Well friends, Home Depot lost out on my big expenditure tonight. After spending the day clearing wallpaper from the downstairs bathroom, removing the medicine cabinet with its hideous side mounted fluorescent lights - encased in bug encrusted plastic, of course -- I went down there to pick up spackle, sanding blocks, primer, and a new marginally less hideous mirrored cabinet and matching light bar. After about 45 minutes of poking around and finding what I needed, the last item on the list was the matching Kholer light bar. It was prominently featured on the display, with a tag that said "Easy Finder: A12". I found "A" items listed in three different places on the shelves, but no A12, and nothing remotely resembling the item I wanted. Since it was 8:30 in the evening, I prowled the nearly empty lanes looking for help, and found three different people to tell me it was the guy who handles that isle that would have to help, and they'd get him. 20 minutes later I left the cart, with its paint supplies, cabinet, etc. sitting in the middle of the isle and walked out. My local Ace hardware is awesome, and they'll have nearly everything I need tomorrow -- and what they don't, I'll get at the lighting store 'in town' near the mall.

Now keep in mind that Home Depot, in an interview on NPR a week or so ago was talking about their new "self service" registers. Basically, they claim they're doing this because they're faster for consumers, and that this way they can move staff from the registers back to the sales floor to be ever so much more helpful.

Bzzzzt. Thanks for playing. Home Depot, like Wal-Mart, BJ's Wholesale Club, and others -- are deploying self service cash registers because THEY ARE CHEAPER. They need less people to run them. Of course, they're unwilling to admit there were too few people on the sales floor before and they're totally unwilling to admit they're trying to reduce payroll (unless you view their stock market reports, but who does that?). Even more amazing, is that the kind of store they are makes it nearly impossible to get out of there with any serious hardware through those lanes.

Idiots.

* Note: This link is actually being served by the Home Depot's website, not mine.

Perhaps it should be:

"You'd better do it, because we're no help."

P.S. -- I wonder how long it will take HD's PR people to spot this on the web? Bet I get a letter or phone call?