Big Box Blunders

In recent months, Wal-Mart went the way of Lowe's, Kohl's and other large box companies where their corporate office entertains a bid for all exterior maintenance from "national" contractors like SpringWise (used to be Genesis FM), USM (used to be US Maintenance), GreenKeeper, Mirror Lawn & Turf and others. As a result, quality control has gone in the tank and we hear many of our local store managers grumble. The corporate offices have taken outside maintenance out of the hands of local and even district/regional managers.
But should we be surprised? The "big box" stores have done the same thing inside the store: Finding people or companies willing to sell them a product for a fraction of a penny on the dollar hoping to make up the profit in volume. Local quality, local customer service, local control and local products are no longer valued ... and it shows. It is very disappointing to see it happen.