Pool stores, devils and anti-christs.

[Manslick]

Contrary to what some people here have said, pool stores are not filled with demons. They aren't the "antichrist". They are just ordinary people, doing ordinary jobs, in entirely ordinary ways.

There are some bad people who knowingly are doing bad things. Even though I doubt that it originated in an evil plan, I'm pretty sure that some pool chemical executives today understand that their market share depends on deceiving pool owners.

But, for the most part, pool store owners are as much victims of that as you are. For the most part, it's not fair to them, nor honest about ourselves, to see it differently.

So, I would ask you all to be careful to be fair. Yes, pool store owners rip off pool owners. But most of them aren't doing so knowingly or deliberately. They are just doing what they've been taught was the right thing to do.

Ben
"PoolDoc"

The Leslie's store I've used for 16 years was staffed by the Mickey Mouse club yesterday. Only one guy seemed to even know what water is. When I asked for diatomaceous earth I thought he was going to cry, so I said DE. He cheered up and yelled to the back and the voice said "we're out". No surprise, this time of year they're all out. I had to cross the state line to find a 25 lb bag yesterday. Also, found out my local Home Depot does not carry pool products any more, so they recommended Leslie's.
By now I should know better than to wait until Memorial day weekend to go into "pool man" mode.
With any commercial endeavor - Caveat emptor.

[SalemCastles]

Well I must say that Leslie's Corporate and the store in Taylor Michigan are doing right by me ..they mistakenly sold me their store kit instead of a new one which my Cousin drove down from Ontario to pick-up, and they are sending me a full refund and letting me keep the kit. It had Bromine reagents in it but I got Chlorine replacements from the Canadian Distributor so I'm good. They obviously could have just said too bad so sorry knowing they will likely never sell me anything in the future, or at least asked for the kit back.

Glenn in Toronto

[CarlD]

In my favorite store there's a guy who won't push calcium on vinyl pool owners, knows pretty much what's what and is great on parts. Another guy thre tried to convince me that copper doesn't turn blonde hair green and is great stuff. But their LC is this freshest and strongest and they turn over pallets of the stuff

Leslies is a mixed bag. I'm had one guy GIVE me a the only container of R-0870 powder because he didn't know what it was and couldn't find a price. Another store had a close-out on the combo FAS-DPD-Monopersulfate test kit for $20...it's $65 from Taylor. I've also had a Leslies guy tell me "bleach is bad. It raises your total dissolved solids" (ie, salt). Yet they sell, online a re-badged version of the K2006 kit.

There are good and bad people in pool stores, just like in Home Depot and Best Buy, but most are decent people with incredibly bad information.

Carl

[posguy]

LOL, this reminds me of the time I decided to mess with the kid restocking eggs at ShopRite, I asked if they were chicken eggs, he replied "I'm not sure"

[PoolDoc]

Ah yes, the old and sneaky vs the young and stupid.

My 16 year old and I play this game all the time. My two favorite responses:
". . . (long pause) . . . Ah crap, Dad. You did it again, didn't you?"
and
"I know, I know. You're trying to teach me to think before I speak. Darn it."

My all time favorite with ANY teen:
We were on a Scout camping trip, and the 15 year old was declaiming on the evils of nuclear weapons and and the wonders of unilateral disarmament. I was 'uhm-ing' in the right places. When he finally paused, I said "Yeah. It really is terrible, when all those people were killed with nuclear weapons, they were so much deader than they would have been with just a bullet!"

He responded with, "Yeah, that's right . . . wait, what?". He got the "what?" out just before the Assistant Scoutmaster and his father (who were both in earshot) started howling.

Ben