Another store chain to exit Canada | Page 3 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Another store chain to exit Canada

ReSTored said:
Home Hardware seems to favor small towns and the one we have in Lakefield offers good prices and great service.

Never really liked Rona, poor service at the one in Lakefield (now out of business) and the one in Mississauga.

I'm not happy Home Depot will have less competition.

Was their last week looking for shopvac filters. Base 2 pack was $43 and fine dust 2 pack was $50. Took $50 pack and at self serve it rang up at $60. Store employee and I went back to bin and label said $50, so she gave it to me at that price + another $10 off for the hassle. Today, that $50 2 pack is $70............... Looked at the standard $43 2 pack and it is now listed at $50.

Then looked at the US price and numerically, without currency translation, they are about half the cost of the old CAN price. Someone is getting screwed.......

CAN Site



US Site

www.homedepot.com

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www.homedepot.com

www.homedepot.com

RIDGID Fine Dust Pleated Paper Wet Dry Vacuum Shop Vac Filter Replacement for Most 5-16 Gallon RIDGID Shop Vacs (2-Pack) VF5200 - The Home Depot

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www.homedepot.com
Click to expand...

You're entitled to the $10 off because of the SCOP

canadianbudgetbinder.com

Scanning Code of Practice (SCOP) In Canada

Discover the benefits of the Scanner Price Accuracy Code (SCOP) program in Canada. Save money and enjoy peace of mind at the checkout.
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ReSTored said:
I spent 35 years in supply chain. I did a tour of the St Jacobs HH warehouse. Huge place, lots of old technology in picking managing inventory, lots of obsolete stock, bins covered in dust........... Not terribly impressive. Most HH stores get delivery once per week, so if you just miss a cut off you'd have to wait about 2 weeks for the store to receive your order...... HH supports small towns and rural areas in general where you'd never find a big box store.
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I have been in the HH headquarters more times than I can remotely guesstimate at over 3000x.
Their warehouses on site range drastically from one to the next. Where you saw bins in dust, it was likely a very slightly used section of the warehouse - something HH thought might work, brought it in, and it sat.

My professional life has seen many extremely high end executives (i.e. Walter Hachborn becoming a friend) down to warehouse worker interactions over the years. HH has a completely different business model compared to Home Depot, Lowes or Rona.

But your last comment is 100% accurate. They support rural 19x more prolifically than big box stores. For that, I give them 100% credit.
 
48Connor said:
lol a month back I was in HH and on a Saturday looking at new drawer pulls on their big rotating display. I asked the guy at the customer service desk 15 feet away for a price and if they were special order, he said yeah they were special order but I'd have to ask the lady that works in the kitchen department for a price who only works monday through friday...
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That is the arrogant mentality of a lot of part time workers, regardless of store or industry. They just come in, knock off a few hours for their pay cheque and go home.

I spent close to 10 years in retail through my teenage years, 7 of which were at HMV alone. I will be the first to admit that I wasn't the most musically inclined but my knowledge of different genres of music grew over the years. Embarrassing moment was when I didn't know who Frank Sinatra was. (in my defense, I did not grow up in the country and music wasn't big at home)
However, I never gave up on my customer and always tried my best to hunt the specific CD or DVD down. I was known to call all the different location across the country or flip though every CD in the store to find that "1 in stock" CD/DVD. This was years before any accurate real time inventory system (hell, they don't even exist today) All product was transferred through inter-office mail. Once a week to and from head office in Mississauga.
There was no commission or awards to be collected. Just a personal satisfaction that I did all that I could for whomever my customer was. They often left happy and appreciated all the effort.

I must say it was probably my favourite job and I learned a lot through the years, especially how to play the retail game. Now, I won't take "No" for an answer from a retailer. There is no such thing as "the system won't let me do that". Unless I feel all avenues have been explored, I don't give up and the employees probably hate me for it as I make them earn their pay cheque. One pet peeve is "sorry, I don't work in this department".

Retail doesn't provide the greatest of jobs or pay cheques. However, it teaches invaluable life lessons. How to deal with different situations as you often deal with people from all walks of life. The ones that appreciate any little effort you put in to helping them out or the ones that will complain to your manager because you didn't smile at them, Karen.

It has been said that for one reason or another (that's a separate topic) kids or young adults these days have very little social or people skills. It might be an exaggeration but having everyone start their working careers off with 1 year in retail would teach them a lot and help them in the future years.
 
BigEvilDoer said:
Their warehouses on site range drastically from one to the next. Where you saw bins in dust, it was likely a very slightly used section of the warehouse - something HH thought might work, brought it in, and it sat.
Click to expand...

Well, my comment stands. I've toured a number of warehouses and the HH one stands out in terms of old school warehouse management and what appears to be a lot of very slow moving or dead stock. You can't be in business successfully if your logistics model is old or inefficient.

I should have clarified that the lakefield store provides great service on a one-to-one basis, but i use it primarily for unforeseen hardware issues where I'm reasonably certain they'll have stock. 95%++ of my hardware is purchased at Home Depot in Mississauga or Peterborough. At the HH I've run into the "Joe isn't here today" issue, no stock, stock order lead times that are a minimum of 1 week and a very poorly designed / functioning web page. HH does well in small rural areas because the locals have no other choice. They either shop there on HH terms or they drive to a larger population centre to a big box store.
 
My best friends family owns an electrical supply store and his father tells me all the time how he has to chase the electricians to pay down their accounts. Doesn't sound fun. I would not do well if it was my business would be making threats to some of them and their laughable excuses. Come in, pay 10 grand down on a 50k bill then want to leave with another 5-10k in product lol. Funny its usually the ones with the biggest houses and nicest vehicles that owe him the most money...
 
Can't lay all incompetence on the building stores. I wanted a mortgage for something and had a paid off house as a back stop. Went to my bank for a rate. They gave me the standard rate and I said "can you do XX like the other bank just quoted me?"
Them "oh yes I think but we have to check with head office in Toronto"
Me "great let's get him on the phone and check"
Them "sorry we can only request via email and we won't get an answer until tomorrow"
Me "what you know this is the 21st century right?"
Got a mortgage but not from them.
 
Mikedezo44 said:
My best friends family owns an electrical supply store and his father tells me all the time how he has to chase the electricians to pay down their accounts. Doesn't sound fun. I would not do well if it was my business would be making threats to some of them and their laughable excuses. Come in, pay 10 grand down on a 50k bill then want to leave with another 5-10k in product lol. Funny its usually the ones with the biggest houses and nicest vehicles that owe him the most money...
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That's a common problem in industrial supply. My kid runs one of those businesses, when he took it over the AR DSO was running 120+ days. He raised his prices by 20%, focussed on service and keeping stock levels up. The cheap contractors who don't pay their bills go elsewhere, revenues went way up and DSO is around 40 days after a year.

Dialing for dollars should only be done by salesmen -- not accounting clerks. Run your business well and your AR will take care of itself.
 
Mad Mike said:
That's a common problem in industrial supply. My kid runs one of those businesses, when he took it over the AR DSO was running 120+ days. He raised his prices by 20%, focussed on service and keeping stock levels up. The cheap contractors who don't pay their bills go elsewhere, revenues went way up and DSO is around 40 days after a year.

Dialing for dollars should only be done by salesmen -- not accounting clerks. Run your business well and your AR will take care of itself.
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I've worked under both systems.

A) The salesman shouldn't know or care about the customers ability to pay because he may not try hard enough.

B) The salesman shouldn't waste time on customers who could never pass the credit checks.
 
nobbie48 said:
HH used to do service jobs as well, cut glass, roll a screen, repair a small appliance etc. Who repairs things anymore?
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Me. And probably you. Commercially, in the western world, it is really hard to repair anything. Parts are priced at >50% of replacement cost and component level repair takes knowledge, time and experience that doesn't come cheap. Sadly, our society is setup to buy throwaway goods. Go somewhere where labour is cheap or parts are unavailable and repairs happen.
 
nobbie48 said:
HH used to do service jobs as well, cut glass, roll a screen, repair a small appliance etc. Who repairs things anymore?
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I try to repair everything... I think my grandfather instilled that in me. One of my son's clients gave him a new in box 65" Samsung TV, it blew a backlight LED, they stuffed it into a corner for a year and the warranty expired. I'm gonna try to repair it tonight!
 
Mad Mike said:
I try to repair everything... I think my grandfather instilled that in me. One of my son's clients gave him a new in box 65" Samsung TV, it blew a backlight LED, they stuffed it into a corner for a year and the warranty expired. I'm gonna try to repair it tonight!
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I draw the line at making an LED.
 
ReSTored said:
Huge place, lots of old technology in picking managing inventory
Click to expand...

The Parts and inventory system at Canadian tire is still the same system (to this day) that they were using when I worked there in the late 80's.

I guess there is some merit in "If it's not broken, don't fix it", but when the Covid shutdowns hit and Canadian Tire was notoriously one of the worst to pivot to online sales and the whole process was a disaster, failing to modernize some systems over the period of decades might have had something to do with it.

matthew said:
You're entitled to the $10 off because of the SCOP

canadianbudgetbinder.com

Scanning Code of Practice (SCOP) In Canada

Discover the benefits of the Scanner Price Accuracy Code (SCOP) program in Canada. Save money and enjoy peace of mind at the checkout.
canadianbudgetbinder.com canadianbudgetbinder.com
Click to expand...

For the record, not all businesses follow the Scanning Code of Practice, nor are they obligated to. It's a voluntary thing.
 
PrivatePilot said:
The Parts and inventory system at Canadian tire is still the same system (to this day) that they were using when I worked there in the late 80's.

I guess there is some merit in "If it's not broken, don't fix it", but when the Covid shutdowns hit and Canadian Tire was notoriously one of the worst to pivot to online sales and the whole process was a disaster, failing to modernize some systems over the period of decades might have had something to do with it.



For the record, not all businesses follow the Scanning Code of Practice, nor are they obligated to. It's a voluntary thing.
Click to expand...
Canadian Tire is the worst at everything.
 
I find with each CTC store being independently owned that each seems to focus on the sections they like , you’ll have one with a good bbq section, one with great tool displays and then one that actually stocks car tires . Hit and miss


Sent from my iPhone using GTAMotorcycle.com
 
PrivatePilot said:
The Parts and inventory system at Canadian tire is still the same system (to this day) that they were using when I worked there in the late 80's.

I guess there is some merit in "If it's not broken, don't fix it", but when the Covid shutdowns hit and Canadian Tire was notoriously one of the worst to pivot to online sales and the whole process was a disaster, failing to modernize some systems over the period of decades might have had something to do with it.



For the record, not all businesses follow the Scanning Code of Practice, nor are they obligated to. It's a voluntary thing.
Click to expand...

To give CTC credit, they tried some innovative things way back, when a state of the art computer used punch cards.

There was a store near the junction, not far from McBride's IIRC and it tried going the Jetson's route. They didn't have any stock on the shelves. Instead, they had a sample of what you needed securely fastened there and a pile of punch cards underneath it.

You took your fistful of cards to a cashier who fed them through a reader that sent your "Order" to the basement stock room for (I assume) people to fill into a plastic tub that came up a conveyor ready for you to pick up. Simultaneously the computer was processing your purchase and theoretically you paid for your stuff, waited a few minutes and then got your goods.

As often as not, something was wrong with what was in the tub. Wrong colour or, worse still, a different punch card saying "No inventory". Then as the line stalled the cashier would use the "No inventory" card to issue a credit.

The drumming of fingers from the line up was deafening.

I haven't been to the CTC Yonge Davenport store for decades (Is it still there) but their parts guys used to bomb around on roller skates. I don't know how the Ministry of Labour would view that today.
 
nobbie48 said:
To give CTC credit, they tried some innovative things way back, when a state of the art computer used punch cards.

There was a store near the junction, not far from McBride's IIRC and it tried going the Jetson's route. They didn't have any stock on the shelves. Instead, they had a sample of what you needed securely fastened there and a pile of punch cards underneath it.

You took your fistful of cards to a cashier who fed them through a reader that sent your "Order" to the basement stock room for (I assume) people to fill into a plastic tub that came up a conveyor ready for you to pick up. Simultaneously the computer was processing your purchase and theoretically you paid for your stuff, waited a few minutes and then got your goods.

As often as not, something was wrong with what was in the tub. Wrong colour or, worse still, a different punch card saying "No inventory". Then as the line stalled the cashier would use the "No inventory" card to issue a credit.

The drumming of fingers from the line up was deafening.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the old Consumers Distributing store model, punch cards excluded.
 
crankcall said:
I find with each CTC store being independently owned that each seems to focus on the sections they like , you’ll have one with a good bbq section, one with great tool displays and then one that actually stocks car tires . Hit and miss


Sent from my iPhone using GTAMotorcycle.com
Click to expand...
St Marys is a "training" store. New franchisees come into town, run the store for a year or two and then are off to their "own" store. Oddly the place seems to run pretty much the same all the time. Maybe because a lot of the employees stay on regardless of owner changes.
 
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