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[at-l] My experience in obtaining Tyvek

To everyone:

Until I subscribed to the at-l list, I don't think I had heard of, or at
least was aware of, the material called Tyvek (manufactured by DuPont).
After reading several posts about the use of this material for ground
cloths, as well as for packs and clothes, I decided to do further
investigation.

One of the first steps was to do a Web search (Lycos Search Engine from
URL: http://lycospro.lycos.com/lycospro-nojava.html), which led me to a
DuPont site that had information about Tyvek characteristics and uses.
Apparently in addition to buidling construction, Tyvek is very big in
providing sterile packaging for medical supplies (see URL
http://www.dupont.com/Tyvek/sterilepkg/why/index.html).   I also found a
site that sells Tyvek jackets, fanny packs, etc. (see URL
http://www.lesliejordan.com/).

Next step was to call Home Depot (HD) to see if they sold Tyvek.  Yes,
they do.  I asked what quantities in which it is available (from HD).  I
was told that HD only sells it in whole rolls (2"  wide tape rolls, 3' 
wide rolls of about 50 feet, or 9' wide rolls of about 100 feet).  Note:
you can get a list of HD locations and phone numbers from the HD web site
(see URL http://www.homedepot.com/).

This afternoon I drove to Nashua, NH to get a few items from Eastern
Mountain Sports (EMS) -- I am planning to thru-hike the 270 mile Long
Trail through the length of Vermont from Canada to Massachusetts this
summer, and possibly a bit more of the AT.  I also wanted to check out
the LL Bean outlet store there.  By the way, in my experience, EMS, LL
Bean, and REI, all have consistently excellent customer service, and they
really stand behind their 100% satisfaction guarantee, even on sale
items.  (Web sites for these three comanies are at www.emsonline.com,
www.llbean.com, www.rei.com).

While in Nashua, I visited the HD store there, since I needed to get a
few things there as well.  I immediately asked about Tyvek, and was able
to make my first personal examination of this material.  I asked the
salesperson if he could sell me just a short piece of a 9' wide roll.  He
said no.  So I decided to try the store manager.  I located him, made my
request, and got an unequivocal, but polite, no.  I engaged him in a bit
of conversation, asking why HD could not cut and sell Tyvek, even though
they would cut and sell lumber, chain, and some other items.  He
explained that those other items had high customer demand for cut pieces,
but that was not the case for Tyvek.  He said, that I was the only person
to have made such a request.  I then talked about the AT list, and how
there seemed to be growing interest among backpackers for using smaller
pieces of this material for ground cloths, and even clothes.  He said
that I could probably obtain a piece from Jordan's Fabrics and gave me
directions (several miles away).  So I pretty much gave up the idea that
I could get just a piece of Tyvek at HD,. but the logic of the situation
did not seem quite right, so I proceeded to explore it -- not with any
thought of getting the manager to change his mind, but just to fully
explore the logic of the policy.  It was a sort of Socratic dialogue,
which I won't reproduce here, but it brought out these points:  

1. HD has a reputation for good customer service, which was a key to its
success, but that a policy of not cutting Tyvek to order seems to run
counter to this.

2.  The downside to establishing a policy of allowing Tyvek to be cut to
order had very low worst case downside:  Namely, if they set aside one
roll (at a time) for cutting to order, the worst case is that I would be
the only customer to ever request a piece cut, and HD could be out the
cost of one roll (about $135 retail) and an hour or so of somebody's time
to put up a sign indicating that the roll was cut to order and should not
be sold as a full roll.

3.  The upside to establishing a policy of allowing Tyvek to be cut to
order was that it would encourage others who would not ordinarily buy
Tyvek (if they had to buy a whole roll) to also buy pieces.  (BTW, this
did not seem to make much of an impression.  In fact the manager stated
that by cutting the roll and selling it at the proportional price, HD
would lose money, because cutting typically introduces a loss of about
20% of the material and HD policy is not to charge a premium for
cutting.)

4.  That even if there was nothing that could be done at the local level
of management, perhaps I could contact corporate customer service via
e-mail or the Internet to advocate cutting Tyvek to order (even though it
would not help me personally).  BTW, this was not posed, intended, or
perceived, as a threat -- just a genuine desire to go through the steps
of advocating a change in policy.

At this point the manger (much to my surprise) said, "OK, I'll cut you a
piece."  We walked through the store to the Tyvek, and he asked how much
do you want?  I said I needed a piece 8' by 5' for a ground cloth, but
that I'd take a 10' segment of the 9' role (enough to make two ground
cloths).  He made the cut, by eyeball, probably giving me closer to 12' (
see there is 20% wastage when cutting!).  I helped him fold the Tyvek
--boy is that stuff LOUD as it crinkles.  Then we walked back to the
front of the store together.  I asked how much did I owe, and he asked,
"Are you getting anything else?"  I replied, yes, and then he said, "No
charge."

I thanked him, and said that if he would give me his card, I'd be glad to
write a letter of appreciation to his boss, but he declined, so I just
patted him on the back and thanked him again.

As a final note:  At no time did the discussion between myself and the
manager become discourteous, irritated, etc.  I don't really know if he
was persuaded by the logic of the points, or whether he  was primarily
motivated to just free himself up to attend to other matters, and to be
gallant in doing so.

End of account.
---terry---


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