Among my responsibilities while I worked at Menards was hiring for my department. The above posts with comments like, "this is a retail job" and "they make $12 an hour" are spot on. Finding quality employees is tough, regardless of the industry you're working in, and let's be real - if you came into my store to fill out an application, it's not because you were "looking for a career change", or "always wanted to work at a big box retail store". It's because you're in between jobs or didn't have enough experience to get work anywhere else. If you were a journeyman plumber who made $70k last year putting pipes together, you're lying to me when I ask "how long do you see yourself working here?" by answering "about a year" or "as long as you need me". That guy lasts a maximum three months on the job, and truthfully, generally isn't very good at stocking shelves, learning product, or showing up to work on time. As a hiring manager, I'm looking for the guy who looks good, smells good, has a friendly demeanor, can carry a conversation, and tells me he shows up to work on time. I have a better shot with that guy than I do with the one who is going to leave me for bigger and better in a couple of months or less.
From the consumer's perspective, the expectation that the employees of big box stores should be an encyclopedic representation of what the consumer just read on Google is far from realistic, and from my perspective - unfair. The "resident expert" that was mentioned above should never be confused with the guy who wrote Google. The resident expert is the guy who has been there the longest, read the most product labels, and knows where most things are kept. His word should be rock solid on those types of things, not "Will this Dewalt battery work in the Rigid charger I bought 6 years ago?" or "If I do this or that, will I meet code?" The consumer would never go into a grocery store and start asking the kid stalking asparagus for dieting tips and the right caloric formulas for weight loss, just because he's responsible for stocking produce and knows how to properly identify a gala or fuji apple. Why anybody would expect journeyman electricians to stock shelves in similar environments is weird.
The OP's complaint about the hand held scanner is fair. I can see how that would be frustrating. I can not talk about the inventory systems at Lowe's or Depot, but I can talk about Menards. We had a "floor count" and an "overstock count", which came to a "at-store total count". The product on the shelf and in the mega racking both fell into the "floor count". For various reasons: receiving error, theft, lack of accountability - the floor count gets thrown off. If I made a comment like 'if I have it, it's up there' it means the computer is telling me I don't have any "in the back", and may have some on the floor that aren't actually on the shelf, so the only place I could have it is in the mega rack. Big Box inventory is hard to keep accurate, and I would get bonuses for having an 80% or better audit on my inventory. Departments like Hardware, Electrical, Plumbing are INCREDIBLY hard to get bonuses in.
My question for @Sam Leon , why even bother calling HD about the ceiling fan? Why not call Hampton Bay directly? They know their product better than anybody else does.
