08-16-2019, 05:53 AM
It's been an interesting few months. I still work at HD designing custom doors and windows. A few observations I've made as I have now worked through most of the seasons.
-Springtime is "Christmas" at HD. A strong surge in store traffic and sales for several months.
-Corporate applies extreme pressure to maximize efficiency. We don't waste any sales space from floor to ceiling. It's impressive and I can see the focus on growing earnings every quarter without fail. The downside to all that is about the only way to increase margins now is to cut staffing hours. I don't enjoy trying to work three departments part of each day, but that doesn't really matter to me as a shareholder. What does matter is the customers notice By the time they wait their turn to get help from me they are what I call "pre-annoyed". For hours at a time, everyday lately, not a single employee in building materials which is lumber, concrete, drywall, siding, decking. They are taking it too far. It really has become a self-service operation in many ways. I get an ear full several times a day and it is getting worse every month. They voice their displeasure verbally, and on the surveys attached to the cash register receipts. It isn't pleasant to deal with. I guess the good news is customers inform me the same exact same thing is going on at Lowe's and other competitors. It's not hard to see why retail sales continue to grow online. Why deal with all that if your product isn't too large to ship.
-The point of all this is I wonder what quarter we finally miss earnings, and how they will react? I think same store sales are nearing a peak. Will HD and LOW expand into an already saturated US market? We may be at the wrong end of the economic cycle for that. In any event, big box retail is very interesting now that I have an inside view at the store level. Get very efficient or you'll just go away.
-Springtime is "Christmas" at HD. A strong surge in store traffic and sales for several months.
-Corporate applies extreme pressure to maximize efficiency. We don't waste any sales space from floor to ceiling. It's impressive and I can see the focus on growing earnings every quarter without fail. The downside to all that is about the only way to increase margins now is to cut staffing hours. I don't enjoy trying to work three departments part of each day, but that doesn't really matter to me as a shareholder. What does matter is the customers notice By the time they wait their turn to get help from me they are what I call "pre-annoyed". For hours at a time, everyday lately, not a single employee in building materials which is lumber, concrete, drywall, siding, decking. They are taking it too far. It really has become a self-service operation in many ways. I get an ear full several times a day and it is getting worse every month. They voice their displeasure verbally, and on the surveys attached to the cash register receipts. It isn't pleasant to deal with. I guess the good news is customers inform me the same exact same thing is going on at Lowe's and other competitors. It's not hard to see why retail sales continue to grow online. Why deal with all that if your product isn't too large to ship.
-The point of all this is I wonder what quarter we finally miss earnings, and how they will react? I think same store sales are nearing a peak. Will HD and LOW expand into an already saturated US market? We may be at the wrong end of the economic cycle for that. In any event, big box retail is very interesting now that I have an inside view at the store level. Get very efficient or you'll just go away.