New target of liberal derision: Lowe's

[jmowreader]

Of course I'm going to tell you not to shop at Lowe's. But it's more than the normal rivalry between retailers; this is all about how they compensate their employees.

The local Lowe's celebrated March 1st by laying off a third of its crew because of the "economy." (Actually, they laid off a third of their crew because their store sucks; the place feels like a dungeon, their prices are higher than mine, they merchandise their OSB outside where it absorbs water, and their lift-truck drivers apparently get their forklift licenses out of Wheaties boxes because they have at least one "incident" involving powered lift equipment every week.) We celebrated March 1st by hiring up all of the released Lowe's employees who showed any sign of life and by increasing our sales plan by $125,000 a week. I got two of them.

So I'm sitting there getting a feel for my displaced Lowe's associates by using genuine US Army Interrogation Techniques (feed 'em and they talk) and we started discussing the Lowe's compensation scheme. They started telling me all about Chinese Overtime.

Chinese overtime is the weirdest thing I ever heard of. If you are salaried--all department heads, assistant managers, store managers, expeditors and operations personnel are salaried there--you are on the Salary Plus Overtime-Eligible Compensation Plan. They calculate your "pay rate" by dividing your weekly pay by the number of hours you work that week, then pay you half your "pay rate" for each hour you work past 40 in a week.

How this works in practice: Let's say Bob is on a $1000/week salary. He wouldn't be; not even a Lowe's district manager makes that much. But let's use that because it's easy to work with. If Bob works 40 hours per week, he makes $25 per hour. If Bob works 50 hours this week, his pay rate is now $20 per hour, and he will receive, pre-tax, $1100 (10 hours at $10/hour plus his $1000 base). If Bob works 60 hours next week, his pay rate will be $16.66; his pre-tax will be $1166.67.

There is a class-action suit against Lowe's because of another wonderful facet of their overtime compensation program. Lowe's sales associates receive base plus commission. If they go over 40, Lowe's is supposed to add their commissions, spiffs* and so on into their base pay to figure out what to pay 150 percent of, by law. They don't do this; they work it on the base pay only. Check out http://www.lowesclassaction.com.

In order for the Chinese overtime scheme to work, they must know how many hours you worked this week. IOW, the store manager's punching the clock. I don't call that "salaried."

Home Depot's compensation system is a little simpler: all sales associates, cashiers, lot associates, and operations personnel ("operations personnel" is a catchall term for anyone who doesn't deal with customers as a normal part of his or her position--receiving, night recovery, computer operators, bookkeepers, that sort of thing) below the operations assistant manager level, and all department heads, are hourly associates. None of us are paid on commission or receive "spiffs." (We do have a profit-sharing plan; should your store go over sales plan for a six-month period, they take the first 3.85 percent you went over plan and divide it among the hourly employees. The first year they did it they calculated sales and profitability targets over the full year; after about three stores bonused out of 1500 they got rid of the profitability part.) If you go over 40 hours in a week, it's the standard time and a half Bush is trying to get rid of, although we work hard to ensure you don't go over. All assistant managers and above, and our At-Home Services in-home representatives, are salaried. They work at least 55 hours per week and are paid at a rate commensurate with those hours.

We don't pay commission for two reasons. The first is that commission encourages the associate to push the most expensive stuff all the time, even when it's not appropriate. You wouldn't put a $288 full-glass storm door on a rental property, but 90 percent of all the millwork associates at the local Lowe's will recommend that you do. The other is that it's nearly impossible to track commissions in a home center on regular purchases. Anyway, I make more money at Home Depot on straight hourly than a Lowe's associate on commission does.

[Wickerman]

1. I had a brother in law that worked for Lowes

he was an installer. Originally he just did work as assigned from the pool. Then, they asked him to be exclusive.Worked great for about a fiscal quarter - then they stopped paying him. One excuse after another, the wound up owing him for 3 weeks of work. He would've taken them to court but it would've cost the checks and he didn't have the time to sit in court.

He says it all came down to the fact that the new manager of the store saw that because he was paid by the piece he was making more than the manager. they suck. I continue to boycott them - actually, that is easy - their aren't any near me. However, when I go to my fathers and do maintenance I drive an extra 20 miles to a real hardware store for stuff.

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. Well Hells Bells.....now i cant shop at either Lowes OR Home Despot......

With all due respect, jmowreader, when i heard that H/D was a huge contributer to the Bush campaign and to the repubs in general, i stopped going there. Now i wont shop at Lowes either. Oh well, there is an HE Store that is closer to my place anyway, and i am pretty sure thay are franchised and locally owned.

[jmowreader]

3. True Value and Ace Hardware should still be safe

Those are both franchisors; neither owns any stores.

The hardware business almost demands some sort of alignment if one expects to survive. You either join some sort of supply cooperative--True Value, Ace, Do it Best, Golden Rule; independent farm supply stores generally hew to Cenex in the west or Southern States in the east--or you set up your own supply chain, like Home Depot, Lowes and Menards have done.

If you don't like Home Depot's political contributions (incidentally, we have an employee PAC that's separate from the corporate PAC, and allows contributions to any party you designate--they list the major parties in alphabetical order, then give a line to write in your choice of minor party), that's fine. I'm not happy about that aspect of the company either--they'd be much better off supporting John Kerry, who will ultimately be better for us--but I look at the way the corporation treats its employees, suppliers, customers, and the community at large as well as the money they give to one party or the other; we're better on all those other things than any of the other large chains.

[Interrobang]

8. Me neither.

I won't shop at HD here in Soviet Canuckistan because they apparently have a policy of drug testing as a condition of employment. While I understand that's a fairly common (if disgusting) policy for US employers, the Supreme Court of Canada also said it was a violation of our Constitutional right to privacy. (The only way they can drug test you here is if they have reasonable grounds to believe you're impaired on the job and/or endangering yourself or others because of ingested substances.)

If you'd care to disabuse me of this notion, I'd be thrilled to hear it. I can always go to Canadian Tire when I'm at home, but I frequently need Lowe's/HD sort of supplies while on my annual camping gig in PA.

[TXlib]

4. Chinese overtime

It sounds like it is designed to discourage taking overtime... whatever your base pay is, the limit of the overtime is half of that.

The question, then, is: Do the Lowe's salaried employees get to clock out when they should, or are they forced to work diminishing-returns overtime?

[jmowreader]

6. They don't get to clock out when they should...

They're required to stay "until the work is done."

In a home center, the work is NEVER done!

Chinese overtime is one step up from Wal-Mart's "clock out then get back here and clean the department" overtime-control system.

[TXlib]

9. How does wal-mart get away with that?

Surely the police or FBI could send in undercover agents to work as lowly wal-mart employees, and collect first-hand evidence.

[fudge stripe cookays]

5. I feel for you, but I absolutely refuse to shop at HD.

There are no True Values or Ace Hardwares near me. It's one or the other, and I give way too much money to Dem causes to cancel it out by shopping there.

I go to Ace or True Value, or to Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore for paint when I can, and I always buy from local garden centers, but if it comes down to one or the other, Lowe's gets my business. Sorry.

[7th_Sephiroth]

7. ugh, i have no choice

my work forces me to deal with large quantities of conduit

[adriennel]

10. Ace Hardware

prices at Lowes are way too expensive and Home Depot is too far away for convinience. luckily, my town has a huge Ace Hardware store downtown that kicks ass! the only problem is I still need nursery supplies. I get plants locally but for supplies I will go to HD once a year or so...it's cheaper than the nursery and the hardware store just doesn't have the stock volume.