Inept But At Your Service: Can You Trust Your Local Hardware Store?

Methodology and Timeline

Main Report

The project was conducted in five phases. 

Phase 1            April to August 2003. 

Develop survey tool to properly evaluate the quality of the products and the advice provided by a retail store regarding environmental health hazards.  After several revisions, those documents were finalized in August 2003. 

Phase 2            September to December 2003

Use the survey tool and conduct store visits on a diverse group of hardware stores to check the survey tool and determine how well the major chains would fare.

Phase 3            January 2004

Conduct focused surveys on one store from several major chains – Menards, Lowes, Home Depot, Porter Paints, and Sherwin Williams. 

·                    Test ceiling tile from Menards, Lowes and Home Depot for asbestos.  No asbestos fibers detected using Polarized Light Microscopy by EMSL Laboratories in Indianapolis.  EMSL is certified to analyze asbestos.  This issue was dropped from the product survey.

·                    File written complaints with the Indiana State Chemist for violations of the Indiana pesticide regulations – 357 IAC 1-9 – at Menards, Lowes, and Home Depot.   Send copies of the complaint to the store management.  According to the Office of Indiana State Chemist, the stores agreed to submit a written response with a plan for correcting any non-compliance issues statewide by March 5, 2004.

·                    File customer service comments with Menards, Lowes and Home Depot via their website informing them about problems and asking for a response.  Only Lowes responded but promised follow-up that did not happen.

·                    Provide feedback to Sherwin Williams and Porter Paints via previous contacts.  Sherwin Williams asked for a hard copy of report.  Porter Paints committed to following up with staff.  Preliminary checks indicate that Porter Paints has dramatically improved.  As result, a comprehensive survey of retail stores focused solely on paint was deferred until June.

·                    Provide feedback to the National Paint and Coatings Association.  On January 30, 2004, NPCA issued an Action Alert to its members urging members to encourage retailer awareness of lead-safe work practices.     

Phase 4            February to March 2004

            ·                    Develop comprehensive list of retail hardware stores serving Indianapolis using the store locator service on chain’s websites.  See Appendix A.

o       Menards – www.menards.com - 8 stores

o       Lowes – www.lowes.com - 10 stores

o       Home Depot – www.homedepot.com - 7 stores

o       Ace Hardware – www.acehardware.com - 12 stores

o       Do-It-Best Hardware – www.doitbest.com - 14 stores

o       True Value Hardware – www.truevalue.com – 2 stores.  Dropped from survey because there were no stores in Indianapolis and only two in Central Indiana.

o       Sears Hardware – www.sears.com - 4 stores – maybe more stores but website is difficult to use.  Dropped from list because there were too few stores.

·                    Narrowed list of stores to visit by:

o       Dropping True Value Hardware and Sears Hardware from the list because they had too few stores. 

o       Dropping off four Do-It-Best stores because three could not be found and one was not a retail store. 

·                    Refined survey tool to focus on the key issues:

o       Availability of EPA’s “Protect Your Family” Pamphlet

o       Availability of LeadCheck swabs or equivalent.

o       Whether contractor following clerk’s advice would violate Indiana law at IC 13-17-14 and 326 IAC 23-5-1.  This is a very low threshold that falls far short of lead-safe work practices.  Following the advice could still result in a child or adult being lead poisoned.

o       Whether clerk improved the advice after being asked whether lead-based paint is a concern.

o       Whether pesticide warning sign required by 357 IAC 1-9 was posted.

o       Whether pesticide selection or use advice was given where a warning sign was not posted.

o       Whether the advice was reasonable and safest for kids. Baits, gels and boric acid properly used are safer and more effective than foggers and sprays for cockroaches.  

Phase 5            March and April 2004

·                    Prepare report and make it available to the public, retail stores, industry leaders, and regulatory agencies.

·                    File complaints against additional facilities that may have violated Indiana’s pesticide regulations.

Phase 6            May and June 2004

Revisit stores to determine if there was an improvement in performance.  Update report and congratulate stores that have dramatically improved performance.