Lowe’s Lays Off Thousands of Store Workers

WSJ ^ | 08/01/19 | Sarah Nassauer

[Enlightened1]

Lowe’s Cos. told thousands of store workers this week their jobs were being eliminated as the company outsourced tasks such as assembling barbecue grills and janitorial services.

The home-improvement chain notified maintenance staff and assemblers that put together grills, wheelbarrows and other products that they were being laid off, according to the company and employees. Those roles will be taken over by third-party companies

[Peter W. Kessler]

About six months ago, I visited our local Lowes to buy some shelving (I saw it on sale in their online circular).

When I got there, the shelving on sale was missing / gone.

I looked and looked for some sales help; couldn’t find any.

So, I called the store on my cellphone, telling them I was in the shelving aisle, and needed some assistance.

No one showed up.

So, I found a piece of paper and left a note:

“Gave up. Went to Home Depot.”

Home Depot had similar shelving for about $5.00 more. At that point, I almost didn’t care HOW much it cost.

Have not visited Lowes since, and will never go there again.

Home Depot has marginally better customer service, but our local hardware store, called “The Hardware Store,” is outstanding. I go there for little bits and pieces when I need nuts, bolts, washers, a broom, or whatever.

That’s a whole lot more than you probably want to know, but I’m on a roll this morning.

[BamaBelle]

I love our local Lowes. Never had any issues and always get friendly help when needed.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Try making eye contact with a Home Depot worker; in my experience they dart into the nearest aisle.

That's probably because they require every employee to make contact with every customer they see. Impossible to get anything else done when you're doing your job in a store full of customers.

When they first started doing this I avoided going into Home Depot because I couldn't move a yard without some employee asking if he could help me.

[BBB333]

“They won’t live in your town; they’ll be driven in each day by contractors to do the work, then leave. That is how the landscaping/day worker market operates...”

Let me repeat: NOT in my town.

We do NOT have any illegals here in Bozeman, MT. No doubt we have some passing through but this is not like Arizona, Texas or Georgia.

The folks mowing lawns are US citizens, local folks who have their own businesses and their license plates all start with a ‘6-’ (in Montana the first number of a plate indicates which county it’s registered in 6 = Gallatin county). Out of towners and out of staters are pretty easy to spot.

[Teacher317]

Your lower working bees are the cheapest employees. You kill your back bone then you entire operation will suffer.

The BACKBONE??? Are you on drugs? There are 310,000 Lowe's employees, and 2000 locations. Reducing by "thousands" means 1-3 employees per store... and maybe 1% of the total employed.

Further, the work being outsourced is JANITORIAL... and assembling wheelbarrows and grills after delivery... work that any 9 year old could do. It's placing a part over a bolt, and tightening a wingnut. You want to pay $13/hr plus benefits for that??? It's mopping and putting a wheel on a wheelbarrow... and yet you call this the BACKBONE of a massive national chain. Unreal.

[MrEdd]

Oh look.
Another drug legalization screed, with the most tenuous connection possible connection to the topic.

[kearnyirish2]

Very different here in north Jersey; I remember years ago there would be greeters asking what you needed, but that was a long time ago.

[Teacher317]

and assembling wheelbarrows and grills after delivery...

After delivery to the store, that is.

[Enlightened1]

Rewarding law breakers and firing Americans for money just does not justified in my view.

[existentially_kuffer]

Mr Trump, is that you?

Just joking! Well thought out reasoning, enjoyed them.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Do you really think Lowes will have illegals working in their stores?

I don't. They're too big and visible. Any contract they have with a third-party for labor services probably stipulates that the workers will be fully eligible to work in the country.

[kearnyirish2]

Maybe you don’t have them; enjoy it!

FWIW, the license plate will be local (the contractor); the passengers (unlicensed and undocumented) won’t be. We don’t just have that with illegal Hispanics here, but also illegals from China paying off their passage working in restaurants.

[SamAdams76]

Lowes nor Home Depot has everything that I need on a particular task. They may have 80% of it, but never everything.

They likely have a higher percentage than that.

These stores are so enormous even the employees don't know where everything is. Case in point, I spent almost an hour in both stores looking for those little pins that hold up the shelves in bookcases. Never found them and got them online. Then on another trip, I saw those pins hiding in plain sight. There were bags of them hanging on hooks on one of the shelves in a very unlikely area of the store where you would expect to find them.

The online shopping is just a better overall experience. If you ask a Lowes or Home Depot employee about those "pins that hold up shelves", you will likely get a blank stare. But if you put that same phrase into a search engine, you immediately pull up 44,700,000 results in 0.43 seconds. And then you click on the picture below, add it to your cart, and away you go.

Online retail is so superior.

[ronniesgal]

I hate when you go to the check out and they ask for my phone #.
I always say NO. Just ring me up.
and the cashier always looks stunned that i said NO!

[The Antiyuppie]

50 years ago, assembling was a good and fun job for high school kids.

[sanjuanbob]

Half the people at lowes don’t seem to work anyway.

Exactly right. I was in a Lowes at 7AM on Saturday. It was very busy and there were no cashiers aisles open. The self serve had a line of about 5-6 people plus all 8 stations were in use. When I finally got to a self serve station and checked out, I asked the monitor why there were no cashiers on a busy Sat. morning. Her answer, “they all called out sick”. Lowes doesn’t know how to hire, and that’s why they’re outsourcing their jobs to private contractors.

[strider44]

Me either. 24 years in the Army. My local Lowe’s is great about the discount. That 10% off has saved me at least $1,000 over the years. I realize stores vary, but I’ve had great success with all my projects using Lowe’s. I have nothing against Home Depot, they’re just further away from my location so I don’t go. My only gripes with Lowe’s is sometimes the lumber is sub-par, you really need to dig for a while to get a straight board without dings. Also mine doesn’t have tool rental.

[_Jim]

re: “ “Outsourcing” means that they will fire US citizens and hire illegal contractors who will work for half the price. “

Outsourcing these services ALSO means this ‘service’ gets written off in a different tax category (an expense), employee-employer laws don’t apply as to “due process” to fire (contracted services are at will employment) ... and there’s more ...

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Very different here in north Jersey; I remember years ago there would be greeters asking what you needed, but that was a long time ago.

I think it was about ten years ago that I was in a Home Depot in or around East Rutherford looking for some bungee cords to finish a project I was working on with my daughter, who lived nearby at the time. I couldn't find the damned bungees to save my life. Fortunately there happened to be a sales clerk standing nearby. When I asked him where the bungees were he grunted, gave me an incredulous look as if to say he thought I was the dumbest hick who had ever walked the earth, then, without moving a finger, jerked his head in the direction where they were located, which turned out to be right beside where I was standing.

Being from Delaware, of course, I found this somewhat off-putting. Delaware natives aren't the friendliest sort, but you'd never expect that sort of behavior from a store employee. They're either friendly, or they make a show of it.

[KarlInOhio]

Too bad Menards is only in the Midwest, they would clean up! They are #3 in sales behind Home Depot and Lowes and those stores are nationwide.

Anything bad at Lowe's and Home Depot is far worse at Menards. Sloppy shelves, missing employees and a dozen unmanned registers while customers are backing up at the only one open.

Menards used to have the best lighting section but the other two have caught up.