RANT on lack of KNOWLEDGABLE supply house employees

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As a former AutoZone parts slinger, it might help if you complain enough, to the right people. Start with the store manager if they do the hiring. Then move up through the DM and RM. One of the big problems with good help is the supply house can't pay them enough, the other is (coming from AZ) they can't treat them well enough to keep them.

Oh, I just had an idea...if you guys get to the point of letting people go, you could suggest they apply for part time positions at the supply house! There's too many variables to tell whether or not it would work well, tho.
 
weressl said:
..and we can thank Wall-street for that. You can only survive if you are a large, publicly traded company. If you want to be that, you have to maximize profit with minimum expenses. You can't afford to pay technically knowledgeable people to push your product that you set at a volume price.
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That is true to some extent. But I do not blame them. It is very hard to compete with the guys who are making the customers do the leg work.

Most customers want to pay the lowest price regardless of whether there is any significant effort on the part of the seller or not to push the product.

If you want technically knowledgeable people, they cost money. Order takers are fairly cheap. Some companies have actually done a very good job of using their web sites as a substitute for technical savvy, others have tried and made a mess of it. All are headed that way. Most customers have adapted pretty well to the transfer of the technical knowledge to the web site and centralized tech support lines. Others have not.
 
brian john said:
What has happened to the employees at supply houses. I have an emergency I need a 400 AMP GE fusible QMR bucket for a MCC, located over 100 miles away.

I had all the necessary information but no luck, one guy says 3-5 days before the factory sales office will assist him in obtaining the pricing. Second guy can't even locate anything and says he can't help without additional information.

I do a web search for GE 400 amp QMR and while it take maybe 10 minutes, I was able to locate the item and printed a NICE FULL COLOR picture and sent to him.

I also called my after market guy, he knew EXACTLY what I needed and had two sitting there. (I want new).
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Brian, by chance did you try " Big Orange" ? I know Loews would not have it, they are too much driven to the residence market. Who knows, they may have accidentally sat one on the shelf next in the Garden Section....I can just hear the computer voice over the speaker now........" Special assistance needed in the MCC section."
 
dduffee260 said:
Brian, by chance did you try " Big Orange" ? I know Loews would not have it, they are too much driven to the residence market. Who knows, they may have accidentally sat one on the shelf next in the Garden Section....I can just hear the computer voice over the speaker now........" Special assistance needed in the MCC section."
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:) soon coming to the Big Box Stores.
 
ItsHot said:
Seems like a lot of the supply houses put the "newbee" at the counter way to early!:-?
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Yeah, unless they guy is really bright, he should just have to unload trucks and put stock away for a year or two.
 
When I was purchasing I evolved to electronics. I'd use websites or EPIC software to locate part numbers/pictures then send parts & availability requests via email or fax to suppliers, Graybar has a website you can purchase from (after you get an account set up).

I evolved this way because suppliers didn't understand what we needed or they didn't know (or want to know) how to locate certain parts. Even commodity purchasing to start a project can be a mess.

You do hope you can get standard parts for service work though! I hate the counter guy approach anyway; I always want excellent phone contact especially for service work. I don't want the counter guy's design opinion or attempt to change my application; they are not qualified journeyman and its bias to whatever they are trying to sell, but if I ask I do want this so they need to know their product.
 
I generally need off the wall products and deal strictly with the "old guys" in inside sales. These guys are retiring and leaving a void. I think part of the problem is the old guys all used catalogs and had to search harder. The new sales guys want you to furnish a part number, DOM, SN, plant of origin, guy/gal who assembled the equipment and their middle name.

HD for screws for me thats about all I can get there.

I think HD has taken the easy money out of supply houses, fixtures, romex, MC and boxes.
 
brian john said:
I think HD has taken the easy money out of supply houses, fixtures, romex, MC and boxes.
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They have not all but single handedly helped destroy the supply chain of construction material for many trades. Lumber yards are vanishing, plumbing fixture supply, landscaping.... you name it. Electrical supply places that dealt with heavier gear, but used sales of smaller gear and the resi market with say lighting supply to support that are disappearing fast.

Remember White Cap and Viking Supply??? Drove them down, bought them - destroyed them more - then threw them away.

Much like the way Starbucks and thier cometitor Peets that they own as well - are destroying coffee shops on a global scale. I think Dunkins biggest fear is the Starbucks donut.

There might be a day when we are forced to get electrical supplies at Walmart......
 
e57 said:
They have not all but single handedly helped destroy the supply chain of construction material for many trades. Lumber yards are vanishing, plumbing fixture supply, landscaping.... you name it.
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Not here...despite the proliferation of Lowes and HD in recent years, we still have a wide variety of professional trade suppliers for everything you can think of. In fact, it's getting to the point where the suppliers are starting to saturate the market, at least with the electrical distributors.
 
peter d said:
Not here...despite the proliferation of Lowes and HD in recent years, we still have a wide variety of professional trade suppliers for everything you can think of. In fact, it's getting to the point where the suppliers are starting to saturate the market, at least with the electrical distributors.
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around here the commodity parts like conduit, wire, and outlets are available at every supply house, along with all the big box lumber yards.

a few supply houses have died off, but it is because they refused to adapt to a changing market place. the buggy whip guys are gone, too.

the supply houses that are thriving are those that started carrying higher end products like PLCs and industrial control products.

I have also noticed that the supply houses chains are doing a lot better than the mom and pop guys. most of the mom and pop guys are long gone.
 
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