Lowes Home Improvement News and Happenings.

What do you think -- is this company going to survive and thrive? Are they looking to expand their staff, or do you think layoffs are inevitable?

How does Lowes Home Improvement stack up against the competition?

Host said: What do you think -- is this company going to survive and thrive? Are they looking to expand their staff, or do you think layoffs are inevitable?

How does Lowes Home Improvement stack up against the competition?

i worked for lowes for 7 years believe me you will be laid off

Not if you are worth your weight.

Host said: What do you think -- is this company going to survive and thrive? Are they looking to expand their staff, or do you think layoffs are inevitable?

How does Lowes Home Improvement stack up against the competition?

I think they need to slow up expansion a little more. And keep some cash available to buy inventory.

To answer your questions simply, they are not looking to expand thier staff. If anything they are reducing the staff by combining zones. There isn't a problem with them purchaseing inventory however, lack luster sales activity has reduced inventory turns and ultimately reduced profits. They have to watch very carefully what lines or items are performing poorly and drop those items. This will allow them to invest in the lines/items that are selling well. As for expansion, they have already placed several projects on hold here in the northeast.

Host said: How does Lowes Home Improvement stack up against the competition?

Home Depot is no better off. Their company was totally screwed by the <Edited by Host: Personal information removed>. It has never recovered. The people running Home Depot have little to no retail experience.

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Good Luck.

green eggs and lawsuit spam. I'm a plaintiff, I am I am.

Not even a Lowe's related lawsuit, oh damn oh damn.

Thanks to the Moderator once again. This time for removing that spam about a Home Depot lawsuit. Which has nothing to do with Lowe's. People this forum is the "Lowe's" forum. Hello!

I worked for Lowe's for 3 years. No raise, no promotions, only head aches. The managers they promote are fresh out of high school with no training or work experience and it shows. They hire co-workers to fill in the slots for 5 cent more than the steak and shake up the road, again high schoolers and leave you with these people to try and run/close a department. If you complain, you get written up, then eventually, they will find something to axe you with. I have seen it to many times. No, corperate doesn't care, they have made their money and now its gonna be just like all the other big box store back in the day, just pull in all the money they can for the next 10 years, screw the workers and then sell-out to Wal-mart. The goings on with this company today would kill the original founders 10 times over if they only new. Companies like this one are the reasons why our econonmy is so sluggish, corperate greed and pennies for the workers. Everyone at corperate turns their head and doesn't want to admit to the stuff going on with this company, hey, why would they...I mean, who would raise a stink about something when they were making $200,000 a year answering phones? Another big box store rip off of a company.

Ralph, what on earth are you talking about? Who makes $200,000 a year answering the phones? Where are you getting this info?

Ralph - You have very good insite.
My dad just got laid off from Lowes. Was he worth is weight ? most certainly. Many customers would come to the store asking for him. He knows his product well. He worked there for 4 years, always in early, never took a break. Always was courteous to the customers. I went with him to get his final paycheck and I felt like a celebrity. All the co workers came to him, wishing him luck and talking about the bad deal he got. There wasn't anyone more reliable or harder working than my dad. He often offered up remedies to situations and the disorganization. He contributed to his job in all ways. He never got writted up in the 4 years he was there. Always got an increase, no matter how pathetically small.
One day a new supervisor came to the store out of a transfer, she smells badly, so bad the men even complain about her. She some how took on a disliking to my dad immediately (possibly a color issue). She forced him to do something that would endanger his health and he declined. Two days later, he reported the incident to management and a week later. He was terminated. He was terminated with a false accusation. This now has ruined his reputation from ever getting a job at any other Lowes location.
The sad thing is, he was shocked and never expected it. There were not write ups like I said. Just a notice of the stupidest reason they could conjure up !!!!
I feel bad for the young people getting hired, there is no pension and no career there. It's o.k. for the older worker that isn't looking for any advancement.

That sounds typical. They can hire kids out of high school that do not care, have any training and are rude to the customers. We beat our budget every week by over $200,000 and all our Managers from Zone to Store care about our their BONUSES. Many employees work straight throught their shifts with no breaks or lunches because many times there are not enough employees to cover all areas. I myself want to go to classes to learn more to better serve my customers. Many of which only shop my store because of my knowledge. For some reason our store doesn't feel the need to send us to other store when the training is available. I have taken upon myself and those in my department to read up on what we sell and offer and learn what we can on our own. I cannot tell you how many countless times people have come to my department for help in all areas of the store because I am friendly have a smile and am always helpful. I do the Zones job, the department managers job and my own and still get chewed out daily if something isn't perfect. Even with all I do I still worry about a job. Lowe's isn't a career choice it is more suited for those going to school or retired. Don't get me wrong, if you get in with the right (click)people you move up quickly. God only knows how our Sales Manager got his position because myself and another have to fix the due files and order management for him because he would fail his audits if we didn't. I would love his job since I do it anyway. I think Corporate needs to have a heart to heart with it's employees for an insite as to how each individual store is doing. If a store is having problems wipe the Management team and bring in a new seasoned team. I and many others at our store said that if Mr. Niblock walked into our store unannounced he would go on a firing spree starting with his management team. Not all stores operate like mine and I hope it gets fairer and better with the New Changes going on.

Company will survive and thrive after this recession. Consider the following.

1. They are still adding stores, second only to Wal-mart.
2. They have a very strong bench of leaders, all the way down to SM, yes there are some duds, but the senior staff is blessed with some really sharp talent, really sharp.
3. They have experience with these downturns, trust me this one is bad but in this industry Lowe's has seen some real disasters, It was the last significant downturn ( 80's) that lead Lowe's to adopt the big box. Don't be surprised if they decide to drop some sacred cows, programs, did I tell you Lowe's use to sell TV's and Bikes?
4. They actually will listen to you if call them up, they mostly call back, here is the key offer a suggestion to the problem, and don't just complain, they embrace solutions.
5. They have a world class DC system, probably better then WM.. this allows a tremendous amount of flexibility to adjust inventory and direct it to stores that are selling it.

OK now my questions, where are they happy employees? Retail is hard and really hard when staff is incompetent. I also know that new stores are more often the ones with poor moral, due to poor training or lack of experienced people to train. But some good best practice is needed here to help some of you over the hump, it doesn't stay bad for long if you change how you look at the situation ( with a positive attitude)

Now this next comment will drive all the unhappy people crazy, so here it is.

A quote I read somewhere. "If you want to improve the moral of your store...Fire the unhappy ones"

Have a lovely day, and thank you SM that you have a job, its not a pretty sight in today's job world.

Sounds like you use to work for Sears, I agree the gold standard at one time. I would strongly suggest you reach out to upper management and consult with them, they would like to hear from someone that has a contrasting view point with a background such as yours.

You sound like you could be an advocate for the employees, and if you are; use your
experience and knowledge of how employees should be treated, and give a few suggestions on what they can do to improve the moral. my guess from reading these comments, is the "DUD" manager's are driving this, they don't last long for the most part. You probably have a least one good manager in your store that you can speak with, if not maybe another store close by.

Good luck to you,

Hi all,

I've been unemployed for about a month now. I never worked for Lowes, but wanted to.

This past month, I've applied for about 10 OPEN positions with Lowes. Got declined to most and no answer for the others.

5 of the declined jobs were for a department supervisor position.

I am a previous department supervisor at Home Depot with 2 years of experience and honors, no write ups, never terminated from any job. Also a OSHA instructor with government licenses.

Anyone would imagine this is a good enough background for the position right!?!?

Well here's the most common answer:

Thank you for your interest in the position of Department Manager, Job ID# ######. We sincerely appreciate your interest in career opportunities with Lowe's. Regretfully, we have decided to pursue other candidates at this time.

Please keep in mind that new opportunities are constantly arising. We strongly encourage you to continue reviewing our current job opportunities. As a reminder, you must apply for each position you are interested in pursuing. We wish you much success in securing a position that will satisfy your career objectives.

Respectfully,

Lowe's Human Resources

FIVE times...

Not even one interview!!!!

Whatever...