7 Warnings to Shoppers From Ex-Home Depot Employees

1 | Think twice about buying plants.

One of Home Depot's biggest departments is its plant and garden center, but according to former employees and retail experts, you may want to forego the good prices and shop at your local nursery instead.

"Many of the plants they receive come in bulk and some of them are not even meant for our American climate," Andrew Griffith, a household expert and owner of Garden Furniture, previously told Best Life. "They are also often treated the same which leads to overwatering, root rot and are more exposed to pests."

A former Home Depot plant vendor with the username roastedleek shared in a Reddit thread that almost all of the houseplants come from the same few nurseries in Florida. "This means if there’s a pest breakout, all the indoor plants at any HD can be at risk." They also explain that houseplants are not a priority for the store. "As vendors, we weren’t in charge of watering and cashiers often did that. Things are CONSTANTLY under and overwatered."

And in a GlassDoor review, a current employee shared, "The garden center is looked at as it's the bottom. Like it's a easy job and they don't give credit to the associates but it makes more than half the profit in live goods."

The good news is that any perennial, shrub, or tree you bought at Home Depot can be returned for a year if it dies, according to their return policy.

2 | "Oops" paint isn’t as bad as you’d think.

In the Home Depot paint department, there's a section called "Oops" paint, "basically paint that either the employee messed up when mixing or a customer had used some already and then decided to return it," explains employee @kaaadennnon on TikTok.

"Oops" paint resells at a lower price than typical offerings (as low as $2, in some cases, according to @thecottagecurator on TikTok), so if you’re happy to veer a shade or two from your initial decorating plan, buying "Oops" paint is an easy way to save money.

According to an employee on Reddit, "If we think the customer will come back to buy it at a low price... we’ll add some colorant to it so it’s different." But they say that the store tries to make it a desirable color. "We don’t want to make it puke green or anything like that because no one wants it." The Redditor also notes that if you see a color in the "Oops" section that you like, you can ask the store to match it and make more of it.

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3 | There's pressure to open credit cards.

Opening a credit card with Home Depot is, as with all credit lines, a fraught proposition, only worth doing if you’re well aware of both the risks and benefits. The main draw of Home Depot’s card—beyond that of a typical credit line—is that it offers discounts that progressively increase depending on how much you spend at the store, so there’s the impetus to open one if you’re about to make a large purchase.

There’s also a reason cashiers push surveys and credit card applications on shoppers—they’re openly incentivized to do so. As an employee wrote on Reddit, "cashiers receive credit for all applications, approved or denied," which means that even if you have bad credit and don't get the card, they're still being rewarded.

In some cases, the incentivization turns negative. One former employee, who spent more than a decade at Home Depot, recounted on Reddit how a colleague of theirs was allegedly fired for failing to hit the company’s goals for Home Depot credit cards and VOC—or "voice of the customer"—response forms. (Though they do acknowledge "some people in management didn't like him.")

4 | Stores may have inconsistent staffing.

In recent months, one of the most common complaints Home Depot employees made on the job review site GlassDoor is that the hours and schedules are inconsistent, which can lead to stores or departments being understaffed.

"you could be working all morning shifts one week, and all closing shifts the next. Days off can be unpredictable," wrote one customer service associate. "expected to work in any department at any time," wrote another. "Stores are open from 6 AM to 10 PM which presents numerous scheduling challenges," noted a third. And finally, "Schedules are created nearly 3 weeks [in advance] so it’s hard to get a day off unless you do it a month ahead," shared a fourth employee.

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5 | Remember to detangle your cables.

Yes, it happens. You buy an intricate electronic device, you don’t like it, and you bring it back for an exchange. But the least you can do beforehand is ensure your cables are untangled. Otherwise, a poor staffer is going to have to spend their afternoon doing the one task universally hated by everyone—separating a jungle of cords. One employee on Reddit even referred to it as "easily [one of the] top three most frustrating things in retail."

Also, if you think you can get away with it, think again. As another employee said on Reddit—while recounting a tale of a customer who tried to "return" an air conditioner by filling the box up with sawdust—Home Depot employees always, always check the packaging before accepting a return.

6 | Don't let your kids explore the insulation forts.

Insulation forts—the areas of the store where rolls of insulation stack to form bona fide playgrounds—look like a blast, but you shouldn’t let your children mess around in them. One former employee noted on Reddit how, due to all the space, insulation forts serve as dumping grounds for extra stuff. (We don’t need to tell you how many sharp things exist at Home Depot.) They also noted how insulation forts are common spots for theft.

That doesn’t mean employees don’t get to play around, though. The former employee said that once after the store had closed for the evening, they used the insulation as a landing pad to jump off the shelves, and it was "fun."

7 | Garden carts are discretionary.

It doesn’t make much sense—some of the heaviest items in Home Depot are in the garden, but not every store has easily accessible carts in the section. And how are you supposed to get that tree or 300 pounds of soil up to the register without one?

If you want your local Home Depot to start stocking carts in the garden area, suggest as much (politely!) to the people in charge. "It’s regional preference," one former employee noted on Reddit. "Some region [higher-ups] want the carts, some want them outside on the curb. Not very consistent."

NOTE: Best Life only includes information from social media and job boards when there is corroboration from multiple sources. These comments have not been independently verified, however, and are the opinions of the people who posted them.