Older women working at the cash registers typically don't have the strength to move items around in a trolley full of lumber and giant boxes full of nails or other heavy items which those stores are full of.

One of the local HD's has primarily older women working the registers. Trying to find an SKU so a worker can scan it is a frustrating experience when they are unable to assist.

This is a failure of management. If the women at my local supermarket can get a dedicated bagger, then these stores can have capable employees assisting the cashiers with their duties.

My country is what it is, a place where that demographic of old and female does not have much technical knowledge because society has traditionally discouraged it. So when you see a store with aisles full of tools and building materials overwhelmingly hiring that demographic -- and workers who are indeed unable to help customers much -- it does seem strange and one wonders at the reasons that the company's management has in mind. Are wages so low that only this demographic would accept them? Is it merely an anti-shrink measure? Are profit margins higher on the products (e.g. gardening) that they do know much about?

He explicitly stated it: his observation that people of that particular age and gender make up a large portion of the employees at his local hardware store, and those same workers know "bugger-all" about most of the products on sale.

Also, where do you live where there is a large population of retirement-age women who know lots about home improvement?

Would it have bothered you if he had said "teen-aged males" instead?

Perhaps it's irrelevant to the parent comment, but there is something interesting here about age. In America, lots of retired tradesmen and contractors end up working for Home Depot, and they're the best employee's you'll find there.