Thread: Overheard At Home Depot: "Pointy Bolts"

I popped into HD today to get a few bolts. Two guys were looking at the bolt offerings as if they had never seen bolts before. I overheard them saying things like, "This one's a carriage bolt. How is that different from a machine bolt?"

One guy walked to the next display and said, "These bolts are pointy." (He was looking at SCREWS!)

It was embarrassing to hear that. I couldn't handle it. I got out of there.

Similar Threads:

• "I got it on this end Bud!!!"
• "Trying to do the American Dream thing..."
• Who needs 6" of clearance for single wall
• White "powder" at furnace exhaust tube
• Porch Re-Roof - How Should This Be "Flashed"

I go to our local HD and Lowes several times a week. Since the stores have no help I am almost always asked a question about something in the area I am shopping in......always glad to help... I guess I look smart!

I help people in HD and Lowe's all the time. The other day a lady couldn't understand why a nut wouldn't screw onto her bolt more than about a turn. I explained to her that one was fine thread and the other was coarse thread. She had never heard of such a thing before.

The "pointy bolts" comment, coming from a GUY, was a bit over the line for me. I thought guys were born with this knowledge or at least have to know it to get a card certifying you as a guy.

I refuse to shop at HD. There is no service and I have no time to help someone who is too tight to shop at a store that has an educated staff. I refuse to help a megacorporation make a sale by using my knowledge and experience for free. The HD in my area does not even have cashiers. It is necessary to use a self-serve checkout. I almost always use a locally owned hardware store, home center or supplier. I do admit that I have purchased 5-6 items at the local HD in the past 20 years or so, but only when I was unable to get it elsewhere.

That's how I feel about Wally world.

Just for fun, I always like asking the employees where I might find a "Little Bastard" at?

I've heard he works in the electrical dept. or he's off today.

Once I heard a employee at the HD call turbines "Attic Heat Sucker Removers".

I think most of the employees at the big box stores are the computer geeks that have lost their jobs at the big companies the last few years.

Like Gunnar I'd rather go to the local Mom and Pop owned hardware store. Most of those have free peanuts which makes it even better.

You guys are too hard on your fellow man.

Offering a tip or advice to a chance stranger for free is not a sin. Can the same be said of withholding same just because no immediate monitory profit is forthcoming?

Call it good citizenship, good karma, pro bono, or just good manners, it’s the right thing to do and the dividends that such acts pay can not be monetarily equated.

I also am a 'locally owned" shopper.

Don't mind helping people, just prefer the "locally owned" shops.

Seems to me you guys are missing out on some marketing opps. I always wear my logo shirt whenever I go to one of these shops. I get asked for help, and am happy to share whatever knowledge I have. I also look for opportunities to steer the conversation in such a way that I can give the person helped my card. You never know when the person you are helping is getting ready to sell their house (and buy a new one.) Or if they know someone who is.

I can always imagine the conversation at home. "You know, I met the nicest most helpful guy at the hardware store the other day. He is a home inspector and he really seemed to know what he was talking about...."

Even if it never turns into business. Helping people has never hurt me. And very seldom has it cost me anything.

Come on guys. You're starting to worry me. I get much of my education from the Depot.

You laugh but I have gone to Home Depot specifically for the purpose of doing research on individual products several times in the past.

There is nothing like going in to pull a specific product off the shelf and reading through the owner's guide and installation manuals. I even got the service desk to photocopy the page of an install guide for me once that showed the nailing pattern and specified fasteners for a pulldown attic stairway.

As I recall, that page specifically said not to use the little "pointy bolts"...or maybe it said not to use drywall screws?

Anyway, I’m not bashful and, I’ll seek knowledge wherever I can find it be it Home Depot or even here!

That poor pointy bolts guy probably felt like I frequently do when I have to go buy some new electronics item. I've finally just started saying, "I've read all I can stand and still don't know squat Tell me in people terms why I should buy this gizmo instead of that one."
There are several of you guys that would make me look like the pointy nail guy in some areas.
I like Mark's attitude of using every encounter as a marketing opportunity.

As Phillip said, on occasions I've went into the big stores esp. on a rainy day and just done research on items.

You have to be careful about talking business or promoting your business in some of these stores.

I know that some have policies regarding "solicitation" on their premises. That includes giving advice I've been told by a store manager.

Most of the stores will have a contractors bulletin board that they will allow you to post your card.

I've seen painters asked to leave their stores for hitting up persons for jobs while chatting to them.

Not a great idea to market oneself in "their" store in my opinion.

JMHO

Rick

I never thought of that possibility. I'm not going to worry about it. If it occurred, I think I might be inclined to tell that particular manager that a lot of my recommendations to MY customers involved statements similar to "This defect can easily be fixed yourself with a $10 part purchased at ...." I might need to change future recommendations to their competitor down the street. I might also point out to them that I wasn't soliciting business, but simply helping one of their customers, and had the manager been as dogmatic about customer service as he was about giving me trouble, he could have helped the customer himself.

This is a direct result of the "sissifying" of the male in America. If we go hunting, we are barbaric. If we work on our own vehicles, we are grease monkeys. If we don't want to cuddle after sex, we are heartless.


Face it guys, the real man is a dying breed.

I must be shopping at the wrong Home Depot, I have never even seen a manager, hard enough to find a clerk, not that they are much help anyway...

In my area Lowes and Home Depot are almost on top of each other. I go to both. One may have a better selection of some things, or vice versa. I have found that most of the people that work there are helpful.

I have a couple male friends that don't know ANYTHING about tools (maybe except how to identify a hammer) or home stuff. However, one of them knows just about everything there is to know about electronics, music and guitars. The other is a chemical engineer, and that should tell you enough.

While I know Macs like the back of my hand (using them since the 80's), I'm fairly new to the "Windows World" and I know I ask those stupid questions once in a while (like whats this "right click" stuff). As far as home theatre goes, or for that matter, just getting my dvd player to play, then go back to TV, I am the village idiot.

JF