I must say, I prefer going to Home Depot for pretty much anything. It's my toy store, and my husband is just as bad about it, if not worse. Wandering through those aisles and looking at all those things I know I absolutely need (seriously, I'm sure I can find a use for 14 wax rings) is a great waste of time and a good source of exercise.
Keeping all this in mind, my husband and I made a recent trip, on a Sunday, to get estimates for replacing the counters and the cabinets in our kitchen. This is our first house, so we were nervous anyway, and wanted to take the time to talk with an associate to see what options there were on a very limited budget. Our trip started out nicely enough, wandering through the carpet section and a helpful female associate gave us a quote for carpet and padding for a room.
Next: on to appliances, where another wonderfully nice associate offered his assistance and advice, and directed us to some models of stoves and refrigerators that were a little beyond our stated budget, but had rebates. He was not pushy, and was very polite.
At this point, we decided to wander around the counter department and get ideas for different cabinets and sinks, etc. After being left alone for about 10 minutes, we went to the center desk and sat down, clipboard in hand, obviously waiting for an associate to come up and talk to us. Eventually, the gentleman from the appliance apartment came over and apologized, and indicated that there were only two people working in the department that day. It was at that point that I noticed BOTH of these employees were surrounding a woman who had blueprints to her new house and was dressed impeccably.
My husband and I were in jeans and tshirts. We probably looked like middle income shoppers. Nothing to write home about, but obviously looking less worldly than the woman who was building a house (kaching) and in desperate need of lovely oak doors (kaching kaching) and had no idea where to begin and has about 50k to work with to build her kitchen (kaching kaching kaching).
We sat there for another 10 minutes, looking over at the reps, who made NO MOVE to even come over and apologize, or tell us they would be right over, etc. In fact, they never even made eye contact, and instead, were too busy tripping over each other to kiss that woman's rear than pay attention to other potential shoppers.
We finally left, offended. I do not blame the shopper, after all, she is entitled to assistance as much as we were, and she was there first. However, it was sad to see the appliance associate apologize for the other staffer's rude behavior (twice) because he knew they were avoiding us, too.
Will I go back to that store? Yes, because it is the only one in the Lake county area, and frankly, we have a lot of things to buy for our house and Lowe's is not my favorite store. I will probably, however, never shop for any service at that store unless my life depends upon it.
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