April 11, 2005

Home Depot Casheirs Team Wins Secret Forklift Races

Lowe's, Home Depot Teams Compete in the Middle of the Night

A team of women cashiers from Home Depot upset the favorites to win the Loew's-Home Depot forklift races, held in the wee hours yesterday morning in a suburban shopping center parking lot outside Philadelphia.

None of the four cashiers, which included a 64-year-old grandmother, had ever operated a forklift as part of their jobs at Home Depot. But they excelled at the raw egg carry competition and nudged out the leading Loew's team by a mere two points with their prowess in the two-by-four stud toss event.

"This has to be the pinnacle of my career at Home Depot," said the grandmother after she and her teammates were awarded the championship trophy. "I never thought my job would lead me to something as wonderful as this."

None of the participants in the forklift races would allow use of their names. Lowe's and Home Depot each fielded three teams of four people each, drawn from stores in the Philadelphia area. A total of 24 contestants using half a dozen fork lifts competed.

Race organizers and the competitors spoke guardedly about how long they had practiced, when and where they gained access to fork lifts for practice sessions, and how they got the forklifts to the shopping center parking lot.

"Let's just say that a lot of people from both Lowe's and Home Depot put a lot of work into this and that senior management at both companies didn't know about it," said a race organizer, who wore one of Home Depot's orange aprons and a Loew's baseball cap.

Asked whether his use of the term "senior management" meant local store managers or corporate managers, the man, who would not give his name, smiled and answered: "Lots of people, some in high places probably know about this, but they all looked the other way."

Though none of the race organizers or participants would confirm it, the forklifts used apparently came from nearly Home Depot and Lowe's stores. They were removed from the stores and driven on public roads in the middle of the nigh to reach the parking lot used for the races.

A crowd of about 200 people, apparently composed of family members and friends watched the races, which were lit by portable floodlights. Police officers from several local towns were in attendance. It appeared that they were spectators as well as conspirators. Some participants said the police had escorted the forklifts from local Lowe's and Home Depot stores when they were driven to the race site.

Competitors competed for points in four events -- two-by-four stud toss, raw egg carry, plywood painting, and close-quarters maneuvering.

In the stud toss, eight-foot studs had to be tossed into a bin, using rapid movements of the forklift's hydraulics and forward or rearward momentum to propel the studs into a container. The raw egg carry involved using a forklift to carry a raw egg over an obstacle course without breaking the egg. The forklifts were also used to apply a coat of paint to a four-by-eight foot sheet of plywood. The close-quarters maneuvering competition involved maneuvering through an obstacle course while racing against the clock.

A policeman watching the races exemplified the secrecy surrounding them when asked a question about how the forklifts had been brought to the shopping center parking lot and whether the shopping center's owners knew what was going on.

"I'll pretend you didn't ask me that unless you'd like to go sit in the back seat of my cruiser and then go down to the station house with me and sample our hospitality after this is over," he said.

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