Thread: Sandpaper rant

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Wow, did I open a Pandora's Box on emotions about Norton, 3M and Home Despot.

Cool - always wondered about which paper was better.

[QUOTE=SBC]

Wow, did I open a Pandora's Box on emotions about Norton, 3M and Home Despot. {/QUOTE]

Cool - always wondered about which paper was better.

Ya gotta be careful - these are opinions, and in my case, a rank amateur in body work tho Dave Severson is doing this professionally

As someone who worked in retail for almost the last 20 years, I can say the Manager at Home Depot who said he is understaffed is tell the truth. All of these chains have discovered "downsizing." and love to run their stores with as few Associates as possible, and hire people who don't make very much.

Every week the home office would tell us how many hours we had to spread around to staff the store that week, based on what we did the week before in sales, and what we did one year ago during that week. The Manager then had to take those hours and divide them up among all the employees, trying to keep everybody happy, and also have enough people to run the store.

Customers would say to me all the time (seeing customers backed up and a few employees running their butts off) "Boy, you guys should hire more people." We would agree, but the home office bean counters had it down to a science and wouldn't budge off of their numbers.

The days of going into a store and finding good, knowledgable help, and someone to actually help you are gone. We have done it to ourselves by wanting the cheap prices that the Superstores provide, and the mom and pop stores who provided that kind of service are being driven out of business.

Don

Our local Home Despair is doing pretty good in the customer relations dept.
I am missing the ex-lineman who was in the electrical dept.
He really knew what he was doing.

We have a Lowes in Bullhead City, down the hill toward Laughlin - 30 miles from the house.
They have a terrific tool dept. although the local Home Despair is fairly well equipped.
Makes for a cool day, lunch at one of Lauglin's great casino restaurants and shopping at Lowes - which Sweetie likes as well.

I utilize the local True Value and Ace hardware stores for bolts etc.
They have a way better bolt assortment than does Home Despair.
In fact, I quit going to HD for bolts, most times it's a wasted trip.
Good part is, Ace is building a killer huge building and should be moved into that in a couple of months with even more stock.

Like Joehalford01 says, OSH is great for bolts & nuts.
Wish we had one of those out here.

Joe, have you found the chrome plated acorn nuts there in the Visalia store?
They used to be - and probably still are - just to the right of the stainless bolt section near the end cap.

High quality stuff, American made.
Prices are quite good compared to the Harley shop, about 20% the cost last time I bought some.

Trouble is, I think the Harley guys discovered them.
You need to go in there on Tuesday when the bolt supply is delivered.
Most times the popular sizes are gone by the weekend.

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

The days of going into a store and finding good, knowledgable help, and someone to actually help you are gone. We have done it to ourselves by wanting the cheap prices that the Superstores provide, and the mom and pop stores who provided that kind of service are being driven out of business.

Don

Don,
I spoke to one of the local HD asst mgrs a couple of months ago about the lack of help. He related to me that since unemployment is so low in our area that all he gets are the dregs, a few between jobs people and a some retirees that want to work special hours. His most interesting comment was that they had what looked like six promising young guy applicants that they brought in for interview and physicals - all failed the illicit substance test. Currently they have a notice up that they are hiring - and it looks like for about every level from managers to stock clerks. They have to compete with the ACE, Wal Mart and Target NE distribution centers that start people at $14 - $16 an hour vs the HD $10. They also have to compete with other big boxes that have proliferated locally that pay about the same that may be closer to their homes. Unfortunately, this is a fairly wealthy area (wotinhel am I doing here then?) in which 90 plus percent of the local kids go on to higher education and only has about 3.5% unemployed .

Not sure how well Ft Myers is doing now - haven't been there in about 18 months (sold my property there in Dec'05) , but my recollection is that you have about the same problem with the lack of employable service/mercantile business folks plus, to make it interesting, a large transient population.

Service industry employables = a national problem but local impact. Sometimes I think the UK has the right idea. You take a set of tests, I believe, after your 8th year. Good grades and test scores, you go on to a university prep curriculum. Not so good, you go on to service industry and a trade curriculum. It seems to balance out - everybody seems to have a job. I can get into the negatives of that, but since my typing skills are not the greates, wont for now except to say that in the US - wont happen !!

One of my other hobbies is woodcarving, mostly wildlife, waterfowl and birds of prey.
Needless to say I go through a lot of sandpaper,
I've found that I can double, sometimes triple all my sandpapers service duty by using this.
I know it's intended use is for belts, but let me tell you it works on ALL your sanding tools. Belts, drums, discs, cones, and even sheets.http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=271
I cut mine in half and gave half to my buddy.
That was at least 7 years ago and I suspect I have another 10 years to go before I need a new one.
Here is a source for your Norton Wet/Dry
Try here-http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=5416

Originally Posted by Supa Roosta

One of my other hobbies is woodcarving, mostly wildlife, waterfowl and birds of prey................
.................................
Here is a source for your Norton Wet/Dry
Try here-http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=5416

Thanks - now I know where my Norton came from but unfortunately our local store closed a couple of months ago. The owner just plain got tired of 24/7 work and gave it up!!

I can at least order paper now - along with a cleaner bar that I had looked at many times, but had always thought it was too good to be true.