So I was in Homebase (not to be confused with www.homebase.co.uk, which has all the same branding, but carries different products or different prices), looking for filters for a cooker hood. Looking in the kitchen section, amongst the pans and kettles and whatnot, because that seemed a sensible sort of place to be looking. And I could not find any, which disappointed me, as the aforementioned website, not entirely unrelated to the shop I was standing in, seemed to suggest that they sold them.
So, after a few minutes of loitering in the main corridor by the kitchen aisle, hoping that someone, anyone, would walk past, I gave up and set off to find someone. The youth I found said "No, I don't think that we stock them, but your best bet is to ask at the information desk". So I duly walked there, and waited my turn.
Waiting my turn took rather a long time. The two residents of the information desk were demonstrating extreme assistance, paired up to run searches on the (single) computer, trying to locate a particular product for the (single) person ahead of me in the queue. Eventually, after some futzing of the terms, they found what they wanted (and whooped in the way that I thought that only geeks did when computers finally deigned to do what they were told). At which point one employee offered to help the customer find it on the shelves, and the other (Sarah), said that she'd be back soon, and walked off somewhere else to do something else.
Good to her word, she returned soon, and asked me what I wanted. Do you sell cooker hood filters? I asked. Yes, she replied, positively exploding with joy because she'd been given an easy question which she knew the answer to, they are over in that corner in the plumbing section.
Which they were. Nestled near the extractor fans, surrounded by pipes, taps and other plumbing fittings. There must be some logic to this, Homebase logic I take it, but it doesn't really make sense to me, as it's not like they sell cooker hoods (the electric devices with fans within), so why do they need to shelve the filters near unrelated fans?
This question may have to remain unanswered, in that I will be going there again if I can avoid it - I should stick to Minns.
I had a similar problem trying to buy a washing-up brush from Morrison's in Leeds recently: I spent ages carefully examining all the shelves next to the washing-up liquid, and the little dangling racks nestling between them. When that didn't work I then wasted a bit longer in the hope of spotting an employee to ask.
So I gave up, only moments later to find myself passing tea towels in a different aisle. A-ha? Nope, not there either.
Didn't really matter — I could last another few days with the current brush, and pick one up somewhere else. But I also needed a 3 A fuse. I wasn't sure that Morrison's was the sort of place that would stock fuses. But it does. And there, opposite the fuses (and next to the light bulbs) were the washing-up brushes. Of course. Why didn't I think of that?
