Rigid, Husky, Brinkmann, Ryobi, Homelite, Charmglow....all these brands, just crap imported by some third party and repackaged by U.S. names. Its why HD has a hard time staying instock with items, its why it can be very hard to get replacement parts for these items, and its how they can give lifetime warranties on such items.
Home Depot has been carrying Charmglow grills exclusively for a number of years now. Yet they didn't start carrying replacement parts for these grills until this year. This is because these grills are imported by a number of different companies (Brinkmann, Nexgrill) and repackaged. They are using incredibly poor grade materials to manufacture these things, note: Stainless Steel is not magnetic nor does it rust, and those grills start rusting within months and are highly magnetic.

So we are hurting ourselves by supporting this business model. Its sending jobs overseas, exploiting other people, hurting our economy, resulting in lower quality products that don't last and force you to spend more often, which you can't do because you lost your factory job.

HD, WALLY WORLD, LOWES, TARGET, wake up everyone. You reap what you sow.

My bracket is the championship will be AIG vs Bank of America

CitiField as been Citi for a long longer than TARP's been TARP. In fact, Citi put their name up well over 2 years ago.

I guess what I was trying to get at is you don't go putting your high school football team up against the Packers and expect to get any decent results as to how either side performed.

Also, I DON'T DO SPORTS. Sure I understand the mechanics/rules of play and will watch them if it's going to be a good game, but the politics and numbers behind it all means less to me than the grunge stuck in the J-trap under my garbage disposal.

@Nicholeigh: A bit Astroturf-y to me. But Citibank is killing HD anyway.

Go CITI!

But Home Despot (not misspelled) also deserves a blue ribbon only if it was because of Big Bob Nardelli and his penny pinching, money grubbing, greed is good policies that permeated the upper levels of management.

I bought a tool, it broke after five minutes of use. I bring it back to send out for repair. I fill out the paperwork and hand the tool over. The guy puts the paperwork in a file cabinet, takes the tool and starts to walk away. I'm like, excuse me, may I have a copy of that paperwork? Fast forward three months later.
Where the hell is my tool? They say, you never dropped off a tool, you're not even in the computer.
Show them the paperwork (evidence) they didn't want to give me and received a refund, after the tool guy got yelled at by the manager for taking back a broken tool in the first place.
??????????

@suburbancowboy: I agree . I heard their strategy was especially during the boom was to over staff a new store for about 3-6 months after opening . Combine that with prices that were designed to not only compete but flat out under cut many competitors many got the first impression Home Depot wanted you to see :competitive prices and service . Throw in a new store while you're at it how can you not leave impressed ,until you come back 9 monts later .

Home Depot used to be worth the extra drive but now it's not . I find myself frequently driving shorter distances for slightly higher prices becasue gas and time evens it out .

And as much as they have increased staff you still have to go find someone frequently clustered and talking .They will help after asking . I get the impression many are killing time . I've known several people who work/ed at Home Depot and they neither like or hate the job : they seem to tolerate it .

That said, we used to hate going to "Home Despot" with its lackluster employees..... until a Lowe's opened up right opposite. Then all of a sudden the Despots were aaaaall over us. Stainless steel dishwasher over your budget? -- Name your price. Desklamp missing some parts? -- Here, take this one. Apple pie with your order?

Now THAT's what I call customer service. Groveling.

Plus, they started to hand out pretty balloons.

@khiltd: that and Home Depot doesn't send out craptastic junk mail asking you to fill out a loan form, and also sending stuff to your house for the previous home owners who moved over 5 years ago. I can also wander around a Home depot for hours, no so with a citibank.

Maybe not the absolute best place out there, but they're higher in my list of "don't mind shopping there" than most stores!

And I don't think it's fair to pin your anti-world-economy sentiment on Home Depot.

@RandolphKolesnikov: That is so ironically delicious. They didn't know the address of the home they were mortgaging??

oh, and AIG, ftw

I call the championship to be AIG vs Citi

Vanno predicts Citigroup (#414) over Home Depot (#13).

A part of home depot's new image is putting the customer first. They are re-organizing their thinking and actively trying to kepp the loyal customers they have happy and bring new customers in. Home Depot has also started putting a focus on meeting and beating competitor prices. I for one have always like Home Depot and still shop there. I have had a few problems in theirs stores but talking to manager always fixed the problem.

I do hate Citi though.

I stopped shopping at Home Depot quite awhile ago, while Nardelli was being paid $200million+ (yes, the same guy now running Chrysler) to run the company into the ground. My other big complaint about Home Depot: especially considering they run a warehouse-type store, their signage is the worst of any large retailer I've ever been in. It's impossible to find stuff in there.

Well, another thing about Home Depot is that their attempt to get into contractor services is/was quite possibly one of the dumbest ideas in retail. Contractors are not oblivious to the fact HD also offers "installation services", i.e.: contracting. How much sense does it make to establish oneself as a competitor with the very same people whose business you are trying to attract?

All that said, I voted for Citibank.

@techstar25:
Excellent point. Wasteful use of taxpayer dollars > selling knock-off imported tools from China.

Or should that be "<"? I mean to suggest it is the worse of the two.

I had to go with Citi based one thing alone. I have only rarely had to call customer service for Citi. About a year ago, the calls were routed to a US call center. About a month ago I called for a small issue and got India. The next week I changed banks to one that has US based CS.

@jaydez: Here's some stuff against Citi for you: [consumerist.com]

This wasn't as one sided as it looks . Citi affected more people with their credit card shennanigans but to me Home Depot is another variation of Walmart . And their price increases over the last few years don't help either .

Citi Bank helped ruin the economy.

Tough call.

I went for Home Depot cus Citi has never done me wrong presonally buy I have never bought anything from Home Depot that wasn't missing parts and a PITA to exchange for a complete one.

Otherwise you mind end up with AIG going against some other evil and you end up with a chance of a VERY BIG EVIL ending up going out after the first round. This way, hopefully more of the bigger "evil" places will make it further into the bracket.

@gtrgod01:
win-win, either way!

(Well, OK...lose-lose.)

Not all of them, the Sprint vs Verizon one is fair.