In defense of big box stores — a response
tyler | May 29, 2008Over on the My Skinny Garden blog, Gina brought up the topic of big box stores, and in particular their return policy on live plants. Here was my response…..
Im a non-selective shopper [except under rare occasions where a particular store has made me particularly mad] , however I always give the local guy a try first. I’m willing to pay a couple extra bucks, even if they don’t have the best return policy. They almost always have the best service.
As for plants, I guess I have a different philosophy. Plant’s are living things, and they die for any of a number of good reasons. Most of them having to do with my actions. If only a couple died, that’s pretty good in my book and I wouldn’t even pull them out to take them back to HD. In fact I’ve probably killed $20 worth of plants already this year and all of them went into the compost pile instead of back to the store. I figure HD is trying their best to give me a good product and I tried my best to keep them alive, but stuff happens and it’s unfair to expect them to take the loss.
Different strokes for different folks I guess 
I know some of my family members will take an instore item that is scratched up to the counter and ask for a discount when there is nothing wrong with the item and it will get scratched as soon as they put it in the car. Unfair if you ask me.
One thing I will not tolerate from a local shop though is the complaining about being put out of business by the big guys. That’s a bunch of hog wash in 99% of cases. What really happened is they refused to change their business and died, like anybody else who has done that.
Case in point…when I lived in KY there was a local hardware store. I tried at least 15 times to purchase items from them, but their hours were 8am to 4pm M-F. That’s nearly impossible for anyone but contractors. And where do you think contractors shop? The discount stores…duh. They then complained in the newspaper about how the big box stores were putting a 100 year old hardware store out of business. Total crap. Had they changed their hours to cover weekends and evenings and stocked retail items instead of commercial they could have stayed in business. But they refused. And they died. No loss in my opinion
T - thanks for keeping the Big Box topic going.
ginaT - thanks for keeping the Big Box topic going. You made some really good points and I espeically love the hardware store being run out of business because they couldnt stay open past 4pm. What a bunch of crap!
I totally agree. I am in the landscaping business,
vonlafinI totally agree. I am in the landscaping business, and have always guaranteed anything that I plant. But, when I walk away from that property, I have no idea how those plants are taken care of. I know from my own garden that over watering and under watering can look very much the same. I no longer unconditionally guarantee my plants. I now will replace the plant, but the customer must pay the labor charges for replacing it.
I was once told by the neighbor of a customer that my customer had commented that it didn’t matter if he watered the new landscape, it was guaranteed for a year, and if anything died, we would replace it.
Maybe I will have to post on this topic too.