It must have been Thursday. I never could get a hang of Thursdays.

Allow me to rant, just for a little bit, about Home Depot. Actually, it's probably not even Home Depot, but that is where the problem arises, so that is what I will rant about. Part of my job is to put merchandising units up on the sides of aisles. These are basically pieces of plastic pegboard with sides, and they are called shadow boxes. Now Home Depot shelving racks come in three sizes, generally: 36" wide, 42" wide, or 48" wide. Thus, the shadow boxes must be one of those three sizes. 36" is the most common and the easiest to handle. These come shipped to us in cardboard boxes pre-assembled. We just have to hold them up so they are straight and screw them into the metal shelving unit. Easy. The second most common is the 48" size. These also come pre-assembled, though I don't think they come in boxes. They are a little tougher to get in because they are so wide, it is harder to hold it straight while drilling, but they are no real big deal. Now when I say they are the second most common, I mean that they are hardly ever seen at all. The last store we did had five out of a possible 90 or so. The current store had one.
Third most common (and they are about as common as the 48" size) is the 42" shadow boxes. These come in cardboard boxes and are pre-assembled. Or at least, you'd think they could be pre-assembled. Yet, for some reason, someone has decided that these shadow boxes should come in pieces and require assembling at the store. Then they decide that the best type of screw to use is plastic. For some reason, we are provided with eight screws, but only six wing-nuts to use on the screws to keep them in place. The backs are a particularly heavy metal, much heavier than the other shadow boxes. The sides are plastic. Bent plastic that doesn't really fit into where they are supposed to, at least not well. They are designed for the American stores, so they have hooks on the back that are supposed to hook into the shelving units, and then bolts are provided to use on the bottom. However, in Canada, the shelves are made different, so all the hooks on the back do is get in the way. We had to break them off in order to put the units on the shelf. They are so big and heavy that it is nearly impossible to hold them up and keep them straight while someone screws them into place. And they take forever to assemble. I spent three hours just putting them together today, and another guy helped me for most of that time. We made twelve. That's about a half hour's worth of work for every shadow box. To put in eight screws and 12 push things which take about two seconds each. Or they should, but because everything is so poorly designed it is nearly impossible to get them in. And if they can pre-assemble the 48" units, why can't they pre-assemble the 42" units? Or at least make ones that will work in Canada? Between 6:30 and 11:00 last night, all that I did at work was assemble 12 shadow boxes and then try and figure out how exactly to hang them. That includes a five minute break where I had to walk away before I started throwing things. In that time, we could have hung 40 of the other shadow boxes. I don't think we even had that many to do in the whole store.
And this is just one of many oddball things that Home Depot, or someone, has been doing lately.
You know, come to think of it, last Thursday was a bad day at work too. Huh.