It's been a while since I vented on Home Depot... I imagine that is primarily because we've been shut down over the summer... I've been there several times now since I started working on the prep for my Colorado show, and I'm already dreading the thought of having to go again... This goes above and beyond the level of dislike I've had for them for years... They've gone and elevated their level of suckiness lately...
Since they drove Woodworkers Warehouse out of business, I don't have a good source of router bits and saw blades that I like... For a while Home Depot was carrying my preferred saw blades, but that seems to have changed... They have always carried crappy router bits... Well, the only redeeming quality of their router bits was I could run in, grab what I need and get out... Not any more... Now they have locked up the display... Now hang with me a moment... The bit comes in one of those really hard to open plastic cases. (you know, the kind you can cut yourself to ribbons just trying to open once you've bought it) Inside the case, the bit is slid through a loop, and they used to be zip tied in place so they were a bit of a pain to get out, but manageable... Now, they've added hot glue on top of the zip tie so it's damn near impossible to pull the bit out without cutting yourself on the sharp edges of the bit... On top of all this there is one of those damn electronic widgets that set off the alarm if you walk out without de-activating it at a register first...
Ok, so why are they locking these things up?... Well logic says to prevent theft right?... That's what I'm guessing... But let me ask you this. How the hell am I supposed to steal a bit I can barely get out of the fucking case, when they have that damn alarm chip in there, and all the bits are in the confined tool area to begin with?... Must I now deal with finding a "helpful associate" to unlock a crappy cage?... The majority of the "helpful associates" can't even identify what a router bit is, let alone know where they are kept... I don't want to have to educate these morons that 1) the router bits are in the tool area, 2) yes, they're very expensive (geee golly wilbur) 3) no, I do not want to special order something, I want the fucking store to stock what is listed on the display, 4) be forced to chat with the "helpful associate" 5) have to wait until the "helpful associate" has just given sage advise to some complete idiot about what tool brands are high quality, since they're usually recommending some kind of garbage their manager told them to push...
Normally, I'd sit here and type that Lowes home centers are no better... In this case, they are... In the past few months, they opened up the tool areas in to aisles, put the router bits in a cabinet that isn't locked, and stopped forcing me to have to find someone to take it off the rack... I'm sure they'll swing the other way again, but for now, its so much more pleasant going there than Home Depot...