Lowes rant

They've lost their minds! Went for my (wife's) annual pallet of garden soil (on sale) and they're now charging a $16 deposit on the damn pallet. So I said "so I have to make another trip here just to drop the pallet back at the door? He then said "you have to go to the Customer Service counter." bang

I’ve wanted them to do this for a long time.

We have a war going on with global warming. The carbon footprint created by making pallets is about the same as the carbon footprint left by a leaf blower used for one whole growing season. Why send a perfectly good pallet to the landfill when it can be re-used several times?

I wanted to add: Sometimes Customer Service people spend company time jacking around on their smartphones. That is basically like stealing time. If people are forced to return pallets and do it thru the Customer Service Dept., it will help save the planet AND give these CS time thieves something to do.

Core charge . . . .

Yes. And thank you for doing what you do.
It’s not easy to stand up against people that are against green earth

I wish I could sell those suckers for $16, I’d actually have a profitable year.

Thanks for your support! I’m doing it for my grandkids and their pets and stuff.

about milemarker 140 on I30 there is a pallet recycling facility, if it ever catches fire you will see it from the moon. well maybe not the moon but for a pretty damn long way.

might want to check in to solar eclipse seating? just a thought.

Lowe’s lets me take one home every year when I get mulch for no charge, I bring it back anyways when I’m done- why would I want to keep a pallet. Years ago Home Depot tried that core charge on me for a pallet when buying a full pallet of paver stone. I told them “no thanks, go ahead and load it in my truck piece by piece “ well they dropped the pallet fee real quick.

Pallets should be free. If I were king, I would put it in the constitution.

No big deal. Relax.

They used to do this with coke bottles, you know, before recycling was the cool thing to do-

Silly! The pallet wouldn't go to the landfill, it would be used by me. So I have to drive another 20 miles to return the damn pallet...thus burning gas and adding to the pollution!

Seems pretty simple to me. Load it all into your vehicle and leave the pallets behind or do the rebate thing.

My customers wont take pallets when I offer. They want me to hand load 50 bags of feed into their pickup. Good grief, your a hillbilly. Burn it, bury it, blow it up. Take the stupid pallet.

I pick up pallets from around town to use as firewood in wintertime. They burn prettily

In the tile business we used oak pallets. Tile is heavy stuff. Watching a pallet fail 20' up in a warehouse rack is not a good thing. Even worse if opening up a container and finding tile in piles.

Lowes suck hard and long, at least ours does.

When I was in high school, there was a place that would buy them for $3. I liberated them from every loading dock in town for gas money.

The week after Christmas behind most super Walmarts; there are enough pallets to build a 3000 sq foot house.

Back in the day when we had keg parties at the lake, we would send a couple of guys with pickups around to all of the grocery stores to gather pallets for the bonfire.

Pallets make good fish habitat.

^^^
This is correct.

Screw them together in an L shape with 4 inch wood screws.

Then cut a bunch of irrigation tubing into 3 foot lengths and screw those into the top of the teepee.

Takes a lot to sink two pallets screwed together. Three cinder blocks or two very heavy rocks.

This is a well thought out and reasonable response. Some folks just come to TFFOT to make outlandish claims and snarky commemts. You on the other hand always offer a fresh view. I solute you Mr S awhorse.... making this place better 1 post at a time.
I have a used up pellet grill I would like to give you if you want to come pick it up.

The best pallets for brush piles are those really thick ones they use for appliances/freezers/fridges.

Now, it takes about seven cinder blocks or four heavy rocks to sink two of those teepee screwed together.

Tell them that in that case you don't want the pallet and they can offload the soil into your truck and keep the pallet.

This is how I always handle it and never paid a pallet fee

ask them if a military discount applies to the pallet charge.

Customer inconvenience at it's best.

When I worked at Safeway back in the early 70's they did that with the Cragmont soft drinks. The arriving truck would be unloaded, then we would load up the empty bottles and compressed cardboard for the return trip to the warehouse. Dang truck was headed back there anyway.
The Coke delivery guy would deliver a new load and pick up their empties to take back to be washed and refiled. Funny how recycling became too expensive for glass but now they want us to do it with wood and plastic.

Nothing like a Coca Cola in a cold glass bottle.

Or a Big Red. Opa would take us cousins to a place above the Cibolo when we were kids in his old International pick up. He'd buy us all a cold drink. Sometimes we'd put peanuts in the Dr. Peppers. That was around 60 years ago. Sorry to derail. The Coke in glass bottle triggered the memory.

Hey man, thanks a lot! I don’t use grills, I’m guessing you know why, but the offer is appreciated.

BTW, there’s no empirical data to support my leaf blower vs pallet production carbon footprint comment…it was just my estimate. I’m usually pretty accurate with that, so I’ll stand by it.

Have a great Easter!

It actually did!

Yes, this is what I was getting at.