i had a boss battle with a home depot employee once. i was looking to have a small piece of wood cut, really nothing fancy, and it’s a service they offer or at least i thought they offered. i found the wood i needed and was over in the lumber section looking at the front counters. no one to be found, i browsed the lumber some more to see if i had missed a size that would be more preferable. i came back to the front counters and realized that this section must be closed (maybe i finally saw a sign or something). anyway, i look back at the very back of the store and notice an employee watching me. he was standing with his legs positioned wide and his hands in his overalls (kind of like a chicken wing) facing me square on. it was kind of a weird feeling the way he was just watching me. he never budged to come help. so i kind of started walking to the other aisle but then thought, no, i am going back there and asking. so i snake my way back to the very back. of course, home depot is massive. as i do that i have noticed the guy has disappeared, maybe behind one of the aisle ends. it was clear afterward he intentionally moved there to hide, and i snaked the two aisles to see if i would catch him moving more inwards into the store. when i finally got back there, he was just standing there at the aisle end, even looking my direction as i turned the corner. it startled me a little, as i didn’t expect him to be just...there. i said i was looking for someone to cut the lumber i had picked out. he said he knew and that he had saw me. so i said, well, can you cut it? he said no, the aisle adjacent to his had a forklift moving stuff, and that we couldn’t use his aisle which had the equipment to cut due to some safety protocol. i recall the forklift not being in use and not being anywhere close to the equipment. there was some other curt responses by him when asked could he not just make this extremely simole cut, so i finally just said forget it and walked off. he muttered some stuff as i walked away.

that’s not exciting really, but this moment sticks out in my mind so much. he just was doing everything he could to avoid customers, and in a pretty weird, awkward way. i eventually found a self-serve hand-cutting station in the store and cut the wood myself with a hacksaw.