that crap. The consumer drives a capitilist economy. If we want a corporation to sell morally manufactured or ethically harvested goods, then we need to only buy those things. But if I want to buy Oreo cookies...then I expect someone to provide them...and it's my fault when I weight 300 lbs and develop cancer.
I don't want to get too into this, so I'm just going to stop now...I don't even know if anything I just wrote really makes any sense.
Who knows...who cares? |
| Zachmozach |
Posted - 01/09/2008 : 03:13:16 AM
Yes consumers hold responsibility for what they buy, but just because someone wants to buy meth doesn't make it ok to manufacture and sell from an ethical standpoint. Home Depot could very easily start pushing greener products and better building supplies for building more earth friendly homes. Instead they sell a bunch of crap that people are just going to rip out and throw away in 15 years.
There's a carpet and textile company called Interface Inc. that is one of the leading business' in that field. They have gone completely green and all their carpet is made from recycled goods. This is a huge company, and if you go into a majority of public buildings and almost every school you will find their carpet. Daniel Quinn actually sits on their board. They are doing very well business wise.
Ya McDonalds may make crappy food that if you know what's good for you then you will stay the hell away from it. However, how is it not McDonald's moral responsibility to sell healthy products? If you have read Adam Smith then you know that he only viewed capitalism working when the people involved in transactions were part of a community because then you have a moral check against bad business practices since they would be your friend. Now with corporations there's seemingly no one to be mad at. So yes it's capitalism but that doesn't excuse Home Depot or McDonalds or all the other companies in that league for having terrible business practices.
The thing is that no most people on the board or in the offices would be as environmentally as anyone I would guess but their responsibility is to the stock holders and owners to increase profits. So why spend the time to make things greener and use better products? That's why corporations and capitalism together screw the whole capitalist system that wasn't so good to start with. You can't blame either side for everything but you can't not blame a company just cause it's trying to make a profit. In fact that's probably the most fucked up thing about our world is the companies that put profit over people. |
| Ranting Thespian |
Posted - 01/08/2008 : 11:32:04 PM
I'm going to sue fast food companies for serving me fatty foods! How dare they make me fat! When I got there to get a hamburger, they better force me to eat a salad!
in other words, I agree with you gnome. |
| gnome44 |
Posted - 01/08/2008 : 10:56:42 PM
That's not Home Depot's fault. They have no obligation to provide the most "green" supplies, or anything else for that matter. They can sell whatever the hell they want.
It's all of the people (all of "us") that are to blame. If "we" stop buying their lumber, then they'll stop selling it. If "we" only purchase green materials, then that's all that they'll sell.
And it's not like the Home Depot execs sit in some office and plan on screwing the environment and ruining people's lives. They just sell stuff that they think people will buy (two-part epoxy, for example).
I don't want to come off as defending Home Depot or anything...but that's just the way it is. It's not "their" fault or problem. It's "ours". It's a capitalist economy. |
| gnome44 |
Posted - 01/08/2008 : 10:55:12 PM
...something crazy is going on here with my posts...but see below... |
| Zachmozach |
Posted - 01/08/2008 : 10:16:24 PM
My problem with Home Depot is that they keep selling the same shitty materials to build houses that are not environmentally friendly when we could switch very cost effectively to greener building materials. My friend has an awesome straw house he built that insulates way better than almost anything and it's nice. Not like a 3 little pigs house. That among the many ethical problems most large profit driven companies have if not all. |
| Hopeful Rolling Waves |
Posted - 01/08/2008 : 5:57:57 PM
Nice.
WHITE MALE PARANOIA
AHAHA |
| rubylith |
Posted - 01/08/2008 : 3:16:08 PM
ECONOMICALLY VIABLE!
i watched Falling Down last night! |
| Hopeful Rolling Waves |
Posted - 01/08/2008 : 2:54:50 PM
Unfortunately, we live in a world where stores like that are no longer economically viable or efficient.
And you think Ron Paul is gonna fix that? AHAHA
You're cute, buddy. |
| rubylith |
Posted - 01/08/2008 : 1:09:44 PM
No more privately owned hardwares stores thanks to Wal Mart and Home Depot. |
| Jay |
Posted - 01/08/2008 : 12:53:37 PM
Glad it got a chuckle...I had to write it down while it was still fresh so I never forget it.
My main problem with the Home Depot is that it's there in the first place...seven out of tens times they have what I need (often its a strange and rather esoteric (correct word?) item such as "peg dope") but whenever I need, say, a 5/8s nut, I'm SOL. |
| rubylith |
Posted - 01/08/2008 : 10:18:30 AM
Funny story! Excellent use of "douchier"! Good work my friend. Now go huff some glue and play guitar! |
| Hopeful Rolling Waves |
Posted - 01/07/2008 : 10:31:40 PM
I go there for my home improvement needs, they usually are a help in terms of materials and tools, or if you need a custom window or door. Employees are generally aloof, there are a lot of ridiculous products, ad some shitty lumber; though, overall, I think people that don't like Home Depot are those who just aren't generally knowledgeable in building trades, as it most of the time will fulfill expectations. |
| GuitarGuy305 |
Posted - 01/07/2008 : 9:58:05 PM
I swear the members of this board tell the best damn stories. |
| Ranting Thespian |
Posted - 01/07/2008 : 6:26:14 PM
Home depot sucks big time. Plain and simple. |
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