Southdown sand and Home Depot -- Giovanni please read also

I have been skimming all the posts on the sand and Home Depot.

First, you don't have to go to every Home Depot in your area. All you need is a Sku #, it's the 6 digit number right above the bar code.

Next once you have that number go into ANY HD and go to special services desk, after visiting Garden Dept. to see if they carry it. Ask Special Services to lookup and see who in the area has the sand, if none of the stores show that they do. Tell them to do a National search. Get the store #, then have them call the store and verify that they have it. (the counts on the computer are usually wrong, trust me I know ! ) Then tell them you want to do an interstore transfer.

If they tell you they can't do any of this tell them you want to see an MOD (Manager on duty) and then tell the manager to do it. If he/she doesn't do it, tell them you would like the district manager's name and store location and they will be getting a call about the lack of service you received and that you will be shopping at Lowe's from now on.

Now the only problem is hopefully Giovanni will post the sku # if he happens to know it.

Sincerely,

Matt S.

Back in 1999, it used to be the following, I do not know if it has since changed. I know SouthDown is no longer a company. But HD still sells products with the SouthDown brand.

SKU # 578-819 UPC # 0-210026-16865-5 MODEL # 420-100 manufactured by SouthDown, Inc.

Southdown was purchased by Cemex about 2 years ago. I'm not sure if the sand will be or is available under the Cemex brand name.

I bought some Southdown from my local HD about 2 months ago using the SKU that Jimmy provided. They shipped it in from a store in Ohio. And I thought it was Yardright that bought out Southdown. http://www.yardright.com/sand.htm#playsand

No, Cemex bought Southdown. Cemex is based out of Mexico(Cement->Mexico=Cemex) with Houston as their US HQ. Check the bag. If it is the same sand then maybe it is a division of Cemex or maybe just that product was bought by Yardright.

Here's a link describing some of the merger: http://www.cemex.com/gl/gl_us.asp

HTH,

Southdown and Yardright are just brand names used by Cemex. They didn't bother changing the Southdown name and typically sell that brand to HD and sell Yardright to other stores. That's my understanding anyway.

Mike Schmidt

just fyi for all.. yardright play sand is regularly stocked in several of the Home Depots in New Jersey.. My connects says it's in stock today. Go to the Home Depot site.. locate any store near this zip code 08735 get the phone number..call.. then ask for building supplies then playsand.. it's under $4 for 50# bag

They don't do interstore transfers out of their districts. The districts are roughly equal in size to the local counties, so forget getting it if the store is very far away.

not to beat a dead horse, but it's also at the hamilton square, nj store. they have 384 bags of the stuff

i like how on the bag it says not 'recommended' for aquarium use. I wonder if its there for liablity sakes, or the 'live sand' people made them put it on there.

I answered this question a while back. Direct from a guy at Cemex, he said they had been sued 2 times for reef tanks that died after people used Southdown. He claimed that they package this product on the same line they package other materials and since none of these materials are a problem in a play sand product, they do not clean out the system between product runs. So there was a chance that other products could be found in the sand.

Believe what you want from that, just what I was told.

As for the 'live sand' people I am not sure what your are saying here. If you mean that there is some sort of contract and non-compete, I know for a fact this is not the case.

Mike Schmidt