Today I decided I was going to put up a pegboard tool holder wall in my garage. Sounds like an easy job – I just need to buy some pegboard (30×70 inches), a couple feet of 2×4, and the actual hooks that go into the pegboard. I can handle that I think. So I head over to the new Menards that isn’t far from my house.
When I was there I realized I’d need to buy a little hand saw to cut the 2×4 – so I had that in my cart. I went to get the pegboard last cause I knew that was going to be to big to easily push around in my cart. So I finally find the pegboard and find they sell it in sheets that for 4 feet by 8 feet. That is going to be too big to fit into my vehicle. So I decided I had to look for someone to help me cause no one was coming around asking if I needed help. About 10 minutes later I finally found someone. I asked the girl is she could cut the pegboard for me. She needed to ask someone else who just said no we can’t cut that. A giant hardware store like Menards doesn’t have the willingness, the tools, or the ability to cut a 1/4 inch thick piece of pegboard? What the fuck?
I bought the stupid pegboard thinking I’d come up with a plan if it didn’t fit in my car. I’ll come back and drag it home with my bike if I have to I figured. Well sure enough it was too long. Right then I remembed I had that saw in my bag – so I whipped it out and cut it right there in the parking lot with it sticking out the back of my car.
I really wish I would have thought of doing that inside the store. I would have replied to the girl by saying “no problem – I can handle it myself if no one here is competent enough to cut a fucking pegboard”.
Would Home Depot or Lowes cut that for me?
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29 Comments
We only have a circular saw to cut materials — get over it.
1.) Lowes will cut wood, etc. to order.
2.) Menard’s also discriminates against the disabled, by REFUSING to have elec. motor carts in the store.
3.) I no longer shop there, for those and many other reasons.
I had someone cut something for me at a Menards store in Chicago. Just went to the outside yard with it, had them write up a ticket and picked it up in the yard. Slick as can be. If you don’t get the answer you’ve been looking for, ask around in any store. It’s just like getting a 2nd opinion from a doctor, buddy?
As a Home Depot associate and a person who hates Menards, allow me to answer that question. Home Depot does cut any sheet material (glass in special locations only). It’s typically free, but some regions will charge a little if there is a lot of material.
The major problem with Menards, too, is they often hire high school students who couldn’t five a whoot. Home Depot (and I believe Lowes) hires a minimun of 18, and has people specialize in a specific field. (If you are hired in Building Materials, you probably know what you’re doing, etc.)
I regret to say, even though all of the stores are hardware warehouses (Menards is more like a cluster of cheap products halfhazardously placed around), if the store doesn’t have store-use tools, employees cannot just take one off the shelf. Home Depot considers it theft and a safely issue (if it’s power equipment).
Sounds like poor planning on your part.
If assuming a giant hardware/lumber store like Menards can cut a simple piece of pegboard – then yeah I’ll accept the blame for poor planning.
I could have gone over to Home Depot – but the time that would have taken would have been much longer than cutting the damm thing myself.
I have been to the Menards that you speak of and I believe the reason why they won’t cut peg board is because they lack the equipment to do so. Menards has a chop saw so they can’t cut large sheets of wood be it peg board in your case or plywood in my case. It sucks but it is good to know that Lowes and Home Depot will cut my woods. If only they were as conveniently located as the Menards in Moorhead.
P.S. I fucking love Honey Nut Cheerios.
Now I want a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios.
“We only have a circular saw to cut materials — get over it.”
Thats hilarious – circular saws can’t cut peg board apparently.
How did I miss this controversy?
I also love Honey Nut Cheerios! But probably not as much as Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Or Count Chocula WITH the chocolate marshmallows if you can find it (rare cereal).
Yeah, Menards sucks.
Huge fan of a lot of milk in the cereal though.
Lots of milk and lots of sugar. I used to dump half a cup of brown sugar in a bowl of cheerios.
you know why menards doesn’t cut your wood,etc.? because if they cut it wrong then you can bitch and say “you cut it wrong” and they would have to give you another one for free dumbass.
So they don’t do it because they think they probably can’t do it the right way?
That’s a good policy to have. I wonder how those other places survive – you know the ones that will cut something to meet the needs of their customers.
What is that called? Customer Service?
Thanks for the helpful insight menards hater.
I love this unfortunately I just took a job at Menards (Huge Mistake but got laid off) I work in Building Materials! I asked this same question to my Dept Manager and this is the answer I got. “No we don’t cut wood for our guests and why would we when we sell the Hardware for them to do it themselves. If they ask to have it cut take them over to the saws, remember weve got to upsell.” Wow talk about guest service, which is what they hype themselves up about. Let me tell all of you I will not be shopping there nor will I be an employee there very long.
You just got a dumbass menards dude. We sell the pegboard 2X2 2X4 2×8 4×4 and 4×8. We dont cut them because we only have a little 10″ circular saw.
yeah… the people in the yard usually are really cool, cause we actually do have tools like saws-alls and grinders.
had one guy getting some re-bar the other day, and he was furious because the store manager said we couldn’t cut it to fit in his car, so I went and got a grinder and cut it in half for him.
You just gotta go around back and ask one of the kids working and they usually cut it.
I have worked at Menards but I have also worked construction for 8 years, so I know my hardware stores.
The basic breakdown of chain hardware stores is as follows:
Home Depot has the best products, esp. in tools. However you better know what you need because it’s very rare to find a Home Depot employee that knows his ass from his elbow. It is handy for DIYers that they will cut your stuff for you, but don’t expect good answers to your questions.
Menards has a great in home training program so their employees have descent knowledge of the projects and esp. the products. However Menards product is slightly less high quality (they have some good brand names but they don’t carry deWalt anymore). The service is good, but better at smaller locations than at metro locations.
Lowes is basically for soccer moms and other people who really want to be smiled at in an extraordinarily (almost freaky) friendly manner.
try not to be a pain in the but customer anymore. It’s your responsibility to
Just because they have moderately good service and carry crap products doesn’t mean he is a bad customer.
Just because you are ok with mediocrity doesn’t mean he has to be.
Besides, the customer is always right. Didn’t they teach you that at Menards boot camp?
I work at Menards, and I don’t like Menards. But its people like you that make a big deal out of “nothing” that makes me hate it. Don’t yell at the employee because of some stupid rule, they aren’t the one that made the rule, they need to follow it or else they get bitched at. And the person that mentioned about hiring high school students, they do. But they work in the front end on the cash registers, and thats all. But they expect these kids go out in the rest of the store, with no training, and are expected to know everything. Which is ridiculous in my opinion. And before they know it, they have a guest yelling at them in the face about not knowing where something is. Its not their fault!
Unless your talking to a manager, please do not yell at the employee.
But, I understand why you hate Menards.
@Me – if you comments are meant for me – I didn’t ever yell at the employee, nor do I blame any particular employee. I’ve had similar jobs where customers were probably pissed at me for following some stupid rules. So I know what that is like.
I hope you are someday able to get out of there!
i don’t know if they are all the same but our Menards has 2′ x 4′ – 4′ x 4′ – 2′ x 8′ and yes your sheet 4′ x 8′ – all peg board – maybe look around a little more next time your waiting around for that sole person.
as for Lowe’s / Home Depot yes they do have a panel saw but your going to wait around just as long for that sole person to cut it , and lord be with you if they can read the tape to cut it for you. hope your new wish list has a skill saw & pick up on it , so than you can do it all. you might live longer, god for bid there not all like burger king!! Ron White is right !!
I’ve worked for Menards for near or at the 7 year mark now in the building materials and wallcovering departments. I was hired a couple weeks after I turned sixteen into the wallcoverings department, so I’m not sure how this 18 and under cashier business plays out…but lord only knows it feels like the higher ups change policy every other week. I’ve transferred to 2 different stores since then.
I started out in sales, then eventually was promoted up to asst manager in paint a couple years later. Holy crap was I ever excited. But boy, what I would’nt give to go back in time with a lawn chair and some popcorn and watch myself relive that bullshit again. Hah, more like hospitalize the hell out of myself before I ever got that opportunity to sign my life away. Thankfully I’ve stepped down to full-time since then.
First and foremost, I hate menards. Hate.
Secondly, I love a fair chunk of the people I work with. Sincerely.
Thirdly, I enjoy my experience with most of the guests I’m forced to cater to. Smiling through my teeth at the other 25%.
and lastly, Menards employee’s don’t know jack squat about their departments unless they’ve been there for at least 1-2 years or have a “genuine desire to learn.” Anyone not in the margin of error (yes, I’m aware I called this the “margin of error.” The entire fucking company is a margin of error) that thinks otherwise is genuinely wrong, they just haven’t had any real fuck-ups happen to them yet. Good, inquisitive guests are getting hard to find and far between. Without them, it gives off a false sense of competency.
In-home training, hah! I have 2 morons in my department that have every building materials in-home butt-fucking training sheet done and I still have to hold their hands through every fucking sale it feels like. It’s irritating. I’ve completed both of my departments, but It’s questionable how much it helped me. I’m almost willing to bet I learned much-much more from literature than those booklets.
If I had a nickle for every time I heard a good story like this, I’d be rich. I love it, we’re a fucking “hardware store” that can’t cut a sheet of fucking pegboard for a paying guest…or any 4×8 sheathing for that matter. Hell, our saws outside can’t even cut a 12″ board unless you flip it over to finish the cut. Not to mention we charge our loyal consumers a $1.00 fee “per cut.” It’s PATHETIC. In select stores, it’s true; find a guy in the yard and they’ll fix your wagon just right. Others…well, they’ve been assimilated into the ol’zombification process. Stay away! But seriously, you’d think they would fucking equip us for obvious things like this.
But like the others said, we do have those pegboard sheets in different sizes, the person that helped you might not have been part of the department if they didn’t know that. That’s pretty common knowledge, even for someone new to the department.
Obviously, the trick is to find someone that’s worked their for some time, but is more concerned with helping you than making a sale. You’ll know them as soon as you start talking with them, I swear by it. It’ll just be present in the way they carry themselves. Some stores just don’t have them, my heart goes out to those poor fools. But anyways, the departments are filled with kids going to college for things completely unrelated to menards, so first thought to them is that they honestly don’t give a fuck about you. A few more years and they’ll be in front of a computer screen or in a law firm wasting away. The best thing anyone can do is become friendly with these kids so that they feel obligated to take the initiative to actually look out for you. That or find someone who clearly fucked up their lives by making a career out of this hell hole (usually the managers). Oh yes, you’ll know them when you see those poor bastards, also. They’ll be the tools (ironically) sitting at the desks with a smile…an honest to god smile…enjoying their time spent at work…a tool store.
I feel for ya, man. I really do. Unfortunately all you can really do is never shop their ever again and tell your friends not to either. Well, that or write the douche bag big-wigs a nasty letter telling them to go fuck themselves. There’s no real winner…you wouldn’t shop here and they’d still make profit. Well, douche bag profit…
Pshh, all we sell is garbage anyways. I’ve only ever bought 3 things from the stores I’ve worked at that weren’t already damaged, flimsy as hell, or missing something. It’s just too much of a hassle to mess with…you’re better off without having to deal with the future stress.
I really don’t want to get into what makes menards terrible, as this has gotten pretty freaking large already. I’m sure you can connect the dots, but long story short: Menards sucks – they don’t care about you – not many stores do these days – stay away from Menards.
Good luck to you, sir. I hope your project turned out alright.
ya, believe me, menards is the walmart of home supply stores. they stock the standard stuff (med. grade tools, materials) and then an extremely low, cheap, crap line of products, tools, etc. too much chinese junk to sift through. if you need a sprinker head, you got rainbird or orbit… if you need a drill, you got black and decker or tool shop. their wood is mostly kept outside and is mostly warped, frozen, or knotty.
my latest saga that has forever caused me to HATE with a passion everything that is menards is my patio circle block kit. i ordered the kit to make a 6′ diameter circle patio. its a slick kit, and no one else sold anything like it. this was part of a larger project (sidewalks, porch, etc..) and was to be used as the centerpiece of the hardscapes. i picked up the brochure, picked out the 6′ diameter circle, and ordered it up.
in the mean time, i planned for the kit by putting in my sidewalks and porch, forming them up around the area of the circle exactly 6 foot. basically a concrete walkway with a 6′ circle in the middle of it with other walkways branching off it.
so the kit comes in… and its 6.5′. 6.5′ don’t fit in a 6′ opening.
friggin A menards… its in the brochure, my receipt, my special order slip, the display marketing material, etc.
who is ripping out my concrete and repouring it for a larger circle?
who is going to rent a wet saw and cut all the blocks to cram it into a 6′ space?
NOT ME MENARDS, NOT ME.
screwed up $600 in concrete work, gave me a circle kit that will have to be butchered up, and the headache of delaying the project 2 weeks.
I’M DONE WITH MENARDS:
0 accountability
0 knowledge
0 quality (in product OR service)
i’ll take lowes or home depot any day. i’d rather pay 5cent more for straight dry 2×4s, and $20 more for decent tools, windows, doors, etc.
That dude from Home Depot could not be more full of shit. You will find detractors for any company or product. Most of what is on this board is shit. Next time call fool, to see if a service is offered. Bunch of damn fools on this site.
Now I will say I am a former Menards worker, I have worked at two stores and now a Store Manager’s wife at one of the top menards stores. I came across this dumb lil post in doing a research project that I am writing a class report on the company.
All companies have policies and procedures not to hurt customers. Yes, they are not supposed to cut materials for the safty of the employees. This is an insurance issue. And with every size pegboard avaliable I dont see why it needed to be cut. Although I do know that many outside yard employees will cut anything, except glass with the saws in the barn.
Now the motorized wheel chair issue is not because they discriminate against disabled people. Thoes chairs do exist in some store, not alot because they cost ALOT of money and having a customer using on in the store that is owned by the store is a huge insurance issue. Instead of all thoes extra cost they as cutting their prices and hiring more employees to aid customers.
They do offer regular wheelchairs and there is a sign that if they inquire about someone to push them around they will get some. And YES I have had to push around a customer so I know they do this!
The age issue- Anyone under 18 has to work at a cash register or as a carry out. Department employees can be as young as 18 although it is hard to switch if you have just became 18 and want to work in a department.
Menard goes encourage all employees to participate in trainning for the department they are in and all other departments. Most people do these trainning because they educate the employee in their departments materials and customer needs. I did finish mine while working for the company and had started another departments trainning just to become more farmiliar with it.
But basicly all home improvement stores have their pros and cons. And most rules do have reason behind them, even if your not aware.
Former Menards:
Yeah, that’s exactly what the problem is. Menards is to damn cheap to do anything good for the customer. Don’t cry to me over insurance costs. How about some knowledgeable employees that actually CARE about customer service? New concept? I guess. I now put Menards in the same category as Wal-Mart.
I have been an employee for Menards for a year and a half now. I studied Auto CAD and Interior Design for 3 years before I went to Menard’s to learn the ‘behind the scenes’ aspect of the career I wanted to pursue. I started back in the Cabinets and Appliance department as part time. I would consider myself a sponge when it comes to learning, being 19 and done with 3 years of college already. Within a month and a half, I was at full time level. Within another 2 months, I had taken an assistant department manager in the plumbing department. I knew nothing about the plumbing department and was a new manager, but I took it upon myself to learn the most I could. Not only did I want to learn the things for myself, but I also wanted to make sure that all the others in the department what I knew as well. (Plus, its somewhat rewarding to be a 19 year old girl and know more about plumbing than a man) I have written quizzes and worksheets, pushed in home training, and spent every day striving to teach ‘the guys’ more and more about the department. Sales have gone up, turnover is down, and they are genuinely happy with their jobs. Any of the people in my department can answer in depth questions and help you with every aspect of your plumbing project. Now, I cannot speak for the other stores, let alone the other managers in my own store. But I take it upon myself to make sure that my guests are satisfied and well informed.
Oh gosh…
I have worked for menards for almost 3 years. I have to say your shopping experience will reflect the GM of the store. At my store i know there are customers that say they will never shop menards again cause it was a terrible experience. yet, in a month or two home depot and finally then lowes will be a terrible experience to that same person. As for wheel chairs/ motor scooters i understand that some of the stores are huge and walking could be a little tiring but if we had motor scooters do you know how many over weight people would be taking advantage of them that they wouldnt even be available for the disable. And like another comment an employee will push a person around the store if assistance is requested.
as for cutting 4×8 sheets of plywood and what not, yea they have a machine at home depot and lowes but it takes over an hour to get someone who is trained on it to cut the damn sheet for you. so either way its a win/lose situation.
And for employees how many people do you know with some knowledge that are going to want to work for a little over 15 dollars an hour have to work every other weekend, maxing out at 4 weeks of vacation, working between 45-55 hours a week going to apply and when they do apply and get hired they end up staying for no more than a year cause a better opportunity arises.
I dont love menards but as a college student making a couple dollars over minimum wage is a lot better than living off of the government! Customers you need to realize that whether you end up with a college student that is there for a pay check or a middle aged employee that is working to put food on the table for his/her family, we are here to help you not do the project for you and when you come in completely unaware of what you are doing or we dont carry something specialized dont get all mad, be happy there are “DO it yourself” stores other- wise you could be paying a hell of a lot more for a contractor to be doing it for you.
I have been a carryout at menards since i turned 16, i am now 18 and am going on my third year. I have had my fair share of shitty customers who make me not care about my jobe just for the fact that they think i am stupid or dont know what i am doing. I have had people tell me they want rustolium paint mixed for them. I have to tell them that we dont mix rustolium paint because it comes to us pre colored and not in base. They get pissed off and yell at me when all i am doing is trying to help them. The reason we cant cut pegboard is because its a liability sure dumbass we can pay for more insurance to cover it but its going to be more expensive for you because they arent taking that cost out of their pocket. And whats wrong with offering high school kids a job? Why wouldnt i work at menards where i make 10 dollars an hour over mcdonalds where i would be making 7.50. This is a rediculous post, and purple why dont you stop being a bitch about stupid shit. Why is it our fault you didnt bring a pickup truck? how bout a trailer? why is it our responsibility to cut it for you when they make vehicles big enough to haul this shit? To me it seems like your just someone who wants to sit and bitch at a computer desk because you didnt get somthing your way. You know who else bitches when they dont get their way? children. You sir are a child grow up and stop complaining on your blog.