Thanks for screwing my town, Home Depot.

[techs]

About 8 years ago Home Depot wanted to open a store in my small town in Vermont.
They needed a zoning variance. So there were big hearings with the Home Depot representitive repeatedly promising:

1) Despite this store being the smallest one in the whole US they were sure it would make money and were committed to it.
2) Their studies indicated no improvements were needed to the roads to avoid congestion.
3) If they did ever leave they wouldn't try and put any restrictions on the owners of their site not to rent to another hardware/home improvement store

So a few days ago Home Depot announces it is closing my towns stores (and some others). They specifically said they were closing our store because it was too small and grossed too little money.
The town had to spend a lot of money building a roundabout because Home Depot was wrong and traffic was murder around the store.
After signing the original lease which did not specify the landlord couldn't rent to a similiar type store after they leave, they re-negotiated almost immediately after getting the zoning variance and indeed have a 3 year restriction on another of that type of store.

About 10 different businesses closed due to Home Depot. And now people will have to drive 17 miles to another state for the next nearest Home Depot.

Home Depot you are an irresponsible corporation.

 

[PrinceofWands]

You have no idea. You can expect a lot more closures in the coming months too.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

yeah, how dare they want to run a successful business.

But sure, the point about the lease I'll concede - that was pretty rotten but the rest is mostly whining IMO. IF(and that is a BIG IF) 10 places closed as a result of HomeDepot then don't you think some could spring back up to fill the void? Who cares if they can't use the old HD building - they have 10 others to choose from.... right....?

 

[Nebor]

They're responsible to their shareholders. Sounds like they're acting in the best interest of the shareholders. Just because your town got rubed by some city slickers doesn't make Home Depot the bad guy.

 

[alphatarget1]

why don't y'all sue the traffic engineers who did the traffic study?

 

[Rike]

Any corporation's promise is only as good as the contract it's attached to.

 

[StageLeft]

Interesting. I heard that for the first time ever on Friday HD announced closing of stores because of poor performance and I guess you got one of them.

 

[1prophet]

Originally posted by: Nebor
They're responsible to their shareholders. Sounds like they're acting in the best interest of the shareholders. Just because your town got rubed by some city slickers doesn't make Home Depot the bad guy.

In reality the ceo's and the board of directors, the regular shareholders can end up getting screwed too while the senior management leaves with their golden parachutes.

 

[CanOWorms]

I've never seen a Home Depot by itself causing a lot of traffic. You must live in a boring town.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms
I've never seen a Home Depot by itself causing a lot of traffic. You must live in a boring town.

I have to also echo this statement. We have a decent size, typical HD here and I'd estimate that on a Saturday it doesn't have more than 150 (?) cars in the parking lot (that is peak hours), hardly a large amount. Most of the time probably 50-100, I would suspect.

 

[Jeff7]

If the people didn't those other hardware stores to shut down because of Home Depot, they wouldn't shop at Home Depot in the first place.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: Nebor
They're responsible to their shareholders. Sounds like they're acting in the best interest of the shareholders. Just because your town got rubed by some city slickers doesn't make Home Depot the bad guy.

Corporations DO act in the best interest of their shareholders...first, last and only. Which makes it a little bit confusing when people want to treat large companies as anything but corporate sociopaths, while elected government is treated like a pillaging invasion force. It can't be both ways, folks.

I think the solution to these kind of problems is obvious...don't allow large chain stores in small towns, period. The amount of influence and impact they have is far too great to go along with the complete lack of good citizenship companies usually display. I'm not faulting them, as Nebor suggests, that's how the shareholder system works. But it's silly to pretend otherwise.

 

[fornax]

Originally posted by: techs
Home Depot you are an irresponsible corporation.

That may very well be, but you should place the blame first and foremost on your dimwitted town rulers. THEY held all the cards and could have demanded that HD pays for road improvements, not agree to re-negotiate, etc. Any corporation will try to get away with murder, it is your elected representatives' duty not to allow this to happen.

 

[1prophet]

Originally posted by: fornax

Originally posted by: techs
Home Depot you are an irresponsible corporation.

That may very well be, but you should place the blame first and foremost on your dimwitted town rulers. THEY held all the cards and could have demanded that HD pays for road improvements, not agree to re-negotiate, etc. Any corporation will try to get away with murder, it is your elected representatives' duty not to allow this to happen.

In all fairness to techs, I don't think he could have greased the town planning board as well as home depot.

 

[senseamp]

Who is dumb enough to build a home improvement/hardware store in this housing market anyways?

 

[glenn1]

Originally posted by: techs
About 8 years ago Home Depot wanted to open a store in my small town in Vermont.
They needed a zoning variance. So there were big hearings with the Home Depot representitive repeatedly promising:

1) Despite this store being the smallest one in the whole US they were sure it would make money and were committed to it.
2) Their studies indicated no improvements were needed to the roads to avoid congestion.
3) If they did ever leave they wouldn't try and put any restrictions on the owners of their site not to rent to another hardware/home improvement store

So a few days ago Home Depot announces it is closing my towns stores (and some others). They specifically said they were closing our store because it was too small and grossed too little money.
The town had to spend a lot of money building a roundabout because Home Depot was wrong and traffic was murder around the store.
After signing the original lease which did not specify the landlord couldn't rent to a similiar type store after they leave, they re-negotiated almost immediately after getting the zoning variance and indeed have a 3 year restriction on another of that type of store.

About 10 different businesses closed due to Home Depot. And now people will have to drive 17 miles to another state for the next nearest Home Depot.

Home Depot you are an irresponsible corporation.

That's odd, because in this thread you state that it's WalMart that came into town and put the downtown stores out of business, not Home Depot. Or could it possibly be that your town is simply too poor to support two big box stores, much less a bunch of downtown stores?

Originally posted by: techs

You need to go to school. It is the goal of every corporation to maximize profits. The best way to do that is to eliminate your competition. Then raise prices. Which is what WalMart did in my town. They came in, had super low prices, put downtown out of business, then raised prices.
The completely stupid people that support mega corporations that have the money to put smaller competitors out of busines so as to monopolize the market are truly idiots. The people who scream "if they have lower prices the other companies deserve to be put out of business" are completely ignorant of the history of this country and how that rationale led to the age of monopolies. Which we are headed back into.

 

[Descartes]

Sounds like the ball was dropped with respect to your town. I'd blame the people that allowed the zoning variance and the lease rather than Home Depot.

 

[Foxery]

Originally posted by: techs
About 10 different businesses closed due to Home Depot. And now people will have to drive 17 miles to another state for the next nearest Home Depot.

17 miles? OH THE AGONY

How exactly do you explain 10 businesses failing "because of HD"? What else is going on in your town?

Home Depot you are an irresponsible corporation.

Corporate Responsibility refers to the stockholders. Removing a money pit is the correct business decision.

 

[ProfJohn]

It is actually the fault of the towns people. If they had spent more money at HD they would not be closing. :roll:

 

[JD50]

Wait, you had 10 home improvement stores within 17 miles of your house before home depot moved in? You are so full of shit.

And if they weren't all within 17 miles of your house, how do those stores closing and home depot closing screw anyone? Seriously though, 17 miles? You're crying about having to drive 17 miles?

Edit - Ok, I realized that this is a Techs post and you usually embellish/make shit up, so let's take it slow. Let's start with how many home improvement stores were within 17 miles of your house before Home Depot moved in. I seriously doubt that there were 10 of them, so how many were there?

 

[JD50]

Originally posted by: senseamp
Who is dumb enough to build a home improvement/hardware store in this housing market anyways?

Originally posted by: techs
About 8 years ago Home Depot wanted to open a store in my small town in Vermont.

<snip>

 

[Thump553]

The Hartford Courant just ran a large article yesterday that it was the local merchants, and the fine people of Brattleboro being loyal to them, that killed this Home Depot. Rather than claiming Home Depot "screwed" you, this is a fine example of capitalism, coupled with the more intangible features of service, quality, etc. that led to the survival of the fittest.

Does anyone see the larger picture though? As mentioned in the Hot Deals thread dealing with these 14-15 store closures, this is apparently the FIRST time Home Depot has closed a regular store for financial reasons.

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: glenn1

Originally posted by: techs
About 8 years ago Home Depot wanted to open a store in my small town in Vermont.
They needed a zoning variance. So there were big hearings with the Home Depot representitive repeatedly promising:

1) Despite this store being the smallest one in the whole US they were sure it would make money and were committed to it.
2) Their studies indicated no improvements were needed to the roads to avoid congestion.
3) If they did ever leave they wouldn't try and put any restrictions on the owners of their site not to rent to another hardware/home improvement store

So a few days ago Home Depot announces it is closing my towns stores (and some others). They specifically said they were closing our store because it was too small and grossed too little money.
The town had to spend a lot of money building a roundabout because Home Depot was wrong and traffic was murder around the store.
After signing the original lease which did not specify the landlord couldn't rent to a similiar type store after they leave, they re-negotiated almost immediately after getting the zoning variance and indeed have a 3 year restriction on another of that type of store.

About 10 different businesses closed due to Home Depot. And now people will have to drive 17 miles to another state for the next nearest Home Depot.

Home Depot you are an irresponsible corporation.

That's odd, because in this thread you state that it's WalMart that came into town and put the downtown stores out of business, not Home Depot. Or could it possibly be that your town is simply too poor to support two big box stores, much less a bunch of downtown stores?

Originally posted by: techs

You need to go to school. It is the goal of every corporation to maximize profits. The best way to do that is to eliminate your competition. Then raise prices. Which is what WalMart did in my town. They came in, had super low prices, put downtown out of business, then raised prices.
The completely stupid people that support mega corporations that have the money to put smaller competitors out of busines so as to monopolize the market are truly idiots. The people who scream "if they have lower prices the other companies deserve to be put out of business" are completely ignorant of the history of this country and how that rationale led to the age of monopolies. Which we are headed back into.

That's odd, because in this thread you state that it's WalMart that came into town and put the downtown stores out of business, not Home Depot

Different types of stores.

Also,
JD50
Wait, you had 10 home improvement stores within 17 miles of your house before home depot moved in? You are so full of shit.
Two hardware stores and the rest were service type stores that did things like installations, etc. I live in a town that's a huge second home area (Vermont ski area) and HD did service and installation for next to nothing if you bought your product there. Hence, 10 businesses.

Thump553
The Hartford Courant just ran a large article yesterday that it was the local merchants, and the fine people of Brattleboro being loyal to them, that killed this Home Depot. Rather than claiming Home Depot "screwed" you, this is a fine example of capitalism, coupled with the more intangible features of service, quality, etc. that led to the survival of the fittest.
According to Home Depot the store did way more than its projections when they moved in. While many people did still shop local, they exceeded the revenue they said would guarantee the stores remaining open.

Foxery
17 miles? OH THE AGONY
How exactly do you explain 10 businesses failing "because of HD"? What else is going on in your town?
A 34 mile round trip. Especially in an area known for its snow and icy winters? Yah, it ain't pleasant. Especially when you buy something, get it home and find out it doesn't fit, etc. Now its 68 miles.
And the 10 businesses failing are explained above. Though I should add the Maytag appliance store also went out of business due to Home Depot. It's interesting that the Maytag store went out of business because they couldn't GET the appliances from Maytag. As Maytag was moving production to China there were shortages. And Home Depot had no problem getting appliances, yet the small Maytag store couldn't.

 

[Foxery]

I also live in snow country. I just don't remodel my house during blizzards, and buy the right product the first time.

Why is this personal whine-fest in P&N? Cry more, please.

 

[nergee]

..."And now people will have to drive 17 miles to another state for the next nearest Home Depot."...

If that state is N.H. at least you don't have to pay sales tax........