18 pallets of South Down Sand

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diatom

Guest
Sweet~
Thanks for all you're hard work and keeping us posted....I know where I'm stopping for lunch while I'm in Rochester.
As they say on the A-Team: I love it when a plan come together
 
fishforme

fishforme

Member
Why is this stuff so elusive? I live in Cleveland, OH and have called 10 Home Depots. Nobody carries it.... Is there a manufacturer that I can contact?
 
sweetjesus

sweetjesus

Member
well guys the Board was down this afternoon so I could not post, Yes I have verified that they are getting 900 bags of it in. they do have the purchase order from the home office. As of yet, i do not know if they received it tonight! Being a truck driver at one time myself, never count on an ontime delivery. Once i have personally checked and have seen it with my own eyes! Hopefully tomorrow, I will post with the good news. I talked to the receiving people today about 2pm and they say they receive all their freight overnight now, so we will not know if they have it until morning. Craig the dept. Manager will not be in until saturday. Pam one of the other managers is on a leave of absence, and Mark the other manager is on vacation. So I will have to manually check tomorrow, and if it is not here, I will have to talk to Craig on saturday. But then he probably will not get a call back from the home office until monday. So lets all cross our fingers and hope it was delivered tonight!
 
D

diatom

Guest
Sweet~
It sounds like it's going to happen so that's great. I'm leaving for the cities today at 2 and will be in Rochester tomorrow morning. If you get a chance to get over there and verify that the sand is there, that would be great...if not I guess I'll verify it in person.
Brent
 
sweetjesus

sweetjesus

Member
no sand yet. GROWL
*EDIT**
Since I am not a happy camper about this, I just called the home office. They are calling Matt, to have him give me a call to find out what is going on. I always love it when Wendy's home office gives me a call! Means i get a rear chewing!
So I will let everyone know later what happened!
[ November 09, 2001: Message edited by: SweetJesus ]
 
D

diatom

Guest
Sweet~
I'm on my way out of town now, I'll try to check tonight and see what you found out.
Thanks (once again),
Brent
 
wally

wally

Member
Why would a home depot get in 900 bags of playsand? That just makes no sense to me. Esp. with winter comming. Thats 45,000# or 22.5 tons. That would almost be a full tractor trailer load of just one SKU. That makes ZERO sense to me. That would be a lot of wasted inventory dollars spent on inventory that would not turn over for a long time.
I think they are yanking your chain. Having been a general manager, and a buyer in retail I can tell you that NO ONE in home office would approve a PO for that much playsand in late fall early winter. Its not a matter of cost but rather of space 18 pallets is A LOT of sand! and at 22.5 tons its way to heavy to put up high. I know you and someothers around will buy a few bags but that will not even put a dent into the 900 bags you say are coming.
Remember that Home Depot considers all South Down products to be a seasonal item. In early spring they get several truckloads of South Down Stuff. They make all sorts of landscaping rocks and gravel. And when its gone its gone. The shipping costs are just way to high on that stuff to carry it year round. Besides every home depot carries the quickcrete brand of play sand year round and to them and 99% of HD customers its just a cheapy bag of play sand and it makes no matter what brand it is. They carry the quickcrete brand year round because they sell tons of other quickcrete products year round like concrete and just order the sand in with rest of the quickcrete stuff.
 
sweetjesus

sweetjesus

Member
900 bags? Why? because they are out of playsand! 900 bags? Why? because in order to get this product they DID have to order an entire Tractor Trailer full. 900 bags? Why? Because they opened this year, and the first load of it was gone within a week. They actually call it fish sand at this home depot. 900 bags? Why? Because they have all kinds of room outside in the garden area to store it. 900 bags? Why? Because i told them if they ordered it, I would post on the web, and they expect to sell a lot. 900 bags? Why? Because it cost me a few free meals at my store! ;) 900 bags? Why? Did I mention they are out of play sand?
 
acuraman2

acuraman2

Member
doing math figures and I over estimated here. I assume the dimensions of a bag are 5x14x20 inchs I have figured if all the bags we stacked up nice and squarely they would cover and area 17ft*13ft on the floor and stand 5 feet high......does that sound like a ton of room considering the size of home depot. its only a 10bagx10bagx10bag cube.. remember all these figures are estimates i thought adding all the decimals would be distracting
 
wally

wally

Member
Ok here goes,
Sweet you live up North. Who in Minn. shops in the outdoor garden area in the middle of a twin cities winter? Why would Home Depot spend the 2600 dollars it will cost them to ship it from the East Coast when other types of playsand they can get locally? Remember this sells for $2.50-$3.00 a bag. Even at double keystone that would only mean that they are making $1.75-$2.00 a bag and I would bet that it only sells for keystone or even less so you are talking about $1.25-$1.50 or even less. If they sold all 900 bags that would mean a maximum profit of $1800 but more than likely about $1000-$1300 and they would be losing money on the deal and here is why. A Tractor Trailer that full would get at best 10-12 MPG. If it went 1,500 miles that would mean about 150 gallons of fuel. At an average price of about $1.30 per gallon that would mean that they would spend $1,950 on just fuel. Then they have to pay the driver. Good company OTR truck drivers that work for places like Home Depot make at least 45cents if not more a mile. That would mean they would pay the driver $675 just to drive it there. So they are spending at least $2625 just to get it there and that is a bare minimum I would bet it is even higher. Then you have the problem of what to do with your now empty truck. You can drive it back east empty but that will cost you another $2500 or try to get another load. It will also be taking a truck away from the system just before Christmas which is the busiest time of the year for trucking. It just makes zero sense from a transportation perspective.
Then you have the problem of where to put all of that sand. You said yourself that "6 pallets of the sand will be gone when it gets in" but what about the other 12 pallets? That will take up a lot of room and I know the garden area is empty the reason is that once the snow starts to fly no one will be out there. Also why are they out of playsand? Home Depots get quickcrete shipments in everyweek why not just get playsand from them? Also why not get playsand from the local supplier of sand and not pay HUGE shipping costs? I also know that winter is coming and a lot of people buy sand for snow and ice but again why not buy it locally and make more money instead of loose money for your company. If they sold out of play sand the first week they were open why is it taking them a year to restock?
Again I am a former retail buyer and it just makes zero sense to me that they would do this. I am not trying to be mean I just don't want anyone to get their hopes up. If they will loose $1500-$2000 just to make a customer happy and to get a free burger and fries in the process then more power to them, but as a stock holder in Home Depot I sure hope that the home office has much more sense than that.
 
seabass

seabass

Member
Ok, I see what your saying and it all makes a good point BUT! what if there not going there only for playsand? what if there picking other stuff up to? what if there truck is going to be right aroun the corner from these guys picking up other stuff? this is the big one! so listen up! WHAT IF THAT ALONG THE WAY OF PICKING UP PLAYSAND THEY HAVE TO PICK UP OTHER STUFF TO? what do you come up with?
 
sweetjesus

sweetjesus

Member
actually a good day on the road you average 7.5 MPG, and the freight pays about 1.25/mile in revenue. But hey, I have seen the purchase order. They sold out of the southdown right away. They restocked with regular play sand. Well they are out of that, and now they are going to get the southdown. Why the southdown, perhaps customer service, they are competing with Menards up here. No sand yet, call Craig and Mark and bug them about it! (507)288-6700
 
seabass

seabass

Member
I forgot to say this in my last post but southdown sand has been baught out by another company. I called them on friday, I figure go straight to the source! so you wont see southdown sand anymore, it will be called something else.
 
sweetjesus

sweetjesus

Member
It is 4pm Central time and just got a phone call from the Home Depot home office. A truck has been assigned to the sand. They guarantee it will be here in three days. I said if it isn't you going to give me a pallet for free? He did not have much to say to that. So the saga continues!
 
D

diatom

Guest
Sweet~
so tomorrow is the big day huh, let me know when you set you eyes on the motherload. Dumbass HD made me waste a trip to the cities :mad:
 
sweetjesus

sweetjesus

Member
Oh believe me, HD has not impressed me one bit! You should never lie to your customers! Wasted trip to the cities? Didn't you stop at world of fish and something fishy while you were there? Anyhow, when i can verify it with my own eyes, I will let everyone know that it is here!
 
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