WE GET MAIL--ARE STORES IN SOME AREAS DIFFERENT THAN SIMILAR STORES IN, OH, NICER, SAFER, MORE UPSCALE AREAS?
DEAR CM PRESS:
A few days before Christmas, I was looking for a power saw that had been advertised in an ad for a certain hardware store.
The Huntington Beach store, a well lit, well kept store, had nice displays of all the saws and their various blades, drills with the various drill bits, etc. Almost immediately, I was approached by a staff member asking if I needed help. They had only the display model left of the saw I wanted, but the young man checked and said their branches in the Tustin Marketplace and in Garden Grove had some.
The Tustin store also had nice displays of the complete tools including blades and bits, helpful staff, etc. Unfortunately, by the time I went there, they were out, also. They were reluctant to sell me the floor model because they didn't have the case for it and were missing some of the spare blades. They checked the computer and assured me that they had several of the saws at the Garden Grove store.
The Garden Grove store was not in the nicest area, and the parking lot was trashy and poorly maintained. The store itself was pretty shabby, with narrow aisles, poor lighting, messy displays, and few sales people around.
In the power tool section, it one couldn't find the right shelf to look for a specific tool at a glance because none of the display tools had blades or bits. All one saw at first was a bunch of orange (Black & Decker) and yellow (DeWalt) handles. The blades and bits had all been removed, so as one looked down the aisle, the power drill handle looked sort of like the reciprocating saw handle, which looked sort of like the chain saw handle, etc. Considering the area, I wondered if they did that because of high theft rates or concern about gangs taking the parts to use as weapons.
It did not increase my comfort level in the store. I was glad to complete my purchases and get back on the road for home.
Today I went to the Costa Mesa Target. None of the power tools on display had the blades or bits inserted.
Name Withheld by CM PRESS
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