My prediction: gone in 5 years.
Have you noticed that lately, every time you go in there, that there are less and less building materials, and more space devoted to wimmen stuff....cleaning products, coffee makers, etc.
And what I have run into a lot the past few weeks, on stuff for the new house and shop....something that you might need 20 of....conduit fittings, simpson brackets, etc....they only have 4 or 6 or something on the shelf. I think they are cutting inventory levels on purpose.
Since Lowes is one of the bigger stores in Lexington, when it was time for me to go back to "work" part time after a 7 year hiatus, Lowes was one of the first applications I put in, since I have a little experience in just about every department they have. They never have even so much as contacted me for an interview - no big deal. I am usually working on some kind of project around the house from remodeling the kitchen to adding on an addition for a master bedroom and bathroom. One of the projects I've done most recently involved new kitchen cabinets from Lowes, a countertop from IKEA (I liked theirs better) and a kitchen faucet from Lowes. Since the countertop was butcher block thickness, the stems from the faucet were just a little too short to be able to thread the water lines onto with the plastic "nuts" that they include with the faucet. This was constantly causing leaks, even though I bought new stainless lines instead of the compression type fittings the old lines had.
So I go to Lowes to hopefully fix the problem once and for all. I bring one of the thick plastic "nuts" that come with the faucet to ask if there is something thinner - hopefully an actual metal nut like used to be available. There are like 10 people in the whole store, so I look over the shelves and pegs and cannot find anything suitable. I push the "Call for assistance" button and the message rings out through the store "Assistance needed in Plumbing". A couple minutes later, it announces again. This time with two bells afterwards. A couple minutes later, it goes off again - three bells. 10 minutes go by and a customer walks by looking lost. I ask him what he's working on, he tells me he needs Teflon tape and a wax ring to install a toilet. I point him over to the display with the Teflon tape and help him find it and the wax toilet rings. Another customer happens by and asks me where he can find a compression fitting to reduce from 3/8" to 1/4". Find it and he's on his way. Meanwhile another customer asks me about a drain wye and a flange. Fix him up. I walk over and hit the button again and it rings out again as the customer I just helped says, "Wait..... you DON'T work here? I'm sorry to bother you!" Actually, it was no bother at all!
So finally, about 30 minutes after the initial call, a kid who looked to be about 17 comes by and shuts off the call button and asks how he can help me. I tell him that I'm looking for a metal nut approximately 1/8" thick in 1/2" pipe thread. He responds, "If it's not on the shelf, we don't have it.". Blood boiling, I ask him if they MIGHT have something like that in another department, to which he replies, "They might..... I'll try to call someone for you." Now we might be getting somewhere. He struggles with his cordless phone for about 5 minutes trying to remember what extension hardware is, so I tell him nevermind since hardware is about 30 feet from plumbing, I'll just walk.
As I'm walking, I start to think about 1/2" pipe thread and wonder if it's at all similar to 1/2" metal conduit thread. Guess what.......... it is. A quick stroll to Electrical found me exactly what I needed for less than $1.
glad I bought all into that....
