Sigh, I lost my favorite hardware store after at least 45 years of known existence.
Menards is regional, Midwest. Basically from Akron in Ohio, to Wyoming, from Wichita KS to International Falls MN.
Heaviest around Chicago, northern Illinois.
As per this
Their song/slogan is “Save big money at Menards”
Which gets restated as “blow big money at Menards”
Not that they’re expensive, it is just easy to spend money there.
This. What I like about Menards when I was last home (as in hometown) was its size. It had one and a half floors. I paced off the store so when I went into my local Lowes, Menards measured more than twice the floor space. Where Lowes has 30 different drill bits, Menards easily that 100, including eight foot long drill bits. Never seen them that long anywhere else.
Around here not only is Menards similar or larger in floorspace, they have an outdoor lumberyard/siding/etc that is easily as large as the store itself and has way more product than Home Depot and Lowes, and almost always for less money. Menards is big on the loss leaders too (with store credit mail-in-rebate). Easy to get cheap batteries, flashlights, etc, because they are often $1 or $2 after rebate.
Menards is big around here. I find them cheaper and messier than either the Orange Box or the Blue Box. There are some things that I go specifically to Menards for because I know they will have weird, cheap stuff. I got my deck furniture there, cheaper than the others and made in the USA. Their lumber is poor stuff.
HD has the best selection of light bulbs, bar none. The HD near me is efficient, clean and I can always find help. They carry good gardening tools. I have an HD bonus in a friend who works at one in another city, specializing in home installs. She is the queen of installs so I rely on her to steer me to the right stuff for my needs (even if I buy it elsewhere).
There are Lowe’s around but they aren’t convenient to me so I don’t go there as often as the others. They have nice finishing goods for remodels.
An option not listed here is another regional store, called Mills Fleet Farm. Meant for farming communities and ex-urbia, they carry lots of reasonably priced, practical goods for hobby farms and such. Get your truck tires and horse barn goods here. Canning supplies, hunting & fishing supplies and practical clothing prices rock at this store. I love Fleet Farm.
Menards lighting department is also much bigger than Lowes or HD. I shop all three for the best bargains. This year, HD got a lot of my landscaping/flowers/mulch money. Other years I’ve found better deals elsewhere.
Menards has a nasty rebate program that if you send in the appropriate box tops and purchase docs you will get a store credit for future purchases. It’s not worth the work, imo. It’s also the only one where you can get a gallon of milk and a novel.
A recent Menards experience pissed me off…I wanted 15 bags of mulch to finish a project. I stood in line at the register only to be told that I had to go to the “Contractor Desk” to get a paper for the mulch. I stood in line again at the Contractor Desk who gave me an invoice for the mulch. I then stood in line AGAIN at the register to pay for the fricken mulch. THEN, I had to wait in line at the lumber yard entrance, wait for an associate to load the mulch, and wait to be released from the lumber yard entrance. All this for 15 f’ing bags of mulch…a $30 purchase took forever. I won’t make that mistake again.
They’re usually in the electrical section. You can also get a special tool for guiding the bit so that you can feed it into the wall around light switch (or sconce or outlet) height and drill out the 2x4 at the bottom/top into the basement or into the attic (ya know, instead of into the next room over).
Lowes carries a few better quality things than HD. Lowes lumber doesn’t seem to have as many splits, knots etc. They carry a better selection of branded hand tools. etc. I shop both stores.
Never heard of Menards except for the beatnik on Dobie Gillis.
I have been in a Mennards and liked it, big, good selection and good prices. Wish they were around here too. We had an HD but they closed. No wonder, at least in plumbing, they has less stuff and higher prices than Lowes. A local TSC type place came in. I really like them. I buy a lot at the Ace hardware. I think they hurt HD.
You mean Maynard G. Krebs? 
Folks around here do tend to call Menard’s “Maynard’s”.
It’s fun to walk over to a group of Home Depot employees who are gathered chatting and say, “I need 150 sacks of concrete mix.” They leave like a covey of quail that have been flushed out.
First of all, you call the rebate program “nasty”? 99 times out of 100 you do NOT need to mail in so called “box tops”, just the rebate receipt at the bottom of your receipt with the appropriate form. How hard is that??
As far as ordering mulch, how do you expect the store to keep track of what is going in/out of the lumberyard? Write it on a piece of paper? Thats why you need an invoice. Do you expect every register to have a printer so the cashiers can do it for you??? Obviously you do not know how to go about ordering things that you need to go into the yard to get. Now that you do, your trip should be fairly painless.Or heres a no brainer. Go to the garden center, grap a cart and head back and load the 30 bags yourself!! Get with the program!! Seriously!!
I have to agree with Ruby. The last time I tried to buy a significant amount of lumber at Menards I spent more time saying “Wait, where do I have to go next?” Whereas at Home Depot or Lowes I just throw it all on a cart and bring it up to the register. No running back and forth across the store.
But I suppose that’s the difference between having an outdoor, drive-in lumbar yard VS one that’s indoor (and right next to one of the registers).
Menards has an outdoor lumberyard so you don’t have to haul carts of stuff all through the store, and they carry a LOT more product because they have room! Lowes and HD keep treated wood inside??? A HUGE no, no!! Now that you know what the procedure is at Menards, go directly to the contractor desk…problem solved!!
Problem not solved, and you’re being kind of obnoxious about it. 14 question marks and 11 exclamation points in two posts, I think you’re getting a little worked up about this.
Also, I don’t have to “haul carts of stuff all through the store” as I can park right next to the contractor door or the garden center door (for mulch). With big orders, they’ll put it on a skid and fork lift it right on to my truck. Just the other day I bought a half a yard of dirt from HD, the distance from the dirt to my car was probably about 100 feet, from the time I pulled into the parking lot to the time I left was about 15 minutes.
Okay, so I need 10 4x4x10’s. At Home Depot/Lowes I can ask them for some help, someone will get a forklift, put them on a skid, I’ll pay for them, and they’ll put them on my truck. Alternatively, a buddy and I can just throw them on a cart, pay for them and load them ourselves.
I’ve only bought lumber at Menards once, but I remember it being a royal PITA, lots of back and forth, but then, I only did it once, maybe after you get the hang of it it’s easier. I suppose part of it, was that I didn’t know exactly what I needed. I was going in to the store planning to being able to figure out what I was going to need as I looked at what they had and they just don’t seem to be very well set up for that.
Like I said, I’m sure it works great for contractors and people that are doing it on a regular basis and know exactly what they need, but for the person (like me) that just has a random project, say, building a dividing wall in a basement or making a small arbor/pergola and doesn’t even know exactly what they’ll need yet, it’s just not worth the hassle.
OTOH though, isn’t all this hassle only if you actually want to pull your car in? Now that I think about it, I’ve bought stuff from their outdoor lumber yard (other then lumber) and just purchased it at a normal register without any problems at all.
We have 3 Lowes & 2 HDs hereabouts. No Menards. Here’s some more anecdote generally in line with the posters above.
One of the Lowes has won company awards for best customer service in the region. You can’t swing a 2x4 without hitting a clerk trying to help you. The other two, not so much. But they’re both better than the best of the HDs in terms of floor help, cashier line length / delays, etc.
Lowes beats HD hand down in the more decorator stuff. Fancy bathroom fixtures, etc. HD usually has a better selection of the more oddball grungy contractor stuff, say HVAC ducting gizmos or water heater innards.
IMO …
Very clearly Lowes’ target market is really women; the ones who persuade their husbands / BFs to do DIY stuff. HD’s target market is men with pickup trucks who do odd jobs as either their primary or secondary job, with some DIYers thrown in for good measure.
Once you notice it, the male/female orientation of the two stores is real obvious. Likewise in their TV ads.
You can buy anything in the store at the Front Register at Menards, and you can walk all the way through the store, out into the lumberyard into the lumber shed if you want - they have a big thick book of barcodes for the lumber, blocks, etc that the cashier has to page through to find the right one. I haven’t found Menards lumber to be worse quality than Lowes at the same price, but I do see at Menards (and didn’t see at Lowes) two different grades of 2x4s and some other lumber - “Contractor” grade and high quality stuff, with the contractor grade being cheaper but having more knots, splits, etc.
I know this is kind of a zombie thread, but something happened today that made me literally LOL and think of this thread.
First off, a bit of background about an App called FourSquare. Very quickly, it’s an app you install on your phone, any time you go somewhere you ‘check in’ and it tells your friends where you are, if anyone else is there, it tells you. Also, other people can leave tips and comments (Try the steak, it’s the best one in town).
Anyways, I’m walking into Home Depot and I pull up FourSquare, hit the check in button and it shows me the tips/comments left by other users. There was only one “Those people in the orange aprons…do they work here?” I felt kind of stupid laughing at my phone as I walked in, I did catch at least one or two people glance over at me.
On the one hand you’d think they would do something about it, it’s not like this is local to one store or one area it’s a pretty major problem. OTOH, they seem to be doing okay, so I have to assume they know what they’re doing. Perhaps they’ve decided that they increased training it would take isn’t worth it. But the thing is, they do have the manpower for it. If they aren’t going to have their employees helping customers, they could probably send home at least 25-40% of their ‘on the floor’ type employees.
First, Menards is midwest. They are expanding to other states, (soon to come to Kentucky). They do have other items such as groceries (only in select stores, not every Menards), pet care items, and clothing. They want to make it a one-stop shop. Think about it-it’s convenient to go to wal-mart for groceries. But you can also buy furniture, cards, toys, clothing, etc. making it a one stop shop to increase sales. If you have a contractor that is picking up a few things, it may be convenient for him to buy snacks while he’s at the store. They carry a large variety of lumber and longer length than local competitors such as HD or lowes. Typically, HD or lowes only stocks 16’ but anything longer is special order. In some dimensions, Menards carries up to 24’ in stock making it more convenient for contractors, while still having DIY appeal.
As far as lumber goes-treated lumber is NOT meant to be kept inside. It is treated for a reason and by keeping it inside HD and lowes are actually making it more damaged. I went into a Lowes the other day and saw their treated-it looked as though it was years old compared to the nice clean look of Menards lumber. Another great thing I like about Menards (at least my local store) is the display of siding and shingles. I spent quite awhile with no help at my local HD with siding (they displayed 1 color) and roofing shingles (which they had barely any of).
For rebates- it’s really not hard to send in a rebate form and the rebate receipt (which, mind you, is not your original receipt making it convenient). You get money back to use in store so i’m not sure why that’s a complaint.
Also-as far as contractors go, you have to remember that HD and Lowes have people who install through their store. Menards does not. However, Menards does not because it takes away from Local contractors/plumbers/electricians, etc. who, in this day and age, are doing anything for jobs. Menards offers a HUGE list of contractors that can do anything and I find that convenient when I need someone to do the smallest to largest of projects. I like to make sure my money isn’t going to the store, but to the actual contractor himself.
As mentioned, no Menards here in Las Vegas, but we have a Lowes and a Home Depot in our neighborhood.
I have to disagree with what others have said - at least in our area.
Lowes has about 3 employees, two of whom are on lunch break, at all times. You can never find anyone to help you. Also, Lowes is easily 10-25% more expensive with appliances than HD.
The local Home Depots have far more employees, and I have found them to be fairly honest - if they don’t know something, they will call over the “specialist” in that area and have them explain it to you.
Maybe it is luck of the draw, but in our area we rarely go to Lowes anymore due to their few employees and over-priced products. I will grant you their store is “prettier” than HD, but “pretty” is not why I go to these places.