Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: HD) will be trimming its human resources staff soon, according the the company. The largest home improvement retailers in the U.S. seeks to trim its HR staff by a total of 1,000 employees, with the goal of having more help on its sales floors instead of on administrative tasks.

Home Depot officials said that it won't be handling human resources issues on a store-by-store basis any longer, opting instead to handle employee HR from a district-wide perspective. It will shift HR tasks mostly to telephone-based support and will be adding 200 people for a new human resources call center, according to the company.

Is this a wise move? It will save the retailer costs from a headcount burden at each store that may not be the best use of its labor force, but then again, having HR in-store does probably have an advantage. Maybe it's not enough from a cost perspective. If the retailer can shift more headcount to the sales floor, that is always a good thing.

In addition to the HR personnel moves, the retailer said that it will shift stocking crews at some of its stores from the overnight shift to the day shift, as there just isn't enough work for some overnight crews at this time. Since the mortgage mess continues to spook the entire country at this time, home improvement retailers are seeing a good brunt of the mess.

It was quite a surprise in 2006 when Home Depot's (NYSE: HD) then-CEO, Robert Nardelli, shunned all questions from the analyst and shareholder community at the retailer's annual shareholder's meeting. In fact, Nardelli suggested that Home Depot board members just stay home, and they happily obliged. Zac covered this when it happened, and I had to get my mitts on this as well since it burns me up a bit. It never ceases to amaze me the arrogance that some corporate leaders have when it comes to answering the hard questions from the people that watch their company. Note to Nardelli: for future reference, shareholders OWN the company, and it is the fiduciary and ethical responsibility of management to answer questions and respond to the concerns of the owners. Companies do not own shareholders -- it's the other way around. Period.

Now, I know some shareholders make outlandish demands and don't act rationally at times, but neither do many CEOs and other C-level execs who can come to act like incompetent fools more than productive leaders in a billion-dollar company. At this year's Home Depot annual shareholder's meeting, an apology was prof erred for last year's disastrous decision by Nardelli (who was forced out in 2007) and the meeting went on as it should have and on a very careful footing with new CEO Frank Blake at the helm.

The sign of a leader who knows how to handle adversity and conflict is admission, and Blake gave it by admitting last year's meeting was a mistake and by taking the brunt of everything from ensuing questions. But the question remains: why did Nardelli do that last year at all anyway? Was he trying to escape questions on his exorbitant pay package and didn't want to take the heat for Home Depot's sales slowdown? As Nardelli should know by know, when yo go public, you answer to your shareholders or take on the risk of becoming a "politician" who never listens to constituents -- but will always be on the legislature floor to vote on pay raises. Now that I think of it, it's already that way inside some companies.

Welcome to the tenth installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a new weekly column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Last week I looked at Wal-Mart Stores' (NYSE: WMT) store count and possible market saturation in several areas of the country where it operates. Is the retailer spreading itself too thin these days? Can it keep up growth by just adding stores or does it need to find ways to increase sales in existing stores?

Today, let's look at how home improvement mega-retailers Lowe's and The Home Depot have cut into Wal-Mart's business. These "Big-Box" home improvement retailers offer a dizzying array of merchandise to spruce up that home. There are category overlaps with quite a bit of what Wal-Mart offers, so is the world's largest retailer up to the challenge? Let's find out.

The recent departure of The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) CEO Robert Nardelli has to be one of the more dramatic resignations in recent memory. Then, in the beginning of February, two more executives, a high-level human resources exec and the general counsel, both of whom were close to Nardelli, announced they, too, would be leaving the company. These changes could be good for HD and might encourage investors to jump in, but I'd still stay away from this company for now.

Last May, when HD was at $37.70, I predicted the stock would drop, and soon after the price started dipping, eventually reaching as low as $32.75 after trading near $45 in April. My objections to HD were its terrible customer service -- I can never find anyone to help me when I shop there, and everyone I know has had the same problem -- and the fact that the slowing housing market would mean lesser demand for HD's wares. The third quarter was indeed a tough one for The Home Depot, with profits dropping 3%. The fourth quarter results aren't in yet, but the stock has regained some ground since last autumn and is trading just above $40.

I don't think Home Depot is going to get much higher, and a poor fourth quarter could send it down below $40. Mortgage rates jumped again this year, and they are now at their highest since October; with the economy still growing steadily, it doesn't seem likely we'll see any dip in rates for a little while. The housing bubble may pick up again, but high mortgage rates will dampen growth, and I don't think the housing market will grow in any serious way that will really help Home Depot. If you really must buy a home-retailer, I'd go with Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW). It's simply a better run store, and while it's smaller, I think it's going to see superior growth to The Home Depot. Lowe's also had a rough third quarter, but its stock is on the rise. It split in July 2006, and then had a rough August, but its stock has gained about 33% compared to HD's 25% since September.

Type of stock: The largest home repair retailer in the country, which has just undergone major personnel shifts, but will continue to struggle with a soft housing market.

Price Target: During 2007, I don't think HD is going to grow much above $40 unless the housing market takes off. If you see mortgage rates drop or see the real estate market recovering, you might want to take a chance on this, but even then I think Lowe's is the better bet.

Hilary Kramer is a financial editor and money coach for AOL and an authority on investing. Visit her at www.hilarykramer.com.