1) Home Depot pays 2$/hr more then most of the competition.
2) they have a game-plan and stick to it...you may not like it but there is consistency here.
Cons
Imagine this business model: you out pay your competition 2$/hr to attract workers. You fire half your staff every year...but you just scoop up another batch from the street easily with the sweet sweet 2$ bonus.... You basically share a market monopoly with Low's and Menard's so you don't need to invest anything into maximizing your customer's positive experience...since for every customer you’ve permanently lost is offset by a new customer who’s been mistreated by your ‘competition’. Since your gonna fire half the staff every year it makes no sense to invest anything in them. And since there’s really no market choice for customers anyways...you can hire former dishwashers for all your departments and not spend a dime bringing them up to speed on anything other then safety. This maximizes shareholder value. Given little or no real market competition all attention is focused on shareholder value. It’s a financial jungle at the bottom here in retail. That 2$/hour difference is a big deal. Probably worth it for a lot of folks. But you won’t be pretending they company actually gives a rusted nails head about you once you’ve taken off that orange apron.