Home Depot's future Muddy?
A trip to Home Depot exhibited some interesting changes yesterday. I have 3 HD stores within 5 miles of my home, but one seems to have both a larger share of builders and renovators AND more knowledgeable staff thus I try to go here most.
Yesterday, I noticed that the parking was not full as normal, and HD had removed its Veteran Only parking. Previously HD offered Vets 10% off, then reduced it to 5%, now it seems they don't care about Vets.
The store added "out buildings" into the parking which deleted some space. Upon entering the store, the greet staff is far more helpful and knowledgeable about product locations than before. I expected the interior to be more crowded with customers based upon cars & trucks in lot, but it was not. Many products are now within metal cages, and the paint department had only 2 workers.
I was looking at 2'x4' tiles to use for a kitchen island countertop I saw on a YT video. Their stock of both 2'x4' and 2'x2' tiles was very limited in choices and shelves were almost empty. In a very close aisle 6 employees were standing together engaged in convo, but were helpful when questions were asked.
On checkout, there was no lines, and 2 of 6 self registers were empty. This is a very muddy picture to me about the company and its future stock prices.
Do you have any thoughts?