Djmc2002 Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 I have a family member that is a GM at Home Depot. He told me today that there was a fire at the supplier's factory in China and that lights might be in short supply especially as we get closer to the season. He did not say if it was LED or incandescent or both just that I should stock up early as supplies were going to be tight. Again I don't know if they made lights for only HD. Just thought I would share so you don't get caught short at the last minute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rednosetbird Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Mitchell Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Thing is, most of the lights for this year were probably manufactured 6 to 8 months ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave H1 Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Interesting I was in our local Home Depot on Sunday, the garden section still had not been cleared out yet and not a single Christmas product was visiable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LORisAwesome Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 I have a friend that works for Home Depot at a store near where I work. They have a groups of employees called the MET teams. They travel from store to store each week and work with the inventory, they are usualy at each store at least one day a week. You may notice people that are Home Depot employees, but are dressed a little differently that the regular store employees. The MET teams are the folks that set up the seasonal items. There are not enough MET teams to put out the seasonal items at all the stores at the same time. So some Home Depot's will have the Christmas stuff out by now, some are still waiting. The one near my home has the Christmas Stuff out already, but, the one near work does not. They tell me it is going out this week. If you look at the tops of the shelves in a store that does not have the Christmas items set up you, you will probably see the Chrstmas stuff up there. Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty-Laser Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 (edited) Our HD store was busy yesterday. They had the whole area roped off and were busy filling shelves. Doesn't look like everything has arrived yet, but it's starting to look a lot like Christmas! Edited October 15, 2013 by Liberty-Laser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Yep, Jerry is correct about HD. I asked HD about that the other day as some stores had Christmas items out, but not any HD's in my area. HD Employee said the same as Jerry, but said all their Christmas stock for 2013 is already in all their stores, and the store I was in the Christmas stuff was still in the warehouse area, not on the top shelves. I was actually looking to buy some of the brown tent stakes they only put out with the Christmas items, unfortunately I needed tent stakes immediately for my Halloween display items, so I had to go to Wal-Mart and settle on the bright yellow ones they sell, which I'll have to paint black {top half} another time. But back to the Christmas lights and factory fire, I really do doubt that fire is going to affect the 2013 season, perhaps 2014, but truly doubt this year will have any issues. I was in a Lowes in Melbourne, FL last weekend and they had all their Christmas stuff out, but in Orlando, they didn't have anything out for Christmas yet. Not sure if Lowes works it the same way HD does or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Hans Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 The fire may be an issue for next year but won't affect inventory for this Christmas, that stuff shipped from China months agao. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Djmc2002 Posted October 16, 2013 Author Share Posted October 16, 2013 Yes I working in the shipping business/transportation business and understand the shipping time lags. He specifically said shortages this year -- (did not say when the fire was) My local HD and Lowes has christmas stuff out now but might not be much back stock from my understanding. Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainyoregonchristmas Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 Our stores don't seem to stock anything beyond what they put on the shelf the first week. If you ask for more than what's on the shelf, the answer is always, we don't have anymore. But other stores might. I never hope much for leftovers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stanward Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Who uses lights from Home Depot anyways? If they are LED lights, the LED leads rust out and corrode within a weeks time. I had to return a huge batch of lighting to them in the beginning of December and now only run commercial grade stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Who uses lights from Home Depot anyways? If they are LED lights, the LED leads rust out and corrode within a weeks time. I had to return a huge batch of lighting to them in the beginning of December and now only run commercial grade stuff.Been using my Home Depot LED lights going on 10+ years now! But I also put dielectric grease in the LED sockets as well as their leads {the NON-conductive grease used in automotive lamp sockets}. And they will still be in use again this year. Just have to take a little time and patience to keep them from "failing". I missed a couple of sockets, so lost a couple of strands due to rust, but just cut them out and spliced in new ones from an older strand that the rectifiers went bad on. And only had minimal failures with bad rectifiers on HD lights. I do not use and would not even recommend the Martha Stewart LED's, they are junk, can't dim, fade or shimmer them. But I can't say I've had all that much bad luck with HD or any retail outlets LED lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stanward Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 Hi Orville, I also did put dielectric grease in my LED sockets (from Home Depot and WalMart). The combination of sun and rain somehow "washed" or displaced the dielectric grease and I still ended up with rusted leads. I spent days putting in the dielectric grease, only to have failed light strings. This made me purchase the commercial grade lights. This was the 2nd year of using LOR (back in 2009). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 Hi Orville, I also did put dielectric grease in my LED sockets (from Home Depot and WalMart). The combination of sun and rain somehow "washed" or displaced the dielectric grease and I still ended up with rusted leads. I spent days putting in the dielectric grease, only to have failed light strings. This made me purchase the commercial grade lights. This was the 2nd year of using LOR (back in 2009). That's really strange, as I am in torrential downpours here in Florida and I've never had any of my dielectric grease wash out of any of my light strands, put the grease in there over 5 years ago and it's still there today. Only time I've ever had to replenish it is if I replaced one of the LED's that may have failed {burned out}, other than that, I've had zero issues in this regard. BTW: many of those LED strands were on stakes at ground level or in bushes, so they really would be the ones to fail quicker than those on the house. I guess I've just been lucky with my cheapa$$ed LED's. Because I had 2 commercial ones, both failed and both also flickered, and these were full wave, I have 1/2 wave retail versions that I've never had this issue with either. Like stated, mileage varies from person to person. Just know I'll stick with the retail cheap LED's, they have served me for quite a long time and continue to do so. But, again, that just been MY experience with retail big box and discount/closeout store LED's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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