Unflattering article about Menard's.

[cgallery]

http://www.milwaukeemagazine.com/cur...essageID=13642

One involved a North Dakota Menards store manager. The manager’s wife had triplets that came early and required special attention at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. The manager spent a small fortune on plane fare commuting back and forth. He still worked 35 to 40 hours, but his contract required a minimum of 55 a week, so his weekly pay dropped from $1,000 to $500 or $600, Bropst says. “Two of the babies didn’t make it, and John (Menard) fined him $2,000 [out of his bonus] because he had to bury two of his kids and didn’t put in 55 hours those two weeks.”

The rest of the article isn't much better. Having serious doubts about handing over any more of my money.

I know, I know, you can find problems at HD and Lowes, too. But the guy had to bury two new borns for God's sake!

[prlundberg]

Thanks for posting this.

I was looking forward to the new super-sized store coming to my town. I've always preferred Menards the other boxes. This article was insightful and will almost certainly affect how much I buy at Menards. John Menard is obviously a jerk. His own kids don't want anything to do with the company, and I don't blame them.

I know HD and Lowe's aren't exactly role models, but at least their employees are treated with some respect. Making the manager pay the insurance deductable for delivery accidents? Going through customer comments to look for a manager that gave too much? John is a paranoid tryant.

[cgallery]

Making the manager pay the insurance deductable for delivery accidents? Going through customer comments to look for a manager that gave too much? John is a paranoid tryant.

Yeah, and how about firing one store's lumber manager because he wanted to build a new house (his wheelchair-bound daughter couldn't navigate the old one). Menard's policy is no new construction for managers (worried about employee theft). So, they "accomodate" him by offering him a position/pay cut.

The man hires a contractor who purchases materials from a competitor. Once Menard's finds out, they fire him anyway!

[radhak]

A nightmare of an employer, if ever there was one. It's a wonder he retained enough people around himself to build such an empire.

I somehow did not agree with a comment at the end of the article :
if [his successor] "takes Menards’ concept nationwide, they will eat Home Depot’s and Lowe’s lunch.” : not true, particularly in the bigger perspective.

There comes a point of time in business or life wherein a 'devil-take-everybody else' attitude only helps sink you; if not his blatant disregard for humane behaviour, his wilful violation of environmental regulations would take him and his types down. If Maynards survives him till that point, we might see a true competitor to HD/Lowes; else, good riddance.

[cgallery]

There comes a point of time in business or life wherein a 'devil-take-everybody else' attitude only helps sink you; if not his blatant disregard for humane behaviour, his wilful violation of environmental regulations would take him and his types down. If Maynards survives him till that point, we might see a true competitor to HD/Lowes; else, good riddance.

I agree. I think Menard's tactics have taken him about as far as he is going to go. The kind of talent he needs to take it to the next level won't be interested in working for Menards unless something changes.

[germdoc]

Interesting article. You can see the seeds of his success mixed in with his flaws. Most tycoons or in fact most really successful leaders are like that. You have to believe the usual rules don't apply to you to get ahead. Great for business or science or art, lousy for your personal life and ethics.

Course if we only shopped at places that had really nice founders and CEO's there weren't be too many places to shop.

[gary]

I was going to make a large purchase of cedar from them. I'll now look for the next best price. I won't deal with people like this.

[jackellis]

Most tycoons or in fact most really successful leaders are like that

Not sure I agree with you. There are bad examples like this one, but there have also very good ones like Hewlett Packard, the leaders at Delta Air Lines (until Dave Garrett retired) and Starbucks to name a few. There will also be cases, especially in large organizations, where people make mistakes.

In this case, I agree that docking a manager who is trying to take care of his family makes Scrooge look generous. Same for the manager who wanted to build a new home. Menard is in a class by himself.

[MilDoc]

Wow. And I thought the robber barons of old were dead and buried.

[Black wallnut]

It is always easy to find "former employees" of any company to tell of a few horror stories. I'm not saying they did not happen but if Menard is as hard on his employees as the article suggests why does he still have them? His total lack of respect for environmental laws is unacptable in my book and I am far from being a bunny hugger! Needlessly polluting surface water and changing the course of streams is just not acceptable in this day and age!

[Ed62]

I'd have to hope to God that isn't a true story. How could anyone be that heartless?

Ed

[MilDoc]

I'd have to hope to God that isn't a true story. How could anyone be that heartless?

Ed

Must be if it truly wound up in court and was reported.

[germdoc]

I'd have to hope to God that isn't a true story. How could anyone be that heartless?

Ed

You haven't met my (ex) father-in-law...

[crokett]

I was going to make a large purchase of cedar from them. I'll now look for the next best price. I won't deal with people like this.

If you do this, write a letter to corporate and/or the store and let them know why. My in-laws have a Menards up by their cabin. They drive several minutes farther to shop at the BORG because of similar shabby treatment of a friend of theirs who worked there a few years ago. Dad says that the day he went to the store to tell them he would no longer be a customer, the CEO happened to be visiting. The response Dad got (it was more politely said but...) was 'don't tell me how to run my business'.

[scorrpio]

It is always easy to find "former employees" of any company to tell of a few horror stories. I'm not saying they did not happen but if Menard is as hard on his employees as the article suggests why does he still have them?

Apparently, manager pay is very good. There are enough people willing to suck it up for some extra $$$. Looks like in order to be a successful Menards manager, you basically have to channel Menard himself - be as ruthless towards your underlings, bury whatever humanity you might have and squeeze em for all they got. And rank employees - mostly unskilled labor, who know they can be easily replaced. I imagine the turnover must be fairly high.

By the way, check out one of the most successful companies today: Google. And check out what its like to work there.

This 'cant do own construction policy' is insane. I'd ENCOURAGE my employees to build and would give them material discounts based on how well a store performs.

Overall, I also think that Menards is about as far as it can go with attitude like that. When your customers got to know you through jubilant fliers, NASCAR glitz, and enticing TV and radio commercials, it was one thing - but Internet is becoming the leading information channel - and anyone looking up Menards on the net is going to see all the stuff about employees mistreatment, disregard for environment etc.