Go Home Already: Um, I, Uh, Hello

I was totally on the X2 when this picture was taken on Friday afternoon. You should have heard how loud the bus got when she took off the dress she was wearing before the pic was taken... D.C. is a strange place.

Unless the loudness was mass simultaneous flatulence, it sounds like the normal male reaction to a woman taking off her clothes in public.

Yes, it's a massive achievement for all those involved, especially since they've managed to cure that pesky muggers-stealing-peoples-shit-as-they-walk-out problem.

Next project: Best Buy - somehow Tenleytown has managed to pull ahead and the Tenleytown Best Buy is horrible.

Hate it when I get on the wrong train! I got off at the next stop.

It's true, we do have fewer crappy people in Fairfax. I know we fix our traffic signals quicker after a storm too.

This photo reminds me of 9/11 and Christine F..

The most difficult part of assembling that outfit isn't the heels or the hair. It's the duct taping the penis to the taint. And hiding your adam's apple. And making your hands look small. I'll start again.

NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!

I watch Ru Paul's Drag Race, therefore I am expert on tucking. So, I must agree that duct taping is arduous, but necessary*. Girl you don't want that sh*t flapping about.

*Video may be NSFW, but since this is DC, it's most likely that the video is NSFW.

Don't you have any more recent photos of Liz? This was clearly taken before she'd had her hormone replacement therapy.

You know, sometimes, I don't know why, but this old town just seems so hopeless. I ain't really sure, but it seems I remember the good times were just a little bit more in focus.

Mom?

You have done it again Matt Dunn!

I assume organized labor is also protesting the super crappy employee behavior at other big box stores in DC (I'm looking at you, Rhode Island Ave Home Depot)?

There's plenty of reasons big box and other chain stores don't locate in DC.

One of the big ones is the quality of employees they get, particularly when forced by the DC government to hire from welfare rolls.

I would also like to pile on Hillman for saying what's obvious to anyone who lives in DC and has ever left their home: the employees who work for starvation wages in DC suck in comparison to the employees who work for starvation wages in the exurbs.

Also, move to Fairfax! Everyone knows that the city is where we warehouse poor people! You're just upsetting the social order with all your ugly gentrification and stuff!

Really? The Columbia Heights Target is way nicer than the one by me in Springlandria. Cleaner, more organized, friendlier. You must not shop in the burbs much.

Isn't the CH Target much newer?

I'd also argue that as much as I detest Jim Graham he is actually responsible in part for that Target not sucking. I've heard from several people that would know that he's actually been an unbearable ass in following up with Target to make sure they are an exemplary store. Probably because it was his baby, it was controversial at the time it was planned and built, and he'd like the credit for it being nice.

hillman: when was the last time you went to the rhode island avenue home depot? i've been going regularly for the last year (since i bought my house) and the service has gotten infinitely better in the last 6-8 months. seriously, the people i've dealt with has been as effective, friendly, and helpful as any other home depot i've ever been in. word must have gotten to regional or national management that it was sub-par, but that's really not the case anymore.

I'd say I go once every two weeks or so.

I've had very friendly service at RI Home Depot. Particularly the guys in the lighting department - very helpful.

But I've also had very bad service. Very much a 'that's not my job' attitude.

And the place is usually a mess - boxes in the aisles, things misfiled. Many of the plants are never watered, the garden department personnel know absolutely nothing about their products, etc.

Part of that is a management problem. Part of it is employees simply being lazy.

Compare that to the suburban Home Depots and there is a noticeable difference.

I don't know about that. I've got a Home Depot and a Lowes near me and I avoid both like the plague: you can't find anything and you can't get a straight answer from anyone. Ask someone for a particular kind of tool or a certain piece of hardwar and they stare at you as if you'd asked them if they wanted a second cup of pee. Go Fragers or GTFO.

Fragers is great for small items. Absolutely.

But you can't really do a whole renovation from Fragers.

If I have an option I always go with Lowes.

Weirdly, though, their online presence is terrible. Home Depot beats them hands down online.

this is all anecdotal between the two of us, so it means absolutely nothing in the long run, i suppose.

the hyattsville home depot is suburban. i was there saturday. i can see no real difference between it and the rhode island avenue location.

This is the comments section, man. Round here, anecdotes are data.

Last time I was in that Home Depot, the first employee I spoke to laughed at me and walked away. Apparently me wanting to buy something was not reason enough to answer my question.

It's worth noting that Home Depot's sortof suck overall. Generally Lowes is more organized and has better customer service.

I've been to the Hyattsvile HD. It was better than RI Ave but there were issues there as well.

And I agree that the RI Ave one has gotten better as of late. There was a time that it was damn near unusable. It's better now, which indicates a management crackdown of some sort.

But there are still major problems.

You mean the box stores that are all unilaterally addressing all the urban markets, including D.C., at the exact same time, in direct contradiction to your vaguely racist screed?

Really?

I note that the service is bad at one particular store and that's racist?

And we wonder why we can't have an adult conversation about issues in this town.

That isn't what you said. You said that box stores don't open in D.C. because the employment pool is low quality, with the implication that the worker pool is worse in D.C. than it is in other places. But feel free to pretend you didn't say what you said and to talk out of both side of your mouth.

I don't walk around with my head in the clouds and understand that customer service is a problem that box stores have to address in the urban markets, which is exactly why the box stores that are addressing the urban markets spend more money on training, and in my experience it has paid off. Customer service is better in the downtown Targets in both D.C. and Baltimore than anything I've ever experienced in the cities. Home Depot is a poor example, because every employee in every Home Depot and Lowe's is a borderline moron with no hardware retail experience that couldn't tell the difference between a 2x4 and a spanner.

No answer on how exactly I was being racist?

"with the implication that the worker pool is worse in D.C. than it is in other places."

Do you really think that it's not?

+1

Also, I gave up on the area big box hardware stores after finding that the local Ace Hardware affiliates (like Glover Park Hardware) have great employees who are knowledgable and eager to help.

You have a valid point. I was a little too general.

I should have been a little more specific in saying that the problems I personally have experienced have been mostly at the RI HD.

But your statement that all Lowes and HD employees are morons is simply not true. I've had help from very knowledgeable employees at both.

And how again was my statement racist?

Have you considered moving to Fairfax? You'd find more big box stores, and fewer "crappy" people on welfare.

Ah, the old 'move to the suburbs' argument.

Somehow I'm not 'urban enough' if I'm not willing to put up with bad service and crappy attitude as a sign of my city-dweller status? I didn't realize that was a badge of honor.

So you either accept super crappy conditions or move to the burbs?

Those are the only two options?

Isn't that sortof how we got to this point in the first place?

you're not urban enough because your post implies you want more big box stores, which are inherently suburban. And you think DC's labor pool is "crappy."

I told you all that I take public transportation to work!

that photo is staged, right?

I think she's staged, but the reactions probably aren't. I saw something similar on a train wooshing by a few weeks ago: girl in yellow underwear/bikini (couldn't tell) with photographer.