Non-Advice for Home Depot

This just came up in my RSS reader, Home Depot to Close 15 US Stores.

All I can say is "boo." Your management and policies suck. When treating your customers like thieves is corporate policy, they go elsewhere. The policy I'm referring to is the requirement to show your receipt at the door to a security guard who makes sure you didn't steal anything. Even though you purchased and now legally own the products, someone has to sift through it and check to make sure you didn't steal anything. Most people don't care and submit, but some despise this practice and choose to stand up for themselves.

For some reason, showing your receipt at the door is a huge issue for geeks. I think geeks tend to view it as imposing false authority and that never sits well with enlightened people. If you can't tell, I am one of those people who find this policy reprehensible. Every time I read a story about it, my hands go cold and I get infuriated. There's tons more written about receipt checking.

I am, however, rather biased. The home depot that I go to is horrendous. The aisles are cramped and filthy, there's never anything in stock, there's always a paint department backup, and nobody ever wants to help me. I think they are all in lame duck mode. Lowe's purchased the land next door so Home Depot is going to pack up and leave rather than bother with competition. I'm sure Lowe's will make a great showing at first and then slip into the same "who cares" attitude within 3 months.

Here's my non-advice. Stop being douches to your customers and your employees. If you treat your customers like crap, they won't come to your store. Now 1,300 employees are out of a job because management is dumb. GG.