Menards. Really?

So today I went to Menards looking for a plastic lawn flamingo, and to make sure they had them, called to confirm.  Naturally the kid answering the phone said yes and I decided to trust him.  Well, needless to say they were sold out (you thought I was weird for buying tacky lawn ornaments in February.  Well apparently they're very popular this time of year).  Getting to my point, Menards may pride themselves on low prices, however, you'd think that customer service should be something else they pride themselves on, especially due to their 185 isles.  It took 5 different people and 20 minutes of my time before they checked their stock numbers on the computer.    

In such a large store, such as Menards...and other Menards-like businesses, it can be tricky to keep track of all of your employees.  But do those employees have to be sneaky and incompetent?