I’ve never had any problems returning items.
Lowe’s is better laid out, cleaner and often has a better selection.
Home Depot is closer to my house and I often shop there for quick one or two item purchases.
I have returned items at Menard’s without problem. It is my preferred store among the three, but I will agree with those who hate the rebate program. Who the hell can be expected to snail mail rebate forms these days?
As far as I’m concerned, rebates are a sucker’s game no matter how they’re run. So a non-issue AFAIK. If I have to buy on price, it’s the price out the door and no other.
In my neck, Menard’s is closest (other than a lovely locally-owned Ace HW store less than 5 blocks away, but they’re tiny and don’t carry much lumber or bulk construction stuff). And my experience lines up well with the others WRT the other big-box home improvement places: I go into Home Depot if I’m sure I won’t have to interact with the help. If I wanted to chase people around, I have my wife. 
9 times out of 10, if the local HW store doesn’t carry it, Menard’s does. The fact that Menard’s feels like a local hardware store on extreme growth hormones is a plus in my book, even if I never buy a bag of cat food or a pair of boots.
I also like Menard’s garden center during the season much better than the other big-box stores. Much better bedding plants, vegetable starters, and herbs.
There’s also Farm & Fleet. If you want an odd assortment of stuff, they’re your go-to place. As an example, the “impulse buy” racks at the checkout have both M&M’s and sheep de-wormer. :eek:
In Illinois, we had HD, Lowe’s, Menards, and F&F within a mile of each other (the first 3 were actually all on the same street, F&F was further away). I mostly avoided Menards because they incessantly played their “Save big money at Menards” jingle over and over and over. Not sure if they still do that.
Back in the Northeast, HD used to be good because many stores were open 24 hours and had a separate “Pro Book” for commercial accounts that you could special order stuff from. These days, HD and Lowe’s seem pretty equivalent and I’ve found them both giving out wildly incorrect advice to DIY-ers. Regular staff seem equally non-present at both, with better staffing at the Lowe’s specialty areas (appliances, carpet, etc.).
Lowe’s has those “Push for assistance” buttons that trigger a “Special assistance needed in the loafing area” PA announcement (substitute the department you’re in for “loafing”). These time out after a few cycles and seem to be generally ignored. However, there’s a hidden reset button on the call boxes, and with appropriate manipulation you can generate a long cycle, complete with Max Headroom effects “Special special spec spec spec assistance assist assist assist needed in the paint cutting area area area a a a a”. The trick is to reset the box and move away just before the very irate manager and a bunch of assistants show up. Then you can act innocent and go “Since you’re all here, can you help me find…?”
P.S. - the trick was shown to me by a Lowe’s manager
Farm and Fleet is an example of farm supply chains, where most of their inventory is not specifically agricultural. Other examples are Rural King, Tractor Supply, Theisens, Orsheln, Bomgaars…They have lots of hardware stuff, work clothing, etc.
Of the big three home center chains I prefer Menards as their lumber selection seems broader and cheaper.
Not precisely on topic, but I have a story to share.
In my area, Menard’s, Lowes, and Home Depot are equivalent - you shop around for the best deal/quality and any of the three could end up the winner depending on the item.
Anyway, we bought a fridge from Menard’s just recently, and we ran into a few problems upon delivery. The delivery guys refused to remove the fridge doors to get the fridge in the house (our older house couldn’t quite accommodate the 30" fridge, as our door opening is 29 3/4"). This, despite the fact that we chose Menard’s specifically because their salespeople promised us that their delivery people would be able to remove and replace the fridge doors in order to get it in the house.
There were additional problems, i.e., scratches on the freezer door and the doors being set to a left hinge instead of a right hinge, as ordered.
So there we were, with a fridge in our backyard at 6:30 PM on a Saturday, with two angry delivery guys who claimed they weren’t being paid for this, and me on the phone with a very unhelpful night manager at Menard’s, who kept referring to clause #4 of our service contract which simply did not state what he said it did.
I had my wife call our contractor (he did our bathrooms, and will be doing our kitchen this year) on her phone, to see if he knew of a guy who could help get the fridge in the house since the delivery guys refused to remove the doors and I’m just barely on the wrong side of handy enough to do it myself.
Turns out, my contractor builds million dollar homes on the reg (Lord knows why he still does business with peons like me), and frequently uses Menard’s for his work. They know him. He’s a celebrity there. He makes a call.
Suddenly everything is coming up roses. I’m being offered $150 off the deal, just because. The delivery guys are taking the fridge back to get the hinges fixed, and re-delivering it the next day, and are apologizing to me as we stand in my wintry backyard. The store manager is handling the replacement of the scratched freezer door with the manufacturer for us, and is calling us daily to make sure we’re happy with how things are progressing.
It’s quite a feeling to have someone with real influence have your back in a situation like this. In trying to come up with an analogy for this, my mind ran through every cheezy justice-served type movie ever made. My contractor has my loyalty, forevermore.
Menard’s… not so much.
From where we live, Lowe’s is about 15 miles away and Home Depot is more than 25 miles away. When we were doing major work on the house, we did go to HD a couple of times, and the only thing we ended up getting there was our dining room light fixture. Mostly they either didn’t have what we needed, or it was more than we wanted to spend.
But we spent thousands at Lowe’s, including for appliances, flooring, cabinets, lumber, sheetrock, and the assorted hardware and other bits one needs to do major remodeling. I seem to recall my husband did go to a plumbing supply once for a specific part of the project, and on a few occasions, we’d run to a closer, more expensive hardware store for screws or nails.
For a while there, it seemed we couldn’t get out of Lowe’s for under $500. Fortunately, those days are done. No more remodeling - just maintenance.