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Home Depot stocked shelves with empty boxes in its early days
- paradroid 8y ago#reddit
- paradroid 8y agoWhy on earth was this downvoted? Reddit started by creating fake users and fake content - much like stocking shelves with empty boxes.
- keyle 8y agoFake it till you make it is still a thing. It works. But don't deceive users by cheating them or lying.
- sschueller 8y agoSadly it has come to the point of fake it even if people are exploited, hurt or even die. [1][2][3] [1] https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/06/ntsb-autopilot-steered-tesla-car-toward-traffic-barrier-before-deadly-crash/ https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/06/ntsb-autopilot-steered-... [2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2018/03/14/sec-elizabeth-holmes-theranos-fraud/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2018/03/14/sec-el... [3] http://www.uberscandals.org/all/ http://www.uberscandals.org/all/
- icebraining 8y ago> "has come to the point" It always was. Just look at the miracle medicine of the past.
- wyclif 8y agoThis is just another form of 'fake it till you make it', similar to Reddit's founders submitting stories until the site got off the ground, &c.
- forapurpose 8y ago> Home Depot had ... associates who are knowledgeable about the products, says Langone. "These people learned their business and, to this day, the heart and soul of the Home Depot are these 400,000 people that work in the stores," Langone says. That is not at all my experience. They frequently don't even know inventory or where to find products in the store, and even less often do they know much about the products. Generally they are unmotivated, even relative to retail sales employees. EDIT: I want to be clear that I'm not at all criticizing the employees. It's obviously a systemic problem; they are poorly paid, and my impression is they are poorly trained and poorly treated, all for minimum age. I'm criticizing management for creating this system and for making the BS claim in the quote, and CNBC for letting it pass unchallenged.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Mediterraneo10 8y agoFunny, I get the same impression about the Home Depot equivalents in my own country (Praktiker and Dedeman). Over half the staff walking around is nearly retirement-age women who know bugger-all about most of the products on sale. Ask them where something is, and they have no idea, they will either claim not to have it (when they do), or they will go look for one of the few technically competent workers and ask them. You start to wonder if these stores' hiring choices are just some kind of gigantic makework project for needy widows, like Walmart greeters in the US. Or: someone knowledgeable about retail might be able to say whether these people walking around, even if they cannot really help customers, somehow pay for themselves because they discourage shoplifting.
- GordonS 8y agoNot sure what the age and gender of the workers has to do with it?!
- Mediterraneo10 8y agoMy country is what it is, a place where that demographic of old and female does not have much technical knowledge because society has traditionally discouraged it. So when you see a store with aisles full of tools and building materials overwhelmingly hiring that demographic -- and workers who are indeed unable to help customers much -- it does seem strange and one wonders at the reasons that the company's management has in mind. Are wages so low that only this demographic would accept them? Is it merely an anti-shrink measure? Are profit margins higher on the products (e.g. gardening) that they do know much about?
- jackconnor 8y agoIt's great because this is the type of quick-thinking hustle that is so useful when building a startup.
- baybal2 8y agoIt is popular with Chinese manufacturers doing "factory tours." To make an impression of a "serious business," they stuff warehouses with empty boxes. I once was a part of such factory tour where an impressed buyer from a American big box retailer said "wow, there must be at least $10m of stuff there" to giggles of people who were more knowledgeable in the trade.
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- lastUsername 8y agoIt was a standard practice to have empty boxes shops in the communist block. The reason was the same, but it was a structural and permanent one.
- happy-go-lucky 8y agoI did this, too, with my own drug store. I used to stock shelves with empty cartons for different brand-name drugs because I didn’t have money to buy enough of these and the store was not doing well.
- poulsbohemian 8y agoEven though this was just a fluff PR piece, there is a hint of the kind of entrepreneurial creativity story that first drew me to HN.
- nerdponx 8y agoI for one appreciate when an article's title is good enough that I don't need to read the article.
- marmshallow 8y agoFor you and anyone else that didn't read the full article, there was another single line that was interesting: > To get customers to come into the first Home Depot store, Marcus gave away cash. Golly gee, seems't the ancient hardware startups aren't so different from today's computer startups!
- vorg 8y ago> ancient hardware startups aren't so different from today's computer startups It reminds me of the grossly fabricated download numbers some open-source software products boast of to give the impression of a large user base. Not sure if it really works when they add four zeroes.
- TaylorAlexander 8y agoI like the part where he paid people $1 to enter his stores. I just paid to publish my first small book at a local print shop, and gave all the books away at the Maker Faire. It gave me hope that in the future people might know me well enough to want to buy them. Very much a fluff article, but it was a cute story and I appreciate it.
- dhruvrrp 8y agoCoinbase used to give $10 in bitcoin for new signups a few years ago.
- baxtr 8y agoI guess the equivalent today is called “performance marketing”. However, I like the idea to give the money directly to the consumer.
- rokhayakebe 8y agoNext time don't give it. Lend it. Get their email address to send them a return label or reminder or something. Or better have, them ship it to the next person and create a cult or sharing for your work within your community.
- mseebach 8y agoWhy? That seems terribly complicated for very limited benefit. (And it takes a lot more than that to start a cult)
- kumarvvr 8y agoInteresting stuff. Similar to founders of Reddit filling up their site with links to get some traffic going. I guess every business has some sort of a story like this when it first started.
- slongfield 8y agoI've heard of this being done in other, smaller, hardware stores. For instance, Harvey's Hardware in Needham, MA started off packing its shelves with empty boxes to make the store look like it had more inventory: https://www.inc.com/magazine/19970701/1277.html https://www.inc.com/magazine/19970701/1277.html
- rdl 8y agoThis is the kind of "breaking rules" which startups should (and often must) do; not the kind of stuff Theranos did.
- makapuf 8y agoWhy should deceiving be some kind of desirable conduct ? Either for start-ups or the larger firms they become, trying to squash competition of startups, do away with regulations etc. Of course many will do it and the more you get away with the more edge you have - unless the customers vote with their wallets for a fairer society.
- jaypaulynice 8y agoYou're not deceiving the customer. The problem is the customer depends on other inputs to make a decision. 99% of the time the decision has no rationale except social proof. For example: If you went to buy 2 products next to each other at a store. They both do the same thing and same price, which do you take? The one that your neighbor bought or a random one? For me whenever this happens, I most likely don't buy either unless I have a very specific need to get it.
- gist 8y ago> Why should deceiving be some kind of desirable conduct ? I don't find it deceitful. Is it deceitful if a restaurant has several separate rooms instead of one big room? If they have one big room and most of the room is empty it sends a negative message to a diner. If they have several rooms but don't open up additional rooms unless needed then there is no negative in the patron's mind. In the case of Home Depot they had the merchandise if someone wanted to buy it. Having empty boxes is a marketing ploy. Is it deceitful if a store gets slotting fees from vendors for better shelf placement? Where does this thinking end? Malls cover up empty stores in creative ways. They don't have a window where you can see the store is empty. They create a front or some other creative way to handle the vacancy. (There are many examples of this behavior which is considered acceptable and clever in business.)
- jaypaulynice 8y ago
- bitsoda 8y agoOn a related note, my grandfather used to give away a tub of ice cream to his customers on their way out of his furniture store so they’d be forced to go home and freeze it —- preventing them from shopping the competition in the same day.
- pingou 8y agoAre you sure it was so they didn't go to the competitor? What was the point? They already left his store, surely not being able to go to the competitor the same day won't change anything? They probably appreciated the gesture though.
- konschubert 8y agoI guess that furniture isn't always bought on the first visit?
- tempestn 8y agoIt's fairly common with furniture shopping to visit a bunch of stores on the same day. Even if his isn't the first store visited, if he prevents customers from visiting other stores, he probably boosts sales by at least some amount. More than the cost of the ice cream I would guess. Plus, good will!
- dawnerd 8y agoSimilar to why car dealerships put up bounce castles and do free bqq. Kids will ask parents to go, parents see free food. Even if they don't make a sale it leaves a good impression.
- toomanybeersies 8y agoIn Australia and New Zealand, hardware stores let schools and other groups do bbqs for fundraisers outside their stores. It works exactly the same way. There have been several times that I have gone to Bunnings for a hangover snag, and ended up buying something.
- amelius 8y ago"Fake it until you make it"
- Uberphallus 8y agoIt kinda makes me recall Sun Tzu's, and might not be the exact phrasing, "when weak, appear strong; when strong, appear weak". Similar ideas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dummy_tank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dummy_tank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluff_(poker) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluff_(poker)
- tr33house 8y agoOne word: LEAN
- amelius 8y agoThis reminds me of inflatable dummy tanks used in wars to deceive the enemy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dummy_tank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dummy_tank
- mschaef 8y agoJust the other day I was reading about retailers that would do this with perishable goods, just to give the impression of choice and there being plenty to choose from. Home Depot doing this doesn't surprise me at all. The comment linked here and one a few down: http://www.thedepartmentstoremuseum.org/2010/05/foley-brothers-dry-goods-co-houston.html?showComment=1330978825336#c3857751209963757222 http://www.thedepartmentstoremuseum.org/2010/05/foley-brothe...
- gwbas1c 8y agoI used to live about 7 minutes from a Home Depot. Now my closest hardware store is a small chain. Home Depot's hours were much better. I could run out after dinner. Last night I accidentally showed up at the local hardware store right after they closed, and there was a steady stream of people checking the door. If there was a Home Depot close by, they'd go out of business immediately just because of their hours.
- astura 8y agoThe local place near me closes at 5:00, which is quite unusual for the United States. It makes it impossible to get there on a weekday.
- nimbius 8y agoas an engine mechanic for a midsize automotive repair chain, I catch my management pulling stunts like this all the time. A few that come to mind: - The Michelin inflatable that actually cost us business because it was too big for our mid-town location and consumed all available parking. - advertising that we inflate tires with Nitrogen for performance with every new set of tires installed. Management runs us out of shield gas for welding and has to cancel a major mechanical job for a fleet customer. Management furious to learn shield gas is much more expensive than air. - on site oil recycling which was basically how we tried to spin managements asinine decision to not pay the state oil recycling fee. Fined by the state EPA, fined by the federal EPA, forced to pay six figures to a haz-mat disposal company. - Free battery testing and AC testing cant fully be expensed in the system because its too old, and results in an accounting imbalance that gets our owners audited by both fed and state.
- EADGBE 8y agoToday it wouldn't matter; as you can't seem to find an associate to help you with all the empty boxes up above.
- EmilyHealth 8y agohttps://medium.com/@EmiSpasic/what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-eat-garlic-with-honey-on-an-empty-stomach-for-7-days-a3c3129aead0 https://medium.com/@EmiSpasic/what-happens-to-your-body-when...
- gist 8y agoWhen I started my first business (out of college) I got my first big contract (that made the business and allowed me to hire real employees) by getting people (who I knew) to act like they were working in the business when the potential customer wanted to come by to 'inspect the operation'. It worked, we got the contract (over a much much larger established vendor) and kept it for many many years.
- Bucephalus355 8y ago> "So we put all over the store — all these shelves 20-foot high — we had these boxes and everybody thought, 'Oh my God! Look at all this merchandise!' But there was air in the boxes. There was no products” This would not have struck me as unethical a few years ago, but with all the brouhaha around tech companies and faking it until you making it (Theranos), seems more concerning now.
- dano 8y agoThe Price Club, now part of CostCo, had employees park their car in the lot to make the warehouse look popular and busy. Fake it till you make it in 1976.