Maybe it's just me; maybe I'm the only one. I went to our local Lowe's yesterday to purchase a 'J'-roller. Being a logical sort of fellow I figured that a tool would be found in the tool department. We'll after searching all the aisles twice and finding the only employee around (who was covering tools and hardware) was already tied up; I went back to where the edge laminate is sold; no dice in either place.
So I head back up to tools, and look some more until the one lone employee is free. I ask him about a 'J'-roller. He has no clue what I'm talking about, so I explain what it looks like and what it is used for. He suggest trying flooring. So....off trod to flooring, I see nothing there either. I walk back towards paint and run into to female employees and ask them about the elusive 'J'-roller. I get the same blank look and have to go through the whole explanation again. One of them says, "Oh, a plastic roller!" and directs me to the back corner of one aisle where I find a carpet seam roller, which of course is not a 'J'-roller.
I walk back towards hardware and find actual flooring department personnel, of course I have to go through the same song and dance as he has no clue either. But, at least he knows who to ask, "Let's go talk to Bob in the mill-work department!", he says. So we walk over and talk to Bob who actually knows what a 'J'-roller is! But, he has no idea where they might be. He sends me over to the cabinet department.
Off to cabinets I go, when I arrived I find one employee and three people waiting to talk to them. So, I think to myself, "It can't be that hard to find it if it's over here." I walk around each aisle and am just about to give up, after all I have spent 20 minutes walking all over the bloody store, when I see that there is a hidden aisle back behind a cabinet display. I give it a try and lo-and-behold, in the very back corner of the store (no kidding), I find a 'J'-roller, which says 'J'-roller right on the %^&#$ package.
So, I have to question if we have really advanced by moving towards the big box store. I miss going into a 'real' hardware store that employed folks that actually knew all about what they were selling. When I lived down around Springfield, MO, there were a few good hardware stores left there. In our little town of Rolla we have the choice of two nearly equally poor establishments.
So, the question remains; Is it just me? Am I the only person who has had it with the big-box stores employing folks who are mostly ignorant of their job? Note: not every large chain is seems to suffer from the same fate, I have found O'Rielly auto parts stores to always be quite helpful. To be clear, I'm not wanting to start a tirade of complaints against the big-box stores with crappy service, rather I would like to offer an observation.
It seems to me that I as an individual can have the most effect by voting with my wallet. So, given comparable prices I will choose to shop at the supplier who offers the best customer service.
Now in case you are wondering what the heck this all has to do with the CW; I was buying a 'J'-roller to apply a carving mask (clear Contac shelf paper) to a board. The good news is that the 'J'-roller does a good job sealing it down.
After applying the shelf paper to both side of the board and applying painters tape to the tracker roller contact area, I tried measuring the board to see how the machine did at feeding the board through. It looked like it did a good job but the measurements didn't match my tape measure. After 4 tries on the machine produced the same readings, I grabbed a metal yard stick and measured the board. The machine had measured it right, time for a new tape measure; but it won't be from Lowe's...