German executive reflects on American retailing experience with Home Depot. (Trade News).(Brief...

* Are there differences in employees and customers from one country to the other? The obvious answer is "yes," but the more difficult question to answer in retailing is "What are they?"

John Herbert, now managing director of BHB, the German-based retailing association, is in a unique position to explain the differences. For many years, he headed up Knauber, a chain of German home centers.

After he retired a little more than a year ago, Home Depot snapped him up to head up Expo Design Center West, its own high-end chain of decor stores, and Herbert moved to S