"Her" Depot

[joreth]

So apparently Home Depot has decided that women prefer "neat and clean" stores without lumber or power tools.  So they're opening a spin-off store in Concord that caters to women ... complete with the non-warehouse look and flower-print storage bins.

Wow, can this be any more offensive?  As a woman, I LIKE the warehouse environment. It offers me exactly what I need for home improvement and other projects.  I need lumber and heavy power tools.  I do not need flower-print storage bins!  If I wanted "girlie", I'd shop at Target.  Believe it or not, but those of us that do not have dangling equipment between our legs understand that the middle of a project will not be "neat and clean".  There will be sawdust on the floor and racks of paints and an assortment of tools.  AND THAT'S OK!

No, let's set back the women's movement by a hundred years by telling her that she does not belong in a warehouse with heavy-duty equipment.  She belongs in a neat, pretty, shiny store where all the REAL work has been done and what's left for her to do is light decorating.

http://bitchphd.blogspot.com/2007/10/putting-man-back-in-handyman.html
http://www.dollymix.tv/2007/10/her_depot_new_home_depot_aims.html
 http://coedmagazine.com/sex/Guys-Room/3021
http://xnerg.blogspot.com/2007/10/you-can-do-it-we-can-condescend.html

I absolutely love the comment in the xnerg.blogspot link:

"see, being one of the "hers" in question, i know that i can't put up my pretty pink curtains without scary man-tools, so home depot is still my fucking depot, too"

So far, every article I've encountered about it is rage from women.  I hope this experiment fails miserably.

Comments

[rain-herself.livejournal.com]

This is probably my fault, as I can't stand Home Depot. It's so chaotic and hot and...orange, that being in there for more than 10 minutes makes me edgy and claustrophobic and totally freaked out. It's not that there are tools there, but it is the "warehouse" environment, in that I can never find anything without walking around the store fifty times searching for it among all the other things I don't recognize, and by the time I leave, even if I managed to find the thing I was looking for, I'm covered in sweat and filth and wigged out by the chaos.

Of course, this new store doesn't do me any good either, as it wouldn't contain any of the things I have to go to Home Depot for in the first place.

[joreth]

Yeah, I'm actually less pissed off at the removal of the "warehouse" environment (shorter shelves wouldn't be a bad idea, since I usually end up climbing on the tall shelves to reach what I need) than the fact that they're removing half the inventory with the express purpose of catering to female customers. What about just people who are ready for the design element of home repair? And why do "women" not like the not-neatness of the existing stores? Someone else commented something to the effect of "Hmm, the house is dirty, let's buy a new one!". If the neatness is an issue, then fucking clean the existing stores, don't tell me that women don't like it dirty because some of us do.

As many of the other bloggers have mentioned, not only do we already have Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Pier 1, and a dozen other interior decorating stores, but Home Depot itself already tried a store of that nature, something about an Expo Design Center? The point of all the protestors here is that women need the lumber and power tools just as much as the men do, and if Home Depot sales are failing, it's not because women are only interested in the finishing touches of home decorating, it's because their customer service sucks.

[rain-herself.livejournal.com]

Yeah, completely agree. There's no need whatsoever for yet another home decorating place. While there is a gaping need for a clean, organized, actually helpful home improvement place. Lowe's is better than Home Depot, but not by much. Has nothing to do with women/men, most of the men I know hate it too, just not quite with the seething fury I do.

[tedeisenstein.livejournal.com]

Hell, most of the women on my really-really-good-friends list have more power tools than I do - and I live on a farm 20 miles from the nearest hardware store, where having a complete collection of good power tools is a necessity.

I wouldn't mind having a smaller Home Depot, either. But it's a tool-and-lumber place dammit, not a damned froufrou decorater's delight for the "feminine" side of me, dammit!

[phyrra.livejournal.com]

bleh. I hope Home Depot fails at this as well.
You're exactly right, women can go other places for girly stuff.
I always have liked Lowe's and Home Depot for the specific atmosphere it provides to find cool house stuff. I like the warehouse effect.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

yep. rage. rage, rage, rage. Why are people so STUPID?!?!??!

The whole POINT is that Home Depot has *tools* and stuff to *make things with*. rrrrrr snarly.