Friday

How Terrible Customer Service Led Me To Great Bargains


A while back I was wandering around the lumberyard in back of our local Menards looking for my lost order when I came across their bargain bin area. I had never noticed it before because I am usually in a different part of the lumberyard. The terrible customer service I was experiencing (NEVER trust the security guys for the correct location of merchandise) had actually led me to this previously undiscovered area.

Lying around or stacked against the side of the building was landscaping timber and edging, railroad ties, miscellaneous lumber of various sizes, sand, broken bags of concrete mix, sections of fencing, gravel, etc. While getting correct directions from the forklift guy I asked him about prices. He said they usually try to sell the stuff in lots, just to get rid of it. One recent example he gave me was of a customer buying an entire skid of railroad ties for fifteen dollars.

The next home improvement project I run into I will be checking the bargain bin area first.

3 comments:

  1. I'm not sure about Iowa, but in Minnesota the security guys are contracted from a security service, not Menards employees, and aren't given any diagrams of the yard or informed of changes. Here only contractors can put in bids on the bargain lots. Bummer.

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  2. Well, that might explain the security guys lack of knowledge if the same is true here.

    The guy I talked to about the bargain bin indicated it was open to the public.

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  3. I suspect the disposition of the bargain lots is at the discretion of the store manager.

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