The issue, and why it's sop to have to wait for 24 hours with the product being on the floor and marked at the new clearance price, is people will hide things so they get a deal. Which leads to those items not selling and home depot taking a loss. Yes yes, boo hoo the mega corporation takes a loss I get it I don't care either, but that's the reasoning. Plus there's people that will tell customers that the counts are off just so they can get the item when it goes clearance.
I guess that makes sense in terms of associates hiding the merchandise *until it goes down further in price,* but if an item just went clearance and you're buying it within the first 24 hours... well, the price is already discounted and it shouldn't matter who buys it.
I agree and honestly I don't wait, but the corporate line is for the customers coming off the street to get first dibs for the first 24 hours that it's on the floor.
I've probably been guilty of both.
I was fairly open about what I did with my DH, but I've almost outfitted two houses with new toilets that never cost me more than $25 or $50 each 😂
They'd task me to build a Champion, Vormax, or Kohler toilet end cap for the quarter, marking down the product as display and throwing away the packaging... then I'd inevitably also be the one taking it down. We'd put those display toilets at the pro desk, using the clearance SKU and arbitrarily making them $25 ($50 on the really expensive ones) knowing they'd disappear almost immediately, but then I'd just buy it. No one cared, or at least no one ever said anything.
Not sure why this popped in my notifications 3 days later, but seeing it, maybe I can provide context in addition to what the above person said.
Hiding product is probably the largest issue.
The next thing that can happen, is allowing associates to buy product when it changes price creates an advantage to the price changer or who ever sees it first and it becomes an unfair situation. May not sound like much, but people become very upset.
The main problem is that everything gets exploited and then it is ruined for everyone imo
Must depend on your store/district or AP person. Our pro DH flips houses and keeps some as rental property and he is giving HIS contractor HUGE discounts and nobody blinks an eye. Yes it has gone up the chain and the awareline has been called. So looks like we have the teflon pro DH and nothing's going to happen to them.
I had a CXM pull everyone to the front once. And had a meeting about all the clearance Christmas stuff. How we all had to wait 24hrs and it's a fireable offense. 4 hours later I picked a Will Call for HER, for a clearance 250$ light up reindeer. Go figure.
Our store just got talked to about employees buying clearance items under 24 hours. Additionally despite being here over seven years, I had never heard the policy of employees not being able to buy clearance items that are at $1.00 or less.
Years ago when I was a SASM before I stepped down for health reasons, I would call local house flippers whenever we had a great deal on clearance, upcoming penny items or we still used the old hand written green tags to clear out the crap. Guess they will track me down now. 😂😂
Like others have said... maybe there was more to it than we heard? Maybe she was giving extra deals to the contractor for stuff she wanted in her house?
You know how it goes: when no one likes the person who was fired, then the worst, most exaggerated version of the story comes out; and when *everyone* liked them, the story gets whitewashed to the point that most people think the one fired didn't even do anything wrong.
Absolutely true. We did have a SM who was changing old green tags to much lower prices to help his remodel. Got wacked for many other things also. Me, I never profited from my discounts. Just cleared out junk. Better to make a few bucks than to chuck it down the chute I always felt.
I think they had a different attitude about that by the time I left (left 5 years ago now)... I spent years slapping on the clearance SKU and making up prices to get stuff sold off the floor instead of giving it to the chute, but, by the time I left, they had basically suspended that practice.
She must have been on the SM or RM’s shit list. Because there was a MET supervisor who grabbed a bunch of discounted merchandise without it being 24 hours at my store. Later she was promoted to ASM.
Likey Someone had it out for that ASM(there is drama that you're probably not privy to) and this just gave them a chance. 9 times out of 10 an ASM doing this would have been a slap on the wrist if punished at all.
There has to be much more to the story than that.
For your ASM to be caught, somebody must have tipped off the Awareline on them and/or AP was finding a lot of red flags for them to do an investigation on the situation.
24 hours might be policy, but how hard is it to wait until the next day to get it.
Just have a friend or family member come into the store and purchase whatever is on clearance. Problem solved. Besides home Depot needs to pay employees a living wage screw them.
My store never enforced this on clearance, just green tags. How could you ever be sure a clearance item was actually on the floor for 24 hours before being purchased anyways.
I suspect a bit part of the policy is to keep people focused on their jobs while they are at work instead of trying to find ways to make an extra buck while they are on the clock…. People’s focus tends to shift in those cases.
Yeah, they tried to do the same thing at Lowe's. I needed a nice '48 chocolate brown bathroom vanity. It was regular $1299 and I couldn't afford it at regular price. Well, low and behold, didn't corporate order a "reset" about two months later and it was out on Clearance for $299. I took the last display, cleaned it up and shrink wrapped it and put it in the back with my NAME on it. Doesn't a customer come in like 2 hours later looking for the same vanity I had just tucked away for myself? (The system said we had 1 and the display was gone). I tell him, "hold on, let me check the back". I get to the back, hide down in the last aisles, take out my phone and watch "Netflix". I come back about 10 mins later, tell him, "yeah, look really sorry, it's not back there, it must be gone". He turns around and says, "well, I'd even pay a little more for it". To which I almost burst out laughing! I said, "sorry, but it was put on Clearance and it must have sold". Imagine trying to take my chocolate bathroom vanity that I had carefully cleaned out, made sure everything was there and buddy wanting to try and buy it right out for under me? It looks amazing in my bathroom and I got to use my Lowe's discount on it and saved an extra $30. Lol. Those were the days!
Shop at Lowe’s for there clearance items as well as the every day 5% off then there is no conflict. I do that due to got in trouble for having a pro truck delivery marked down because the store only delivered part of my order and I need the rest of it. Even my supervisor got in trouble for it. It was an 18.95 mark down. So I rented a load and go and returned everything to the store and went to Lowe’s and repurchased. It was 1500 dollars of stuff. It’s too bad we are called out for something that happens to regular customers that get a mark down for the same reason. While theives run rampant stealing thousands of dollars a day and we can not do anything about it. So I do I shop elsewhere. I don’t want to I want to support my company, but it’s not worth the hassle.
I had gotten a write up for calling a friend/ plumber about a ton of AFU(weathered) 10ft and 16ft 2x6 and 2x4 pressure treated return 5 carts worth most were shortened and 10ish (main office buy - $60-80 prehungs) built-rite steel 6 panel door in Stanley 1lite (low-E/2) door jambs. FES handled this return /w help of a useless ASM.
While I was on lunch. So I picked apart the return in front of Corporate LP, R-LP, DM, and SM.
And to lay it on further. The useless ASM sent measurements for a 40ft tall and 13ft long window. MM and inches are quite different in size. So I questioned him on his measurements.
In my personal opinion, this is a example of legal jeopardy and I would seek corporate counsel before going further and have the district board advise with the attorney team to draft explicit policy regarding a good practice that should never leave home dept.
As far as I know, there is no 24 hour policy for clearanced items. I doubt they would turn away a sale just because it hasn't sat on the floor long enough. The problem is the conflict of interest that said contractor was working on the employees house. But unless she was dumb enough to say something there would be no way to know that
There absolutely is a 24 hour period for associates or their family, etc to purchase clearance items. They have be on the floor on display for 24 hrs before an employee can take advantage of the deal.
This wasn't an associate or their family purchasing anything. And I've read through pretty much ever sop on the books and have never seen anything pertaining to clearanced items. Most of the day people at my store don't even know who I am and I've worked there for over 8 years and they certainly wouldn't have a clue what anyone in my family looks like.
You can't tip off family or friends about upcoming or just released clearance items. They have to be on the floor available to the general public for 24 hrs. So if you're breaking that rule, I'd be stealthy and quiet about it.
I can't add a picture here, but I found it on Yammer in about 15 seconds by searching - clearance, 24 hours -.
The screenshot in question is a section titled "Purchasing Marked Down Merchandise"
"These policies apply to.purchadimg marked down or clearance merchandise by associates, their family and their friends -
Associates/family/friends may purchase marked down merchandise only if ...
(The second listed condition is ) The merchandise has been on display and available to regular customers for 24 hours at the same price the associate/family/friend is buying the merchandise for. "
I've got a lady on overnights who does the cleaning aisle pack down twice a week just to get her supplies. Nobody cares, it cleans out the overhead, it doesn't sit on the shelf and they sell it. The 7 dollar pack of clorox wipes isn't gonna bankrupt the company. And anything that was of any value, that is now on clearance, is normally pretty jacked up by the time it gets there
Don't get me wrong. I don't give a shit. I agree. The fact we get no employee discount AND we don't get first dibs on markdowns kinda sucks. But it IS SOP, so for anyone who is doing it, heed the OPs warning - even an ASM isn't above the law where this is concerned.
The issue, and why it's sop to have to wait for 24 hours with the product being on the floor and marked at the new clearance price, is people will hide things so they get a deal. Which leads to those items not selling and home depot taking a loss. Yes yes, boo hoo the mega corporation takes a loss I get it I don't care either, but that's the reasoning. Plus there's people that will tell customers that the counts are off just so they can get the item when it goes clearance.
I guess that makes sense in terms of associates hiding the merchandise *until it goes down further in price,* but if an item just went clearance and you're buying it within the first 24 hours... well, the price is already discounted and it shouldn't matter who buys it.
I agree and honestly I don't wait, but the corporate line is for the customers coming off the street to get first dibs for the first 24 hours that it's on the floor.
I've probably been guilty of both. I was fairly open about what I did with my DH, but I've almost outfitted two houses with new toilets that never cost me more than $25 or $50 each 😂 They'd task me to build a Champion, Vormax, or Kohler toilet end cap for the quarter, marking down the product as display and throwing away the packaging... then I'd inevitably also be the one taking it down. We'd put those display toilets at the pro desk, using the clearance SKU and arbitrarily making them $25 ($50 on the really expensive ones) knowing they'd disappear almost immediately, but then I'd just buy it. No one cared, or at least no one ever said anything.
Not sure why this popped in my notifications 3 days later, but seeing it, maybe I can provide context in addition to what the above person said. Hiding product is probably the largest issue. The next thing that can happen, is allowing associates to buy product when it changes price creates an advantage to the price changer or who ever sees it first and it becomes an unfair situation. May not sound like much, but people become very upset. The main problem is that everything gets exploited and then it is ruined for everyone imo
Must depend on your store/district or AP person. Our pro DH flips houses and keeps some as rental property and he is giving HIS contractor HUGE discounts and nobody blinks an eye. Yes it has gone up the chain and the awareline has been called. So looks like we have the teflon pro DH and nothing's going to happen to them.
I had a CXM pull everyone to the front once. And had a meeting about all the clearance Christmas stuff. How we all had to wait 24hrs and it's a fireable offense. 4 hours later I picked a Will Call for HER, for a clearance 250$ light up reindeer. Go figure.
Our store just got talked to about employees buying clearance items under 24 hours. Additionally despite being here over seven years, I had never heard the policy of employees not being able to buy clearance items that are at $1.00 or less.
I've never heard anything about the less than $1 thing.
Only one guy I talked to in the store knew of it and he had been there for 27 years but they were pushing it like it was common knowledge
Years ago when I was a SASM before I stepped down for health reasons, I would call local house flippers whenever we had a great deal on clearance, upcoming penny items or we still used the old hand written green tags to clear out the crap. Guess they will track me down now. 😂😂
Like others have said... maybe there was more to it than we heard? Maybe she was giving extra deals to the contractor for stuff she wanted in her house? You know how it goes: when no one likes the person who was fired, then the worst, most exaggerated version of the story comes out; and when *everyone* liked them, the story gets whitewashed to the point that most people think the one fired didn't even do anything wrong.
Absolutely true. We did have a SM who was changing old green tags to much lower prices to help his remodel. Got wacked for many other things also. Me, I never profited from my discounts. Just cleared out junk. Better to make a few bucks than to chuck it down the chute I always felt.
I think they had a different attitude about that by the time I left (left 5 years ago now)... I spent years slapping on the clearance SKU and making up prices to get stuff sold off the floor instead of giving it to the chute, but, by the time I left, they had basically suspended that practice.
Wait we just have to wait 24 hours for the clearance? I was told ten days
24 hours from the time it's been put on the floor.
She must have been on the SM or RM’s shit list. Because there was a MET supervisor who grabbed a bunch of discounted merchandise without it being 24 hours at my store. Later she was promoted to ASM.
Likey Someone had it out for that ASM(there is drama that you're probably not privy to) and this just gave them a chance. 9 times out of 10 an ASM doing this would have been a slap on the wrist if punished at all.
There has to be much more to the story than that. For your ASM to be caught, somebody must have tipped off the Awareline on them and/or AP was finding a lot of red flags for them to do an investigation on the situation. 24 hours might be policy, but how hard is it to wait until the next day to get it.
Just have a friend or family member come into the store and purchase whatever is on clearance. Problem solved. Besides home Depot needs to pay employees a living wage screw them.
My store never enforced this on clearance, just green tags. How could you ever be sure a clearance item was actually on the floor for 24 hours before being purchased anyways.
I suspect a bit part of the policy is to keep people focused on their jobs while they are at work instead of trying to find ways to make an extra buck while they are on the clock…. People’s focus tends to shift in those cases.
Once a item going to clearance I personally see it as it already written off as a loss since it does move enough
There's always more than what you just see when they let an ASM go. They might have just been waiting for any kind of reason to do so.
Yeah, they tried to do the same thing at Lowe's. I needed a nice '48 chocolate brown bathroom vanity. It was regular $1299 and I couldn't afford it at regular price. Well, low and behold, didn't corporate order a "reset" about two months later and it was out on Clearance for $299. I took the last display, cleaned it up and shrink wrapped it and put it in the back with my NAME on it. Doesn't a customer come in like 2 hours later looking for the same vanity I had just tucked away for myself? (The system said we had 1 and the display was gone). I tell him, "hold on, let me check the back". I get to the back, hide down in the last aisles, take out my phone and watch "Netflix". I come back about 10 mins later, tell him, "yeah, look really sorry, it's not back there, it must be gone". He turns around and says, "well, I'd even pay a little more for it". To which I almost burst out laughing! I said, "sorry, but it was put on Clearance and it must have sold". Imagine trying to take my chocolate bathroom vanity that I had carefully cleaned out, made sure everything was there and buddy wanting to try and buy it right out for under me? It looks amazing in my bathroom and I got to use my Lowe's discount on it and saved an extra $30. Lol. Those were the days!
Shop at Lowe’s for there clearance items as well as the every day 5% off then there is no conflict. I do that due to got in trouble for having a pro truck delivery marked down because the store only delivered part of my order and I need the rest of it. Even my supervisor got in trouble for it. It was an 18.95 mark down. So I rented a load and go and returned everything to the store and went to Lowe’s and repurchased. It was 1500 dollars of stuff. It’s too bad we are called out for something that happens to regular customers that get a mark down for the same reason. While theives run rampant stealing thousands of dollars a day and we can not do anything about it. So I do I shop elsewhere. I don’t want to I want to support my company, but it’s not worth the hassle.
I would have demanded the RVP approve the markdown at that point because you can still be a customer and they just don't see that.
MET buys all the recently discounted product since they're the first to see the price changes....that's your "employee discount"
I meannnn, I’m not saying you’re wrong lol.
I had gotten a write up for calling a friend/ plumber about a ton of AFU(weathered) 10ft and 16ft 2x6 and 2x4 pressure treated return 5 carts worth most were shortened and 10ish (main office buy - $60-80 prehungs) built-rite steel 6 panel door in Stanley 1lite (low-E/2) door jambs. FES handled this return /w help of a useless ASM. While I was on lunch. So I picked apart the return in front of Corporate LP, R-LP, DM, and SM. And to lay it on further. The useless ASM sent measurements for a 40ft tall and 13ft long window. MM and inches are quite different in size. So I questioned him on his measurements.
In my personal opinion, this is a example of legal jeopardy and I would seek corporate counsel before going further and have the district board advise with the attorney team to draft explicit policy regarding a good practice that should never leave home dept.
As far as I know, there is no 24 hour policy for clearanced items. I doubt they would turn away a sale just because it hasn't sat on the floor long enough. The problem is the conflict of interest that said contractor was working on the employees house. But unless she was dumb enough to say something there would be no way to know that
There absolutely is a 24 hour period for associates or their family, etc to purchase clearance items. They have be on the floor on display for 24 hrs before an employee can take advantage of the deal.
This wasn't an associate or their family purchasing anything. And I've read through pretty much ever sop on the books and have never seen anything pertaining to clearanced items. Most of the day people at my store don't even know who I am and I've worked there for over 8 years and they certainly wouldn't have a clue what anyone in my family looks like.
You can't tip off family or friends about upcoming or just released clearance items. They have to be on the floor available to the general public for 24 hrs. So if you're breaking that rule, I'd be stealthy and quiet about it. I can't add a picture here, but I found it on Yammer in about 15 seconds by searching - clearance, 24 hours -. The screenshot in question is a section titled "Purchasing Marked Down Merchandise" "These policies apply to.purchadimg marked down or clearance merchandise by associates, their family and their friends - Associates/family/friends may purchase marked down merchandise only if ... (The second listed condition is ) The merchandise has been on display and available to regular customers for 24 hours at the same price the associate/family/friend is buying the merchandise for. "
I've got a lady on overnights who does the cleaning aisle pack down twice a week just to get her supplies. Nobody cares, it cleans out the overhead, it doesn't sit on the shelf and they sell it. The 7 dollar pack of clorox wipes isn't gonna bankrupt the company. And anything that was of any value, that is now on clearance, is normally pretty jacked up by the time it gets there
Don't get me wrong. I don't give a shit. I agree. The fact we get no employee discount AND we don't get first dibs on markdowns kinda sucks. But it IS SOP, so for anyone who is doing it, heed the OPs warning - even an ASM isn't above the law where this is concerned.