BORG help

[Alex McClure]

Long time reader, first time poster. Hello

Would someone please tell me what BORG stands for? I am imagining something like "Big Orange Retail Giant"

[Steve Kohn]

That's one description I have heard. There are others that don't come to mind right now. Others will follow and be smarter than I am.

[Bill Houghton]

The Borg, on one of the Star Treks, is/are a collective life form - one brain, many bodies. I think the writers were trying to imagine what humanoids would be like if they'd evolved from what we perceive ants to be.

The line from Star Trek is something like, "you will be assimilated," so referring to the Borg in our setting is not some distance from a compliment.

I'm not sure of the full story of its use in the online woodworking community. There may be subtleties I don't know about - it's not as obvious as the nicknames for Harbor Freight (as in, "Horrible Fright," my favorite).

There's an Orange Borg (Home Despot, of course) and a Blue Borg (Lowe's). Not sure why Menard's hasn't achieved Borg status, but there aren't any in our area, so maybe they're not so Borglike. We have a Lower's and a Home Despot within ten miles, two-three miles apart, and Home Despot's been trying to build more, spaced about ten miles apart, up the major traffic corridor on our county. Not sure why so many are necessary.

I do know I've been increasingly motivated to support the locally owned home center that offers better service and happier workers at competitive prices...but I'm digressing from your question.

[Bill Roland]

It come from Star Trek. It now refers to large Building Material stores, Home Depot, Lowes, Menards and the like.

[Bill Houghton]

It come from Star Trek. It now refers to large Building Material stores, Home Depot, Lowes, Menards and the like.

We don't have Menards in this area, so I don't know much about this chain.

[Jeff Nicol]

Well I live in the town where Menards got its start! They started out building pole sheds and then supplying all the materials to build them etc. etc. So now we have the main distribution center here in town and 2 stores. They sell everything from blue jeans to milk and lumber to lawnmowers and everhthing inbetween! You can get a coffee at the door wander for hours and still not find the exact thing you are looking for! One is about 5 min from my house so I go there a lot! We don't have a Lowes or Home Depot so it is the only game in town. The owner ...John Menard is commonly referred to as" TAIWAN JOHN" as most of the off brand stuff is from China and Taiwan!

So I guess a borg it is just not nation wide! Pretty much the midwest to the Dakotas.

Jeff

[Clifford Mescher]

Big Orange Retail Giant. Clifford

[Stan Urbas]

Big Ol' Retail Giant. Any Color.

[Dylan Smith]

Well I live in the town where Menards got its start! They started out building pole sheds and then supplying all the materials to build them etc. etc. So now we have the main distribution center here in town and 2 stores

Jeff - I grew up in Eau Claire - I remember going to the original Menards out by the old County Hospital when I was a kid. Wasn't a very big place, not much more than a crowded hardware store and messy greenhouse.

Seems they've come a ways since....

[Rick Christopherson]

The original use of the Borg came from Star Trek and referred to Home Depot's business practices of driving out the small (and large) competition by building stores right next door to existing stores and undercutting prices to the point that the competition could not stay afloat. They were assimilated.

Back then, they wiped out the cashway lumber chain (called Knox in this area) which was one of the best stores for finding what you needed. The most obvious attempt I have seen is where they built a brand new store directly across the street from a Menard's lumber. The store didn't close, but they both have to share the limited customer base for the area.

[Dewey Torres]

http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=78002&highlight=Acronyms

This has helped me many times. You will refer to it from time to time.

[Scott Myers]

Very funny stuff. I think the exact quote is "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated". Now that will be stuck in my head every time I wander like a zombie (That's almost how the Borg would act) down the Home Depot isles. Thanks a lot guys. LOL


The Borg, on one of the Star Treks, is/are a collective life form - one brain, many bodies. I think the writers were trying to imagine what humanoids would be like if they'd evolved from what we perceive ants to be.

[Steve Schoene]

Strangely enough, having the two competitors located right next to each other is better for BOTH stores than if the HD had located itself a couple of miles down the road.

[Greg Cole]

Strangely enough, having the two competitors located right next to each other is better for BOTH stores than if the HD had located itself a couple of miles down the road.
The goold ol' McDonalds n Burger King syndrome....

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

The original use of the Borg came from Star Trek and referred to Home Depot's business practices of driving out the small (and large) competition by building stores right next door to existing stores and undercutting prices to the point that the competition could not stay afloat.

I don't know if he created this approach, but Sam Walton built his Walmart empire this way. I read somewhere that he used to sit and watch the parking lots at other big stores (K-Mart, for instance), and if foot traffic was good he'd build right across the street.

Interestingly, I know of quite a few "hometown" hardware stores that still seem to do OK even in the shadow of a HD or Lowes. We have an Ace hardware that is fantastic - you can go in and say "I need to attach this thingamajig to this doohickey", and then can help you out with it. and it's easier to special order stuff.

[Paul Williams]

We have a Home Depot and a Menards within 2 miles of each other, and last year Lowes built between the two. My observation was that Home Depot was the best thing to ever happen to Menards. Their quality was pretty poor prior to having compitition. I go to Menards 90% of the time for best quality and price.

[Ben Franz]

One brain, many bodies..... I guess that's a pretty fair description (maybe even a little generous) of the staff (staph?) at most HDs.

[Michael Weber]

Interestingly, I know of quite a few "hometown" hardware stores that still seem to do OK even in the shadow of a HD or Lowes. We have an Ace hardware that is fantastic - you can go in and say "I need to attach this thingamajig to this doohickey", and then can help you out with it. and it's easier to special order stuff.

Jerrys' in Eugene is a prime example of an independent doing well in competition with the Borg. I'ts a great place and i look forward to going every time I visit my daughter there.

[Neal Clayton]

I don't know if he created this approach, but Sam Walton built his Walmart empire this way. I read somewhere that he used to sit and watch the parking lots at other big stores (K-Mart, for instance), and if foot traffic was good he'd build right across the street.

Interestingly, I know of quite a few "hometown" hardware stores that still seem to do OK even in the shadow of a HD or Lowes. We have an Ace hardware that is fantastic - you can go in and say "I need to attach this thingamajig to this doohickey", and then can help you out with it. and it's easier to special order stuff.

i grew up in that era and my dad started out in real estate building walmarts when i was a kid, so we kinda saw it all first hand. sam gets credit for alot of things he didn't innovate, imo. the real innovator was john schwegmann down in new orleans. he first came up with the idea of a self service shopping establishment with his grocery stores. prior to him everything was still full service. walmart rolled with the idea.

in those days their credit was horrid due to their tendency for causing credit defaults. they were the only ones building stores that large so just took it upon themselves to not pay the rent for the first few months until the store started making a profit. they knew no one would put them in default since no one else wanted a store that large. back in those days sam used to fly in on his helicopter and have a fair and food and local band and all that stuff set up for the grand openings, one of pop's favorite stories is another local developer padlocking the doors during the festivities and refusing to let sam go in until he cut the first rent check on the spot due to getting shorted on the rent on the previous store he built.

it didn't take them long once the ball started rolling though. about 5 years later another store down here was threatened by an aluminum plant closing. from what i've heard, the guy building the store suddenly lost his construction financing when his lender heard that the store was going into a town that was about to lose an aluminum plant. turns out that a certain local investment house who i'm sure everyone in arkansas is familiar with had a stake in the property, so sam called witt, witt called john mcclellan, and reynolds metals got a short-to-the-point phone call the next day explaining to them that if they closed that plant they'd never get another one in this part of the world again, so they politely changed their mind about the plant closing, and everyone was happy.

one of sam's favorite jokes back then was "it's tough being the richest man in america and only the third richest man in arkansas, but winthrop (rockefeller) is taking it real hard because he's number 4".

no one ever knew how much power was wielded from bentonville and prattsville arkansas back in those days ;). the deal with stephens, monsanto, and delta pine land over the genetically modified seeds which self destruct after a certain amount of time (that delta was given a patent for) is an especially good read.

[Harley Reasons]

i grew up in that era and my dad started out in real estate building walmarts when i was a kid, so we kinda saw it all first hand. sam gets credit for alot of things he didn't innovate, imo. the real innovator was john schwegmann down in new orleans. he first came up with the idea of a self service shopping establishment with his grocery stores. prior to him everything was still full service. walmart rolled with the idea.

This is incorrect, John Schwegmann did not come up with the first self service grocery store. That honor belongs to Clarence Saunders of the Piggly Wiggly chain fame. He was from Memphis, TN and began construction on the [/URL] [URL="http://www.memphismuseums.org/museum-overview/"]Pink Palace (http://www.memphismuseums.org/museum-overview/) (link for informational purpose only) (his home) and then went bankrupt then made another fortune.

[Neal Clayton]

yes but schwegmann was the first to take it beyond groceries and target every other nearby specalized retailer under one roof. they sold everything from milk and eggs to hardware and garden hoses, and had the first 100+ thousand square foot store, ala walmart, before there was walmart.

piggly wiggly was strictly groceries, as i remember it.

[Matt Ranum]

We had first a Menards then Lowes then HD. Menards never skipped a beat and actually increased business I think. I don't give the other 2 long to survive here.

[Brad Townsend]

In Rockford, IL close to my home, HD, Lowe's and Menards are all clustered within a half mile of each other at two different locations. For tools, Menards is probably the poorest of the lot, though I would not consider any of them good. For building materials, Menards easily beats the other two for both quality and price.

As for the BORG, I think it really started with Home Depot, which for awhile, was doing a pretty good job of "assimilating" the competition. But that was before Bob Nardelli drove the company into the ditch and walked away with 230 mill in severance.:D

[Mark Wyatt]

Anyone remember Builder's Square? Or Furrow? Assimilated by the BORG.

[Radek Kowalski]

I was JUST thinking about this a couple hours ago. I realized it was Big Orange Retail Giant. Had NO idea about the Star Trek.