Google Maps Store Maps

[Ben]

Maybe I'm slow on the uptake and you all knew this already, but apparently Google Maps will map out the inside of stores now. I need to go to Trader Blows today and wanted to go to a new one here, so popped in the address and when it zoomed to the store location, it had a map of what's in all the store aisles/sections. I thought that was kinda neat.

[K Frame]

Just wait until they start mapping out the inside of your home based on how much time you spend in certain areas.

[WLJ]

People need their phone to get around in stores now?

[Ben]

People need their phone to get around in stores now?

I actually find it incredibly helpful in the Home Despot. I'm as much a "guys don't ask for directions" guy as the next guy, but sometimes Home Depot, Lowes, etc. put their stuff in kinda weird places. Having my phone tell me the aisle/bin saves me 17 trips around the store searching for the item while attempting not to ask a live employee where it is.

[K Frame]

People need their phone to get around in stores now?

There are times that it would actually be nice to have that feature. I've stopped in stores with which I'm not familiar to pick something up and played hell trying to find it.

[WLJ]

In my time men didn't ask for directions   

[K Frame]

I tried with a couple of different grocery stores near me, and bupkis. Just gave me street view pictures of the exterior.

[Ben]

I tried with a couple of different grocery stores near me, and bupkis. Just gave me street view pictures of the exterior.

Kinda why I'm thinking it's brand new. This TJ's just opened a month ago. None of the other stores in that shopping center have an internal map, nor does the older TJ's in Boise.

[Fly320s]

I actually find it incredibly helpful in the Home Despot. I'm as much a "guys don't ask for directions" guy as the next guy, but sometimes Home Depot, Lowes, etc. put their stuff in kinda weird places. Having my phone tell me the aisle/bin saves me 17 trips around the store searching for the item while attempting not to ask a live employee where it is.

The Lowes app has a map and a search feature that should do that.  It almost never has the right bin location.

[K Frame]

The Lowes app has a map and a search feature that should do that.  It almost never has the right bin location.

Heh...

I ran into that a few weeks ago when I went to pick up wood pellets for my stove at the Lowes near my office. App said Aisle X, Bay X.

OK, so off I go to X/X and, unsurprisingly, nothing, with absolutely no indication of WITF the pellets might be.

Had to enlist a Lowe's employee who also couldn't figure out WITF the pellets were stored.

Finally, after a couple of calls, she determined that they're out in the frigging far reaches of the garden center.

On my way out I stop at the office and commended the employee for going above and beyond and also bitched to them about the crap directions to the product. I just looked on the web site again and at least they've removed the misleading directions.

Now they just have "XXXX bags available at your store."

OK, well, I guess nothing is better than misleading. 

[Ben]

The Lowes app has a map and a search feature that should do that.  It almost never has the right bin location.

HD is off a lot too. Then when I ask an employee, they go to their HD phone/tablet and get the same answer as me. 

[bedlamite]

Just wait until they start mapping out the inside of your home based on how much time you spend in certain areas your cellphone camera.

FTFY.

[MillCreek]

I am tickled pink that I am not the only one who has had these issues with Lowe's and Home Depot.  What really ticks me off is when the app says they have the item in stock, and yet when I get there, no item to be found. 

[Ben]

What really ticks me off is when the app says they have the item in stock, and yet when I get there, no item to be found. 

I ran into that in October, when Idaho had it's coldest October in recordkeeping history and I was after a faucet frost cover. Got to HD a couple days before we were supposed to hit single digits, where something like 300 of them were shown in stock, and not a one to be found. The employee's device also showed the same stock as the web did. That must have been some run on frost covers! 

I would have thought it would be easy enough to tie in the cash registers to current stock, but maybe not.

[K Frame]

The one think that Loews seems to have down pretty good is the inventory count for items.

More than once I've seen X number of something that I want on their website and gone to that store and found that number on the shelf.

I'll buy one or two, and by the time I get home the website has updated the item inventory.

[dogmush]

I ran into that in October, when Idaho had it's coldest October in recordkeeping history and I was after a faucet frost cover. Got to HD a couple days before we were supposed to hit single digits, where something like 300 of them were shown in stock, and not a one to be found. The employee's device also showed the same stock as the web did. That must have been some run on frost covers! 

I would have thought it would be easy enough to tie in the cash registers to current stock, but maybe not.

300 probably means there's a case in the store somewhere in the upper levels of the racking, but it's not where it's supposed to be stocked, so no one can find it.

Back in the dark days, when I worked at Home Depot part time, one of my jobs late at night was to go through our inventory, and when I found large discrepancies like that go search the overheads till I found where the fork lift driver had stuck the pallet of "x"

[WLJ]

300 probably means there's a case in the store somewhere in the upper levels of the racking, but it's not where it's supposed to be stocked, so no one can find it.

Like the expired and soon to be expired batteries that had been sitting up there for who knows how long that I saw them putting out on the selves. Always check the dates people.

[griz]

How are you supposed to get the store map?  When I zoom in on my local Walmart, it just has various departments pinpointed in random locations, not a real floor plan.

Never mind.  The adjacent Home Depot has a floor plan that looks accurate.  So I suppose the store has to provide the all knowing Google with the info.

[charby]

Another tool for mass shooters/terrorists to use.

[AJ Dual]

What bugs the hell out of me is when you go into any big-box store, and the layout is different, not even left-right mirror opposite, but radically different etc. at another location.

I know some of them are sized differently etc. but it would be huge if every Walmart etc. was the same basic layout across the US.

[charby]

What bugs the hell out of me is when you go into any big-box store, and the layout is different, not even left-right mirror opposite, but radically different etc. at another location.

I know some of them are sized differently etc. but it would be huge if every Walmart etc. was the same basic layout across the US.

It's a strategy to get you wander and by more crap

[K Frame]

Like the expired and soon to be expired batteries that had been sitting up there for who knows how long that I saw them putting out on the selves. Always check the dates people.

Oh, that's not bad at all. Back in the 1980s the port of Tampa Bay was cleaning up some of its rail sidings. Basically they were sidings where old stock was shoved and essentially abandoned.

They found 2 or 3 box cars... loaded with supplies for US troops for overseas service... in the Spanish-American War. Tampa Bay was one of the major jumping off points for US troops being sent to Cuba.

[MechAg94]

I might have to look those resources up next time I am searching Home Depot or Lowes.  Sometimes I can't shake a stick without hitting an employee and other times it seems like a ghost town.

[Ben]

Sometimes I can't shake a stick without hitting an employee and other times it seems like a ghost town.

Same here. I sometimes find it hilarious that every time I'm at HD when I know where stuff is, I have employees asking if I need help every 30 seconds, but when I'm actually trying to find an employee, I have to cover half the store to run one down who isn't already occupied with another customer. In general, I have found it easier to find a Lowes employee. However, because of shorter distance and no sales tax, HD is my goto these days.

I find the same thing with Tractor Supply and D&B Supply. At D&B, you can't walk ten feet without an employee asking if they can help you, while at Tractor Supply I almost always have to go to the register and ask them to get someone.

[Hawkmoon]

What bugs the hell out of me is when you go into any big-box store, and the layout is different, not even left-right mirror opposite, but radically different etc. at another location.

I know some of them are sized differently etc. but it would be huge if every Walmart etc. was the same basic layout across the US.

Oddly enough, Wally World seems to be moving in the opposite direction. There are maybe five Walmarts in my normal circulation area. A few years ago, allowing for differences in size since some of them are in leased buildings in strip centers rather than built by Walmart, the layouts were pretty much the same.

Now? Not even close.