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Old 31-03-2004, 08:02 AM
madgardener
 
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Default A strange sight at Home Depot

I have taken the incentive to post these..........

Strange sight at Home DepotPosted by CRMiller z9 CA (My Page) on Sun, Mar
21, 04 at 0:39


Today when I was at Home Depot, there was a cart full of half dead
plants (needed water) and some irises that were out of bloom. They were
headed for the dumpster. The lady working there was taking the plants out
one by one and spray-painting them! Not the pot, the leaves and stem. I didn
't stop to ask her about them because I was in a hurry. I don't like that
they throw away plants that were under watered, but spray-paint them bright
orange?!!





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Old 31-03-2004, 08:32 AM
quest
 
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Default A strange sight at Home Depot

They are scared unto death that someone who actually cares for plants may
get them for free in the dumpsters, and worse, perhaps resell them as living
healthy plants. I've seen multiple pallets of impatiens in the burning sun,
on blacktop, at wallmarts in zone 8, but when told they were going to melt
to death, got "we've got to put them somewhere".


"madgardener" wrote in message
...
I have taken the incentive to post these..........

Strange sight at Home DepotPosted by CRMiller z9 CA (My Page) on Sun, Mar
21, 04 at 0:39


Today when I was at Home Depot, there was a cart full of half dead
plants (needed water) and some irises that were out of bloom. They were
headed for the dumpster. The lady working there was taking the plants out
one by one and spray-painting them! Not the pot, the leaves and stem. I

didn
't stop to ask her about them because I was in a hurry. I don't like that
they throw away plants that were under watered, but spray-paint them

bright
orange?!!





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Old 31-03-2004, 08:33 AM
Warren
 
Posts: n/a
Default A strange sight at Home Depot

madgardener wrote:

Today when I was at Home Depot, there was a cart full of half

dead
plants (needed water) and some irises that were out of bloom. They

were
headed for the dumpster. The lady working there was taking the plants

out
one by one and spray-painting them! Not the pot, the leaves and stem.

I didn
't stop to ask her about them because I was in a hurry. I don't like

that
they throw away plants that were under watered, but spray-paint them

bright
orange?!!


Retail stores loose more to dishonest employees than they do to
shoplifters. The easiest way for an employee to steal is to toss
something into the dumpster, and come back and pick it up later. By
requiring that everything put in the dumpster is unsalvageable they
prevent far more theft in a week than those sensors at the front door
will in a year.

So the choices would be leave them on the floor half-dead and spend the
time to nurse them back to health, leave them on the floor half-dead
until they become totally unsalvageable, or spray paint them to make
them unsalvageable, and get them off the floor. Maybe, if they had
enough floor space, they could stick them in some clearance corner, but
that corner could make more money selling healthier plants, or even
bricks or bags of cow manure.

High volume stores make more money moving high volumes of merchandise.
They don't make money nursing half-dead plants back to life.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Blatant Plug: Spend your Amazon gift certificates he
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/associateshop.html



  #4   Report Post  
Old 31-03-2004, 10:32 AM
Elizabeth
 
Posts: n/a
Default A strange sight at Home Depot


"Warren" wrote in message
news:Wztac.39172$gA5.528052@attbi_s03...
madgardener wrote:

Today when I was at Home Depot, there was a cart full of

half
dead
plants (needed water) and some irises that were out of bloom.

They
were
headed for the dumpster. The lady working there was taking the

plants
out
one by one and spray-painting them! Not the pot, the leaves

and stem.
I didn
't stop to ask her about them because I was in a hurry. I

don't like
that
they throw away plants that were under watered, but

spray-paint them
bright
orange?!!


Retail stores loose more to dishonest employees than they do to
shoplifters. The easiest way for an employee to steal is to toss
something into the dumpster, and come back and pick it up later.

By
requiring that everything put in the dumpster is unsalvageable

they
prevent far more theft in a week than those sensors at the front

door
will in a year.

So the choices would be leave them on the floor half-dead and

spend the
time to nurse them back to health, leave them on the floor

half-dead
until they become totally unsalvageable, or spray paint them to

make
them unsalvageable, and get them off the floor. Maybe, if they

had
enough floor space, they could stick them in some clearance

corner, but
that corner could make more money selling healthier plants, or

even
bricks or bags of cow manure.

High volume stores make more money moving high volumes of

merchandise.
They don't make money nursing half-dead plants back to life.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Blatant Plug: Spend your Amazon gift certificates he
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/associateshop.html


Spoken like one who understands retail business practices. Most
likely, the orange paint, HD's signature color, was a quick way to
indicate that the markdown had been captured and the plants could
be discarded. Prevents having to guess.
--
elizabeth, Baton Rouge, LA
http://community.webshots.com/user/elott63


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Old 31-03-2004, 05:21 PM
Phisherman
 
Posts: n/a
Default A strange sight at Home Depot

On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:59:53 -0500, "madgardener"
wrote:

I have taken the incentive to post these..........

Strange sight at Home DepotPosted by CRMiller z9 CA (My Page) on Sun, Mar
21, 04 at 0:39


Today when I was at Home Depot, there was a cart full of half dead
plants (needed water) and some irises that were out of bloom. They were
headed for the dumpster. The lady working there was taking the plants out
one by one and spray-painting them! Not the pot, the leaves and stem. I didn
't stop to ask her about them because I was in a hurry. I don't like that
they throw away plants that were under watered, but spray-paint them bright
orange?!!



This reminds me about JC Penney's policy about athletic shoes. They
had to cut the shoes in half before throwing them in to the dumpster.
HD is all about profit--some folks give little thought to the meaning
of charity.


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Old 31-03-2004, 08:38 PM
McQualude
 
Posts: n/a
Default A strange sight at Home Depot

"Elizabeth" said:

Spoken like one who understands retail business practices. Most
likely, the orange paint, HD's signature color, was a quick way to
indicate that the markdown had been captured and the plants could
be discarded. Prevents having to guess.


Warren explained the reason behind the paint in his post.
--
McQualude
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Old 31-03-2004, 08:44 PM
McQualude
 
Posts: n/a
Default A strange sight at Home Depot

"Elizabeth" said:

Spoken like one who understands retail business practices. Most
likely, the orange paint, HD's signature color, was a quick way to
indicate that the markdown had been captured and the plants could
be discarded. Prevents having to guess.


Warren explained the reason behind the paint in his post.
--
McQualude
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Old 31-03-2004, 08:44 PM
Zemedelec
 
Posts: n/a
Default A strange sight at Home Depot

Somehow the phrase, "Dog in the manger" keeps floating through my brain...
zemedelec
  #9   Report Post  
Old 31-03-2004, 09:32 PM
McQualude
 
Posts: n/a
Default A strange sight at Home Depot

"Elizabeth" said:

Spoken like one who understands retail business practices. Most
likely, the orange paint, HD's signature color, was a quick way to
indicate that the markdown had been captured and the plants could
be discarded. Prevents having to guess.


Warren explained the reason behind the paint in his post.
--
McQualude
  #10   Report Post  
Old 31-03-2004, 09:44 PM
McQualude
 
Posts: n/a
Default A strange sight at Home Depot

"Elizabeth" said:

Spoken like one who understands retail business practices. Most
likely, the orange paint, HD's signature color, was a quick way to
indicate that the markdown had been captured and the plants could
be discarded. Prevents having to guess.


Warren explained the reason behind the paint in his post.
--
McQualude


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Old 01-04-2004, 08:11 AM
Zemedelec
 
Posts: n/a
Default A strange sight at Home Depot

Somehow the phrase, "Dog in the manger" keeps floating through my brain...
zemedelec
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Old 01-04-2004, 08:29 AM
Zemedelec
 
Posts: n/a
Default A strange sight at Home Depot

Somehow the phrase, "Dog in the manger" keeps floating through my brain...
zemedelec
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Old 01-04-2004, 10:06 AM
Twobtold
 
Posts: n/a
Default A strange sight at Home Depot

(Zemedelec)


Somehow the phrase, "Dog in the manger" keeps floating through my brain...


Just in case . . .

The allusion is to one of Aesop’s fables, written about 600BC, in which a dog
was taking a nap in a manger. When an ox came and tried to eat the hay in the
manger, the dog barked furiously, snapped at him and wouldn’t let him get at
his food, food that, of course, was useless to the dog. At last the ox gave up
and went away muttering, “Ah, people often grudge others what they cannot
enjoy themselves”.
  #14   Report Post  
Old 01-04-2004, 10:32 AM
Twobtold
 
Posts: n/a
Default A strange sight at Home Depot

(Zemedelec)


Somehow the phrase, "Dog in the manger" keeps floating through my brain...


Just in case . . .

The allusion is to one of Aesop’s fables, written about 600BC, in which a dog
was taking a nap in a manger. When an ox came and tried to eat the hay in the
manger, the dog barked furiously, snapped at him and wouldn’t let him get at
his food, food that, of course, was useless to the dog. At last the ox gave up
and went away muttering, “Ah, people often grudge others what they cannot
enjoy themselves”.
  #15   Report Post  
Old 01-04-2004, 10:36 AM
 
Posts: n/a
Default A strange sight at Home Depot

"madgardener" wrote in message ...
I have taken the incentive to post these..........

Strange sight at Home DepotPosted by CRMiller z9 CA (My Page) on Sun, Mar
21, 04 at 0:39


Today when I was at Home Depot, there was a cart full of half dead
plants (needed water) and some irises that were out of bloom. They were
headed for the dumpster. The lady working there was taking the plants out
one by one and spray-painting them! Not the pot, the leaves and stem. I didn
't stop to ask her about them because I was in a hurry. I don't like that
they throw away plants that were under watered, but spray-paint them bright
orange?!!


I'm not saying this is a good policy at all but it is, unfortunatly,
necessary because of the many points the others have brought up. It
prevents employee shoplifters from getting stuff put into the
dumpsters for them to pick up later. It helps prevents dumpster
diving (if i dumpster dive and hurt myself i'm sure i could sue Home
Depot somehow). I like the one person's story about how shoes had to
be cut in half before being tossed in the dumpster. So this practice
is 'necessary' for the store to cover their back. However there are
other routes they could take. In the case of something that has real
value (like a pair of unused shoes) they could easily start donating
these items to the local church.

But where do they draw the line at what they can donate away? Some
churches might be thrilled to get a bunch of half dead plants.
Others would be offended. And how about all the other 'junk' that
people love to dumpster dive for? It would take a lot of time/effort
to have a whole 'recycling' comitee put together to determine what
should be donated and what should be junked.

And if people don't believe the shoplifting excuse, just think about
the scenario of a donut shop. If you walk in right before closing
time, why won't they give you all the leftover donuts for free since
they're just going to throw them out? Lets say they did. The some
employee realizes that there are always X stale donuts left over at
the end of the day. Therefore he should be able to steal X fresh
donuts right as they're baked and no one is harmed since they would
have just been stale at the end of the day. This is essentially true
until the day when they needed those X donuts and they run out. The
only way to maintain a surplus and the whole idea that all items are
valuable is to destroy them in the end. It's wrong but it does
protect their ass as intended.
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