Home Depot To Cut 7000 Jobs & Close Expo Stores
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toggleswitch2
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OMG.
Homo Depot was the employer of last resort for many a construction and renovation specialist that was displaced due to a lousy economy and the resulting suffering construction industy.
NOW where are they going to go?
Now it gets even worse...............
Homo Depot was the employer of last resort for many a construction and renovation specialist that was displaced due to a lousy economy and the resulting suffering construction industy.
NOW where are they going to go?
Now it gets even worse...............
whirlcool
Well-known member
I thought those EXPO centers were owned by Sears for some reason. They generally had a nice selection of appliances, but the pricing was very high. I wonder if EXPO stores used sub contractors for delivery and installation too? Were any of those subcontractors used by EXPO able to speak English?
I think HD provides excellent customer service in their stores, but from there is goes down hill. My recent experience with them was terrible. The sales personnel I dealt with were really wonderful, but the subcontractors I dealt with after the sale were terrible. I wonder if HD realizes this is probably one of their downfalls?
I think HD provides excellent customer service in their stores, but from there is goes down hill. My recent experience with them was terrible. The sales personnel I dealt with were really wonderful, but the subcontractors I dealt with after the sale were terrible. I wonder if HD realizes this is probably one of their downfalls?
One Of Our Dear Friend's
Husband works at Expo, and this is going to be rough on them.
He only took the job rather recently, and even then after being out of work due to a layoff for quite some time.
Yes, it is going to be rough on many a person in the "decorating", construction and so forth that sought refuge with Expo as some type of work to put meat on the table.
The way things are going with housing, there really aren't that many places in related fields hiring.
Husband works at Expo, and this is going to be rough on them.
He only took the job rather recently, and even then after being out of work due to a layoff for quite some time.
Yes, it is going to be rough on many a person in the "decorating", construction and so forth that sought refuge with Expo as some type of work to put meat on the table.
The way things are going with housing, there really aren't that many places in related fields hiring.
laundromat
Well-known member
The Home Depot is finally getting what the so rightly deserve!They have no care for employees at all and their management sucks. I remember when I worked at Incredible Universe back in the 90's and they had the same issues regarding upper management as well as M.O.D.'s who didn't know shit from shine o'la about management.There were many pamphlets we had to read and get credit for before we'd get our "badges" and be able to move forward and make more money.Most of us were already making gobs of money and were comfortable with our duties.However, it was mandatory that all of us be able to work in any department from cutting keys to mixing and filling empty cans with new,fresh paint. You should have seen my first day in paint!!! It would have been a great episode for I love Lucy!!! One gallon can I placed in to be shaken had its top fly off and red paint went all over me,the co-worker there from hardware and the customer!!!!! That had been my first as well as last time in paint.LOL
The idiot MBAs
are responsible for a lot of this.
I taught for many years at a prestigious private school in Munich.
My ratings were always top-notch, from beginning to end.
Unfortunately, the school's went from outstanding to piece of stinking shit after the MBAs took over.
They decided that any teacher could teach any group. Never mind that I have degrees and certifications in IT and English as a second language...my former clients, when they returned were turned over to college kids from Ireland working in their semester breaks on the continent.
I have run (successfully) a small business since the 1980's. Have taught 9 semesters of English for Business in the MBA program at a local university (hence my distaste for MBAs, I know them from when they are still soft, pale-white grubs, writhing in shit). But never mind, I was sent to teach chemists at a prestigious client. Did my best and they were happy, but that was not the service they deserved.
We have got to return to the simple, capitalist principle of value-addition. It is not true that any competent person can do any job.
I feel sorry for the low-level employees of Home Depot. The managers deserve the worst that can happen to them.
are responsible for a lot of this.
I taught for many years at a prestigious private school in Munich.
My ratings were always top-notch, from beginning to end.
Unfortunately, the school's went from outstanding to piece of stinking shit after the MBAs took over.
They decided that any teacher could teach any group. Never mind that I have degrees and certifications in IT and English as a second language...my former clients, when they returned were turned over to college kids from Ireland working in their semester breaks on the continent.
I have run (successfully) a small business since the 1980's. Have taught 9 semesters of English for Business in the MBA program at a local university (hence my distaste for MBAs, I know them from when they are still soft, pale-white grubs, writhing in shit). But never mind, I was sent to teach chemists at a prestigious client. Did my best and they were happy, but that was not the service they deserved.
We have got to return to the simple, capitalist principle of value-addition. It is not true that any competent person can do any job.
I feel sorry for the low-level employees of Home Depot. The managers deserve the worst that can happen to them.
When I was working for what was once the local phone company and then became SBC (worst thing that could have happened) and then became AT&T (no improvement--SBC, the most lame of all the Baby Bells, simply masquerading as AT&T) they rolled out a new system that took the customer service job from one that required at least 8 weeks of training and a fully functioning brain to a position where anyone off the street could be sat in a chair and able to check off the correct boxes on a screen without mastering any of the other critical systems necessary to do the job right. Combine this with call centers opened up in Bangalore and the end result was abominable customer service with a focus on sell, sell, sell. Service took a back seat to sales as soon as the greedy self-serving and stunningly stupid swaggering Texans took over in 1997.
I am sick of companies whose primary goal is to satisfy the shareholders instead of valuing its customer base and employees. That is the simplistic and loathesome MBA mindset that has helped run this economy into the ground.
I am sick of companies whose primary goal is to satisfy the shareholders instead of valuing its customer base and employees. That is the simplistic and loathesome MBA mindset that has helped run this economy into the ground.
danemodsandy
Well-known member
Yep!
Management has over-expanded and failed to take care of customer service issues properly, so employees take the hit.
What worries me now is what's going to happen to the plaid flannel shirt industry - they just lost 7000 customers. (wry joke)
Management has over-expanded and failed to take care of customer service issues properly, so employees take the hit.
What worries me now is what's going to happen to the plaid flannel shirt industry - they just lost 7000 customers. (wry joke)
blackstone
Well-known member
Hey! No jokes about plaid. That's my favorite color.
The thing that gets me is that they always say the shareholders are the most important thing. That they are the #1 job of a company. Supposedly legally. And certainly it's the Wall Street mentality.
And yet...the thing that matters in the long run is whether people are willing to do business. Some fast fixes, like eliminating competent customer service, may make for a good quarter. But it can make for a lousy future when people stop doing business with a company.
And yet...the thing that matters in the long run is whether people are willing to do business. Some fast fixes, like eliminating competent customer service, may make for a good quarter. But it can make for a lousy future when people stop doing business with a company.
whirlcool
Well-known member
All too often corporations think that they can boost their stock by having layoffs and selling off divisions then the managers get bonuses due to the stock price elevating. "We have a duty to our stockholders" is just corporate spin.
I finally heard from Home Depot about my debacle of delivery of our new appliances. Their spin was that they use sub contractors to deliver and install their appliances. They have no control over these subcontractors as they are separate business entites. They regretted the problems I had and please asked me to think of Home Depot for my future appliance needs. Ha!
I finally heard from Home Depot about my debacle of delivery of our new appliances. Their spin was that they use sub contractors to deliver and install their appliances. They have no control over these subcontractors as they are separate business entites. They regretted the problems I had and please asked me to think of Home Depot for my future appliance needs. Ha!
neptunebob
Well-known member
The MBAs may be stupid....
But go over to MSN or a site like that and the colleges still run ads that you have to get one of those degrees or you will be "left behind". Yet not one of those ads tells what you would learn or what subjects you will take (math? accounting?).
But go over to MSN or a site like that and the colleges still run ads that you have to get one of those degrees or you will be "left behind". Yet not one of those ads tells what you would learn or what subjects you will take (math? accounting?).
HD and Expo use subcontractors and the service and follow-up is terrible but it wasn't always like that.
When the founders retired back in 2000, they brought in a cast-off from GE to take over. His name is Nardelli. You may recognize that name because after he systematically ruined everything that was ever good about the HD/Expo--------he left the scorched-earth at HD to go run Chrysler!
There is a new team running HD and it will take them years to regain their reputation (if ever) in the aftermath of the toxic Nardelli administration.
When the founders retired back in 2000, they brought in a cast-off from GE to take over. His name is Nardelli. You may recognize that name because after he systematically ruined everything that was ever good about the HD/Expo--------he left the scorched-earth at HD to go run Chrysler!
There is a new team running HD and it will take them years to regain their reputation (if ever) in the aftermath of the toxic Nardelli administration.
whirlcool
Well-known member
Nardelli was brought in because he was a disciple of Jack Welch who brought a lot of profit to GE. Welch retired so he wasn't available so HD thought Nardelli would be the next best thing.
Boy did they get a surprise!
Boy did they get a surprise!
LOL!
@ "stupid swaggering Texans"!
SBC sounds a lot like where I once worked - Wells Fargo Bank. I was downsized in late 2002 and took a job with the Wells Fargo Phone Bank in early 2003 to "get by" until I got my own business off the ground. I was a "loans by phone officer" which was a glorified term for sales person. You couldn't even call in to check your balance without the reps trying to get you over to our "sales department" where my job was to "sell" credit cards, home quity loans and lines of credit, insurance and a variety of other things. Call me crazy, but this seemed to turn the business from "banking" to selling somewhat lousy and risky financial products to people who were neither qualified nor deserving of such products.
BTW - Wells Fargo is based in San Francisco! I wonder if they learned this trick from the "stupid swaggering Texans" or if we learned it from the Bay Area Bozos! LOL.
@ "stupid swaggering Texans"!
SBC sounds a lot like where I once worked - Wells Fargo Bank. I was downsized in late 2002 and took a job with the Wells Fargo Phone Bank in early 2003 to "get by" until I got my own business off the ground. I was a "loans by phone officer" which was a glorified term for sales person. You couldn't even call in to check your balance without the reps trying to get you over to our "sales department" where my job was to "sell" credit cards, home quity loans and lines of credit, insurance and a variety of other things. Call me crazy, but this seemed to turn the business from "banking" to selling somewhat lousy and risky financial products to people who were neither qualified nor deserving of such products.
BTW - Wells Fargo is based in San Francisco! I wonder if they learned this trick from the "stupid swaggering Texans" or if we learned it from the Bay Area Bozos! LOL.
Well, Jack Welch skipped over Nardelli and chose someone else as his successor which certainly said a lot about Nardelli's abilities. Too bad (for the HD companies) Bernie and Arthur were in such a hurry to retire!
andrewinorlando
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It's a shame because Expo had some nice stuff. But it never made any money for Home Depot. Hopefully, they'll turn the one here in Orlando into a Lowes!!
The writing was on the wall for Expo etc. when the housing/construction market imploded. You can tell just from walking around an HD or Lowe's and see the shelves full of unsold product (inventories have never been better for customers) and you can actually get help at HD without having to use a tranquilizer dart gun at long range.
Nardelli's error was that he started cost cutting at HD during the height of the housing boom. I remember going into HD and getting disgusted at the lack of variety and quality of products on the shelves, and often even when an item was supposed to be on the shelf it would be sold out and not replenished in a timely fashion. He applied Six Sigma to a company that needed to cater to the customers instead of to the bean counters (Six Sigma is the Quality Program for Bean Counters). Even though I went through the full Six Sigma training when I was still in IT (and got top marks in the class), I think it's horribly misused and over-rated as a one size fits all solution. I was kind of thrilled with last week's 30 Rock where they stuck more than few pins in the pompous and ironically very inefficient Six Sigma subculture that takes over in such companies (30 Rock airs on NBC, which in turn is owned by GE, which is one of the original early adopters of Six Sigma). The failure of Six Sigma generally revolves around the belief that any corporate weenie can get it.
Nardelli's error was that he started cost cutting at HD during the height of the housing boom. I remember going into HD and getting disgusted at the lack of variety and quality of products on the shelves, and often even when an item was supposed to be on the shelf it would be sold out and not replenished in a timely fashion. He applied Six Sigma to a company that needed to cater to the customers instead of to the bean counters (Six Sigma is the Quality Program for Bean Counters). Even though I went through the full Six Sigma training when I was still in IT (and got top marks in the class), I think it's horribly misused and over-rated as a one size fits all solution. I was kind of thrilled with last week's 30 Rock where they stuck more than few pins in the pompous and ironically very inefficient Six Sigma subculture that takes over in such companies (30 Rock airs on NBC, which in turn is owned by GE, which is one of the original early adopters of Six Sigma). The failure of Six Sigma generally revolves around the belief that any corporate weenie can get it.
andrewinorlando
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Six Sigma was designed to reduce defects in a manufacturing environment. And for that, it works okay. But when they start applying it to environments for which it was never designed to work, then you've got a problem.
