Depends on the product. Look at home Depot / Lowe's / Rona where it's absolutely expected that there will be staff with contracting experience who have advice on what products to buy and how to use them.
I do not expect to find experienced professionals working a $15/hour job at Lowe’s or Home Depot. There might be some who are out of the game due to injury or age, but not as a norm.
In Atlanta and thereabouts Home Depot is a minimum-wage job ($8/hr?) with no real benefits or employee discounts so you just get bodies to stock shelves. I've had much better luck in California ($15/hr?) where most of the employees seemed to be ex-contractors or otherwise experienced.
Yeah, here on Ontario most of the Home Depot staff are old guys who've got plenty of experience with the stuff they sell. At worst, their knowledge is out-of-date from current best practice.
