Home Depot or Lowe's......? - Page 2

BenjieC · #26 09/18/2006, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by hllywd
The place to buy BBQ sauce and Moon Pies with your attic insulation...ROFLMAO

RichConley · #27 09/18/2006, 05:03 PM

I've got about 5 HDs in a 5 mile radius of either my home, or work, and I still go to Lowes every chance I can.

Their "Fish-appropriate" selection is just much better. More PVC, more DIY stuff.

EricBrian · #28 09/18/2006, 05:15 PM

I don't like either of their customer service. I usually go to Lowes since it is closer.

Because of bad customer service, I don't feel bad ordering stuff from the net anymore.

sthrasher5098 · #29 09/18/2006, 06:05 PM

I ushally shop at menards

Vincerama2 · #30 09/18/2006, 06:35 PM

For power tools, I believe Lowes has a greater variety of brands. HD has their OWN brands, and also has tools that only they sell. (Ryobi, Rigid maybe Hilti?)

Even HD's change in availability from place to place.

I find HD cheaper though.

Don't forget about OSH as well, which has more gardening stuff. (Orchard Supply Hardware) and I find they have more PVC fitting selections.

The local stores (ACE Hardware) probably have more knowledgeable staff as they are probably too small to hire high school students by the truckload. For "Oops, my toilet broke!" situations, I find the local places better.

I once went to a HD and asked the guy in the electrical section what the difference was between SquareD lines of circuit boxes/breakers. Their "Homeline" line was a BIT cheaper than the "QO" line. The guy just started reading off the stuff on the labels! I said "OK, dude, I can read the labels too. What's the difference?" And he said "Well, the QO line is a bit more expensive, so I'm guessing that they are of higher quality. I asked him to define "quality" and he said "Well, I mean, their better". (After I laughed my butt off at this guy, I went for the QO line, which is marginally more expensive, but I guess that pays for "betterness".)

.

Oh, another time at HD I asked the guy in the plumbing section if a piece of tubing was 3/4" or 5/8". He just looked at it and said "It's 3/4"". I asked how he knew without measuring it and he barked back "Look, it's 3/4" OK?!". He really upset me with this total rudeness. My wife immediately found a manager and complained about the guy. I can't explain why, but I really felt hurt by the way the guy barked at me.

At OSH, often you get guys that know what they're talking about and way more helpful than HD, and much more polite. But this experience is just a matter of who happened to be hired at which store. I think OSH policy is to be helpful though. I dunno.

I think that if you know what you are looking for, go to HD or Lowes. If you need help, then go local or to an OSH.

If you want cheap crap (that might be just good enough) then try Harbor Freight. Some stuff is crap, but there are a few gems to be found too.

V

Capt Crabtabulous · #31 09/18/2006, 06:57 PM

Loews for hardware and tools. Home Depot for lumber.

adnup · #32 09/18/2006, 08:25 PM

My HD and Lowes face each other on the road.
I live on the HD side usually start there and go to Lowes if I can't fint it in the depot. I find CS much better in HD, Employees will take the time to write out what I need and how to do it. BUT I bought my kitchen from Lowes

rishma · #33 09/18/2006, 09:47 PM

Lowes has better PVC and RO/DI fittings. HD has better electrical and my son likes to ride in those orange carts that look like cars.

CoolUsername · #34 09/19/2006, 12:33 AM

Lowes has way better PVC selection and RO/DI
HD is usually a little cheaper. It gives and takes here and there.

Lowes is closer AND I'm usually shopping for PVC so I go there!

Gem Tang Rider · #35 09/19/2006, 12:44 AM

It all varies from location.
We have a Menards, Lowes, & HD within a .5 mile. Menards is usually the cheapest. But I still shop around, because NO store has it all.

djyox · #36 09/19/2006, 02:09 AM

Just another thing to think about too when looking for CS.

Around here, when the new home building slows down, a lot of my friends who are framers either jump into remodeling or go to work at HD because they can make around $14 an hour.

Now what that means for you, I dunno. More know how, but maybe not more friendly people as a lot of these people are not used to having to answer stupid questions like "Now I wanted to build a garage, but I figured I could save on hammers and nails if I just glued it together, can you recomend a good glue?"

So I guess if home building slows, then expect to see some new faces around your local HD/Lowes

RichConley · #37 09/19/2006, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Vincerama2

Oh, another time at HD I asked the guy in the plumbing section if a piece of tubing was 3/4" or 5/8". He just looked at it and said "It's 3/4"". I asked how he knew without measuring it and he barked back "Look, it's 3/4" OK?!". He really upset me with this total rudeness. My wife immediately found a manager and complained about the guy. I can't explain why, but I really felt hurt by the way the guy barked at me.

honestly, you deserved to be yelled at. He wasnt being rude, you were. He told you what it was, and you said flat out that you didnt believe him. Why would you expect him to treat you civilly when you showed a complete and utter disrespect to him.

(FWIW, 5/8 and 3/4 is pretty easy to distinguish visually)

hahnmeister · #38 09/19/2006, 03:50 PM

I used to work at HD earlier on in college, and still know many people in the business (like Bernie Marcus because he plays golf with the Pa-in-Law), many that defected to Lowe's when they came to town. I can give you a good rundown of both...

-HD makes its money on commodities... lumber, garden, plumbing, etc. They get better pricing for dealing in bulk. Lowes is geared towards the specialty sales bringing in the money. Flooring, Appliances, K&B... while their lumber and such is usually a bit more expensive than HD, and they dont sell as much... they dont intend to. See, HD either owns or is in big partnerships with many of the companies it orders from now... Georgia Pacific (HD's HQ is in Atlanta, they are 'in bed'), Andersen which also bought American Craftsman last month (exclusive contract), Thomasville (owned), Pegasus (a HD brand), Feather River (owned), Rigid Tools (supposed exclusive), Jeld Wen/ Masonite (in bed with), etc. Lowes doesnt get the deals on these goods, so it cant be as cheap, nor is it interested in selling as much of these items. But that does mean that it can order parts from wherever it wants. So rather than being strapped down with that one plumbing supplier like HD, and not carrying certain items because the distributor doesnt, Lowe's can get that SCH80 piping or 1" CPVC that HD cant. At that though, 95% of what you find at Lowe's can be found in a catalog at HD, with rare exception. Sure, Lowe's carries about 8-10 brands of Appliances (Frigidaire, Bosch, Whirlpool/Maytag, Fischer Paykel, etc), and HD has 3 (Maytag, GE, LG), but beyond that, its just a matter of what each company chooses to display. Lowe's has Kohler's full line of Vessel Sinks on display. They dont sell many in this market, but its 'eye candy'. They even have them, as well as exitoc European brands in stock, like Decolav and AXOR, but they dont sell many. HD doesnt show them as much... they show what they sell lots of, but you can look in the catalogs and find the full Decolav and Kohler, AXOR, etc. lines. HD people are all paid hourly, Lowe's are mosltly paid hourly, but the K&B, flooring, etc (specialty design) departments are not... they are all commission sales... to push those special order sales.

-In the long run, HD will win out. They can simply buy more at a lower price, or buy every supplier out there and cut Lowe's out from underneath. HD has been making a push in the 'at home' sales business market, and intends to appeal to more special order business. Lowe's doesnt have that kind of control... they are at the mercy of the mfg's that supply them, and these mfg's wont give them special deals or anything... companies like Pella which has its own stores and sells elsewhere, GE appliances (which is in bed with HD... the CEO comes from GE and negotiated a very sweet deal between GE and HD), Frigidaire, BOSCH, Whirlpool (they could all care less if Lowe's went under... they have Sears and others anyways), or Therma-Tru Doors (they dont say it, but they are owned by Andersen), or Kraftmaid Cabinetry (carried by and have more sold by HD)>>> they could all care less if Lowe's went under.

- It wont be long. HD had its burst of rapid expansion in the 80's and 90's... taking out others like Builder's Square and any Ma & Pa store in the process (ACE is still a favorite of mine for plumbing... they have what nobody else has). Its stock was awesome, and it looked like a great company from the outside. But from the inside, it was a wreck. It didnt even have an IT division, or a server farm, etc. It wasnt making any money either. It was staying alive by opening up new stores faster than it ran out of money... all borrowed money. Employees that were pushing carts might be getting paid $20 an hour, as there was no stnadard wages being practiced. I was taken in for over $20 an hour because I came from a commission job where my pay stub said I was making $25 an hour (that month, lol). When HD was looking at approaching market saturation about 2002, it knew it was in trouble. Thats why they hired Nardelli from GE. Bernie Marcus, co-founder and still board member (as well as builder of the Atlanta Aquarium and being a fish-nut like us), told me that if it wasnt for Nardelli, the company would have been gone by now. But Nardelli has pushed for contracts with other companies, exclusive selling rights and products, or even buying the distributor all together (I think this happens every few months that HD buys another company). See, Lowe's is still in the rapid expansion phase that HD was in 10 years ago. But they are coming to markets that already have HD's... whoopie for them. Once they get to a level of saturation like HD, and start to turn to other methods to increase their profit margins (like reducing hiring wages from the $3-4 on average increase that they offer HD employees to defect)... they are screwed because HD will have all the companies in their pocket.

TheVillageIdiot · #39 09/19/2006, 03:54 PM

i don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but it was a cause for much chagrin on my part...

the unions from HD and Lowes don't fit eachother... at least not here, a 1" "male" end from Lowes will not thread to a 1" "female" end from HD.

Alphabet · #40 09/19/2006, 04:25 PM

Lowes seems to have a better selection of pvc because it is all right in front of your face nice and neat. At HD the pvc is in open boxes all messed up from people trying to find the right part. Lowes in general is nicer looking than HD, but HD is where I buy most of my stuff anyway.

Vincerama2 · #41 09/19/2006, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by RichConley
honestly, you deserved to be yelled at. He wasnt being rude, you were. He told you what it was, and you said flat out that you didnt believe him. Why would you expect him to treat you civilly when you showed a complete and utter disrespect to him.

(FWIW, 5/8 and 3/4 is pretty easy to distinguish visually)

Yes, I deserved to be yelled at for completely and utterly disrespecting him. I'm a bastard for asking the guy to check more thoroughly than glancing at it, and for doubting his ability to measure tubing with his eye at a distance of 3 feet. After I got frustrated with him and dug though the shelves to finally find an identical piece with the label on it and confriming that he was WRONG should have bought the wrong peice of tubing anyway, since doing otherwise would have been insulting him.
The manager must have been lying too when he told my wife and I that he's had other complaints about that employee from other customers. Poor guy has so many rude costumers approaching him asking him questions about the things in his department.

Oh, and I forgot that since YOU can easily visually distinguish between 5/8 and 3/4 tubing, then I should have been able to as well. Oops. I'm a jerk for not building up my visual measurement skills before going to the store.

V

hahnmeister · #42 09/19/2006, 05:26 PM

Children, behave!

latazyo · #43 09/19/2006, 06:13 PM

menards is aweomse, I wish we had one down here

Vincerama2 · #44 09/19/2006, 07:37 PM

Sorry, knee jerk reaction...

V

djyox · #45 09/20/2006, 05:10 AM

I can distinguish 1/4" from 3/4"

I bet I could feel the difference too....

RichConley · #46 09/20/2006, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Vincerama2
Yes, I deserved to be yelled at for completely and utterly disrespecting him. I'm a bastard for asking the guy to check more thoroughly than glancing at it, and for doubting his ability to measure tubing with his eye at a distance of 3 feet. After I got frustrated with him and dug though the shelves to finally find an identical piece with the label on it and confriming that he was WRONG should have bought the wrong peice of tubing anyway, since doing otherwise would have been insulting him.
The manager must have been lying too when he told my wife and I that he's had other complaints about that employee from other customers. Poor guy has so many rude costumers approaching him asking him questions about the things in his department.

Oh, and I forgot that since YOU can easily visually distinguish between 5/8 and 3/4 tubing, then I should have been able to as well. Oops. I'm a jerk for not building up my visual measurement skills before going to the store.

V

The guy works with plumbing for a living. He told you what the plumbing was, and you said "I dont believe you. You have no clue what you're talking about." To say that he can't distinguish between 5/8ths and 3/4, is like telling a mechanic that he doesnt know how to change oil. (whether or not he does, its still rude)

"The manager must have been lying too when he told my wife and I that he's had other complaints about that employee from other customers"

Have you ever been a manager in a service job? Thats basically your job, to tell the customer that everything theyre doing is correct, and its the employees fault, yada yada yada.

gman19 · #47 09/20/2006, 03:24 PM

Depends on what I am shopping for, but Lowe's always is my first stop.

exoticaquatix · #48 09/21/2006, 08:59 PM

im not sure i could get by without either but recently ive been liking Lowes, they have Sch 80 plubing for cheaper than home depots sch 40 (limited sizes tho)
-nick