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| - It was 9:57pm and I was in dire need of sandpaper and frog tape** so I could continue the unending task of renovating the house I bought.
I was mistakenly told by a friend that Home Depot is open 24 hours. That seemed excessive. Who needs to buy home reno supplies at 3:00am on a Tuesday, for example? The only patrons of a Home Depot at that hour are probably criminals who need to stock up on gloves and window-smashing equipment.
They closed in three minutes.
Luckily, I had driven my car incredibly fast and broken all kinds of rules of the road in order to arrive at the most oddly located Home Depot in the country. You come around the Nose Hill Drive corner, and there it is, sitting in an ocean of relative isolation. The "Home Depot" sign shone like an angelic halo on the hillside.
A gentleman greeted my friend and at the door with "We close in 3 minutes, gentlemen."
Dang. That usually means the staff inside are going to be surly and annoyed that you're forcing them to delay closing up. We prepared for the worst.
"We just need to grab some sandpaper and tape and we'll get out of your hair".
So he let us in.
Now, Home Depot is not a small store and for someone who has never had to navigate its hallowed halls in a sleep-deprived state it can be quite intimidating. I asked the girl behind the counter where to find what I needed. She smiled (seriously!) and said "aisle four". Now, that's important. 3 minutes until closing and she SMILED instead of grunting like some sort of primal war pig. That's good service.
We sprinted with Hussein Bolt-like speed and agility down aisle four, where both frog tape AND sandpaper were conveniently located for my purchasing pleasure. We then made a mad dash, wildly waving our arms, to the self-checkout. Beep! Beep!
"Wait for attendant". Uh oh. The attendant isn't going to like this. Who's too stupid to operate a self-checkout? (Apparently, me).
But the attendant fixed it up, smiled, and walked away. So I've concluded that either all the Home Depot staff are huffing too many paint fumes, or they're genuinely nice.
Beep! Beep!
And out the door we went to race back to my homestead, sand a wall and prime it for painting.
My experience, given the circumstances, was excellent.
**Frog tape is sadly not actually made out of frog biproducts. I feel ripped off, especially at $9.99 a roll. So, only 4 stars for you, Home Depot.
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