Here is what we awoke to this last Saturday….

This was only part of what irritated me.

Along with another tree and 5 sections of fencing, the major storms that rolled through the Twin Cities this last Saturday took its toll on our yard. We weren’t alone – many houses in our area had trees down. Thankfully, our house and family were safe.

But, we had cleanup to do. We called in family reinforcement to help with the kids and the day’s work ahead which needed to start with buying a chain saw. We hadn’t had a use for one in years so we hadn’t purchased one and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that they would be flying off store shelves.

So, we headed over to Home Depot to check out what they had and quickly saw they had a few left. I made a comment to one of the employees that business must be busy this morning – curious to hear if other frazzled home owners looking for tools to help with cleanup had come before me. He responded with pleasant surprise over how great business was that morning and how many saws they were selling. I was speechless – I figured that since a whole community was affected, there may be something more important than the bottom line. I handed him back his saw and walked out.

We drove over to our local Hardware Hank where we saw a different story. There wasn’t exactly a lower price, but the service was what it should be on a day like this. The store pulled in extra employees to help and no one was happy to be selling that much for this reason. They took our saw in back, filled it with all the necessary gas and oils, made sure it started, and gave us a rundown on how to use it.

When we got home, many of our neighbors who did not have damage were out helping those that did. The employee at the landfill where we took our chopped up tree actually apologized to me for having to take a small amount of money for us to dump the branches. She said they’re only charging enough to cover their expenses and wished me good luck with our cleanup.

The Hardware Hank, our neighbors, and the landfill employee had it figured out that day.

My point is that Home Depot – and other “Big Box” retailers – seem to really struggle integrating themselves into a community and Saturday was about community. I’m not declaring all of them evil or even saying that Home Depot is a bad store, but on this particular day they missed an opportunity to seem more community-oriented and less about pushing product.