HD and Lowe’s are across the street from each other here. The only diffeernce I can tell is one is orange and the other one is blue. That and gardening stuff is cheaper at HD while appliances and lumber are usually cheaper at Lowe’s. I bought a gas grill from Lowe’s last year. HD carried the exact same grill but it was almost $40.00 more. The exact same fertilizer at Lowe’s is usually four to five dollars cheaper at HD. It’s like they have this deal going over certain items because for just about everything else, the prices are pretty much the same.
Perhaps I am the only one amused by this, but Michael’s (the craft store) is located in the same strip as HD. They share a parking lot even. I don’t know why, but I think it’s funny.
I heard that H-D and Lowe’s are owned by the same company? This could be lust a local thing, with a few franchises being owned by the same outfit, but A guy I know who rents property on a large scale swears by this. Anyway, H-D is apparently the “guy” store, and Lowe’s is aimed more at women. Makes sense, I’ve been in both. Anyone know if its legit?
As for me, I prefer Home Depot, because they seem to have more “fix stuff” stuff (like faucet guts), and Lowe’s seems to have more “decorating” stuff (can buy a faucet, but they don’t carry faucet guts–at least not at this store).
Y’all seem to forget why the Big Boxes got their start …
Our local mom & pop builder’s supply sells:
Example#1 --3/4" plywood @ $36.87 and 1/2" plywood is $35.97 … for 1/3 less wood?
Example #2 – Kitchen faucet – least expensive – $68.97. Problem? Walmart sells same brand/model # for $24.95 … HD is 21.95 …
Example #3 – Contractor grade fir 2x4 – $4.97 – what do you mean … EACH???
Ditto Electrical. Plumbing (Only one size, make, model of water heater …$625.00?)
hardware (box of 100 – 1" Grabber screws $5.97?) The list goes on … and the hardest thing to find in the store is an employee!
So – YEAH … Home Depot breaks ground in this town this month … and there is not one person that I’ve spoken to that plans to remain loyal to these customer bleeding thankless gouging … :wally – nor does anyone feel sorry for them.
Give me free market service any day – I’ll learn to work around it …
You guys can have my Home Depot people. I went in there during Saturday’s snow storm for a gift card for my dad and got hit by three people on the way in.
Would you like a flyer? No. Not too bad, she was polite.
Look at our selection of paint! No answer to that, it was kinda annoying.
How old is your furnace? What the fuck? That lady got the ugly glare, it’s none of yer business! If I needed a new furnace I’d come get one.
Then the casheir was standing in front of her aisle, in front of the gift cards.
I don’t expect the free market to do anything, except live and die on its own merits.
I do wish the free-market advocates would stop promoting it as the Cure For All Ills, and be honest enough to admit that, like any other complex system, the free market needs to be watched – and, if necessary, pimp-smacked when parts of it get out of control.
Oh, yeah, I see where that overpriced Microsoft Office suite has been relegated to obscurity because of all the lower-cost alternatives out there. :rolleyes:
My husband and I just had a craptastic experience at Home Depot, too. We went to purchase a toilet. The toilet we wanted was sitting right on the shelf, so we asked someone to help us get it down. They said, hmm, we need to get you a different one. So we said ok, figuring that they wanted to get us a brand-new toilet that was in the box, and waited for them to get it for us. And waited. And waited. About a half hour later, we hunted down the person who had gone to get the toilet for us, and she said, “Oh, I’m sorry. All the toilets are lost. They’re somewhere in the store, but we can’t find them.” She informed us that, while they had more than 24 of the model we wanted, they had no idea where they were. Could she look for them? Of course not. That would be helpful.
So we said, okay, can we have the model sitting on the shelf, and she said no, it’s store policy that they don’t sell those. Huh? Then she launched into a lecture on store policy. Then my husband interrupted her, said thanks but no thanks, and we left.
rjung, anyone who says the free market is without flaw is just kidding themselves. A completely free market is like an untouched wilderness. It’s in balance, resilient and tough. Those who work hard survive, but it’s wild, dangerous and often unpleasant, not a good place to live. The answer is not to just pave it over.
We need laws, and have laws, to govern the market, but you can’t just step in and remove the most basic of requirements. Companies need to be free to fight for their customers, win or lose, live or die, depending on how well they compete. Home Depot, Lowes and local hardware stores are free to fight for customers, which is the way it should be.
Too often the anti crowd acts like the free market sucks because the result wasn’t what they wanted. Tough crap, just because you like fluffy bunnies doesn’t mean the wolves shouldn’t get a fair chance to win.
Both HD and Lowe’s serve millions of people, and there is bound to be local crapiness, depending on the store’s management/staff - my beef is with HD’s corporate attitude toward Customer Service, or Customer Disservice, in the case of HD.
I’ve used HD for years and never had a complaint - mostly because I never expected much from the local staff. I know that I may have an extremely knowledgable individual help me one day, and a brain-dead moron the next day.
What I do expect from Internet sales is the same thing I expect from any company - large or small - I expect a corporate “face” on the transaction. I expect their corporate system to execute the transaction correctly. I expect the corporate “face” to attempt to make amends (or attempt to) if the transaction is unsatisfactory to the customer.
In the case of my experience with Home Depot, their corporate (Internet) mechanism provided neither a correct transaction, nor a corporate apology for the failed and flawed experience.
In short, I have no complaint about a local store. My complaint is with their corporate system of order fulfillment.
