Pat- The logic is clear- you get what you pay for. Big Box stores like Lowe's, Home Depot, etc pay a minimal wage. You don't get experts for that wage. You get students, generally unskilled adults, and retirees for that wage. The best you can hope for is a retiree, but even that isn't goofproof. Often, the older applicant knows s
t about the department that they are applying for, they just want a little pension supplement.
True story- A few years ago, my dad thought it would be cool to get a nice cushy gig at the Home Depot's paint desk, going into semi-retirement, and generally take it easy for his last 10 years or so in the work force. He's been in paint all his life- starting with sweeping floors in a paint store as a kid, managing stores, building stores, working in the field. Commercial, residential, industrial. Specialty coatings, asbestos encapsulation, spraying, electrostatic- you name it, he did it. He used to travel with all the tint bottles, and used to tint paint by eye, on site. Ask a Depot idiot to do that- see where it gets you.
Anyways- having damm near INVENTED paint, he applied at the Depot. They offered him like $10/hr. He basically told the guy to go paint himself.
As a painting contractor myself (the apple stayed close) I am pretty regularly frustrated by the stir-sticks that work the desk. Basically- you have to know exactly what you want, because they do not. I'm in a big box store a couple days every week, and invariably end up answering all the other customer's questions. Heck- one day, I needed a specialty coating, and had to tell HIM what he was and was not legally allowed by Canadian law to sell... AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!
Sorry- rant over. This stuff drives me nuts. On the plus side, they DO provide jobs for a lot of people that need them.
Sorry Chris, my bad; maybe I've been spoiled by the fact that around here, we still have at least the dregs of real industry and the semblance of knowledge that usually comes with it.....