I have worked for Home Depot for ten years now and still think that this is a great company! Have they made some mistakes Yes! three things stand out to me.#1 opened to many stores to quick this started happening in the late 90s when things were booming they have tripled the number of stores in ten years. every time they open a store it pulls seasoned people out of the surrounding stores. at that time it was hard to find knowledgeable people to fill the spaces.#2 stores to close together taking sales from one another.#3 cutting back on overstock causing empty shelves,having automatic reordering which only works if you have the right onhand counts. but does not help if you have a spike sale meaning someone lets say buys 10 of one item and you normally only sell 2 a week the shelf will be empty for a while. I do have some good news! Home Depot has started hiring a licensed associate in every dept. plumber, electrician. etc..