As we start the sprint to this year’s holiday shopping season, I had hoped to start to see the disappearance of the store-centric mentality that has hurt so much of retail for years. This is best illustrated by complaints — from the likes of Target, Walmart and Home Depot — that they are being victimized by showrooming with Amazon. It was a bogus argument from the start.

I mention this disheartening thought because I just tried — unsuccessfully — to give money to Home Depot, only to have Home Depot’s store-centric — not even chain-store-centric but individual store-centric — mentality drove me into the waiting HTML arms of Amazon. This time, I really was determined to buy the item from Home Depot, but Home Depot’s suicidal store-centric policies defeated me.

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