I know I have a lengthy title on this, but it's important to note, and I will note it several times, that I blame the corporations and not the employees for this b.s.

I wake up every day at 2 a.m. On weekends sometimes I push it to 4 a.m. This is just how my body is regulated at this point. With hours like these, I get to see all the stores as they open up for the day.

This past Saturday I hit up one of the big home improvement stores at 6:30. At this point, they've already been open a half an hour.  This is the time that many of the pros and people with overnight emergencies start trickling in to beat the main rush. I was very surprised to see that the entire lumber section of the store was closed off.  Knock me over with a feather, but I kind of thought that would be one of the main things that they'd need to be ready to sell.

So what was happening in the lumber section? One guy was sweeping. Yes, one guy was sweeping why two guys talked at one cash register and another lady stood patiently by hers. In fairness, there was someone on a forklift, one aisle over from the lumber, but he didn't appear to be doing anything with the lumber.  I asked the two guys who were talking, "hey, how long is this going to be?" (in a pleasant tone, because I see no point in being a jerk) and I was told, "this is gonna take a long time".  That's all I needed to hear to switch hardware stores.

Once again, I don't blame employees for this. I blame corporate types who don't call for this type of prep before stores open, who hire too many people for one part of the store and not enough for the other, and most of all, who made the decision to pay people low wages and deal with employee churn rather than pay someone who will take pride in a store.

The business model of corporate stores like this is bound to fail at some point. Right now, we all go to the places with the cheapest prices and those are maintained by cutting corners. I do not blame the employees, they are put on a low wage, treated like dirt, and even scheduled at offices nowhere near their hometowns. No one knows who's good and who's bad and it's rarely even considered that someone should be promoted. I will be glad when these big stores collapse and hometown stores re-emerge.

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