the service at our HD has improved ever sinse the new Menards store opened
Menards is no better. I bought some carpet (well the wife did), and I asked the guy where to find the carpet adhesive - he gave me a strange look and said you sure you don't want double sided tape? I have never seen a professional carpet installer use double sided tape, not sure they even know what it is.
The nearest Menards does have contractor sales reps. The one that is assigned to the area where I live is a guy from my town. His job is taking orders and delivering items kind of like some of the supply houses do. But he represents all departments of the store for the most part, so he could be delivering patio doors, carpet, toilets, and breaker panels all in one trip. The guy that is in this position just started sometime the past year and I know him personally. His prior experiences, about 20 +- years as a sales person in an auto parts store and last 10 or so years as a service manager at an auto dealers repair shop (just the guy that schedules the repairs and lines up parts and contacts the customers, not a mechanic in any way). I think he managed a local Pizza Hut before he was in auto parts sales.
I like the guy, but when it comes to being an expert at something - auto parts is what he knows best and has experience with.
I sent one of my customers to HD to get a double duplex, raised surface cover. I even had her take one with her so she could match it. She came back with no covers, said the guy at HD said they don't make them. She even showed him the one that she had and he told "well, I don't know where you got that one, but they don't make them".
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Needless to say I went to the same HD and found boxes of them. I think HD makes it a point to put people in departments they know absolutely nothing about. I believe that if someone was hired and said they used to be an electrician, they would put them in the plumbing department.
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HD is not a supply house, they are plain and simple a retail store. Any store that does not specialize in one particular area of items is not going to have employees that know much about the products they sell, with a few hit and miss exceptions. Their primary job is to be able to look at SKU numbers and match the number on the shelf tag to the number on the product and to restock those shelves when new product arrives. Same thing at Wal Mart, K mart, Sears, etc. There are some higher up employees that may have a little more knowledge, mostly because they have worked there for some time, not necessarily because they know electrical, or plumbing, etc. very well.
Say hello to Cara for me.
