Lowes vs Home Depot

Lowes vs Home Depot

  • Total voters
    17
I've ordered several things from Menards through the years because Lowes/HD didn't even offer comparable stuff. Seems like a great store, but I've never been in one.
 
Those candidates suck...WalMart isn't even a good representation of a third party. Sure Lowe's can flex it's business muscle, but what does it actually know about being a sector leader??? And I can't even relate to HD.
 
UTfball68 said:
Those candidates suck...WalMart isn't even a good representation of a third party. Sure Lowe's can flex it's business muscle, but what does it actually know about being a sector leader??? And I can't even relate to HD.
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I thought about putting more options, but then where do you draw the line? I built an oak crib using only a tree.
 
I was going to Lowe's then I remembered they paid Carolina Rockcrusher $100k.
Went elsewhere.

No Regerts!
 
Ron said:
I was going to Lowe's then I remembered they paid Carolina Rockcrusher $100k.
Went elsewhere.

No Regerts!
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They were out of regerts when I went too! :flipoff2:
 
jeepinmatt said:
They were out of regerts when I went too! :flipoff2:
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This was what I had in mind

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Ron said:
I was going to Lowe's then I remembered they paid Carolina Rockcrusher $100k.
Went elsewhere.

No Regerts!
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Well, he said six figures.
Technically $1,234.56 has 6 figures.

They could be getting quite the deal.
 
Bo72XAGCQAESSGX.jpg

None? Not even 1? Hahahaha
 
What y'all talking about!? Maybe it's the box, swap and return!?
 
Loganwayne said:
He worked bare minimum crews in every department and would often times have one guy cover several different departments during the week on less busy days.
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This x1000

Stratford Rd as well as lumber Rd in winston. this is VERY apparent
 
chiming in from Huntersville, NC- the Home Depot sucks so bad that the lights are dim- I don't know why they are still open - its apparent that they don't give a shit. literally, you need a flashlight to walk around there. now, across the st at sLowes its sales associates literally falling all over themselves to help you out. for fun on Saturdays when I need something, I go to Lowes, get the part, then ride over to HD to see who's stuck on the big boulders in the lot. loaded 18 wheelers hung up on them will make even a big rig like mine search for traction. Ive had all 4 tires smoking on more than one occasion with the popo stopping traffic for me trying to drag big trucks back to flat ground- that road has so much traffic that you cant wait on a tow for 50 hours.
 
Another reason Lowe's sucks, our church is building a new 4x8 deck and wheel chair ramp for a member. Lowe's told us they don't donate to churches just 10% off. Small Local lumber yard gave it all to us at cost and a couple guys are going to volunteer to help put it up. (This is also the company the company does 98% of our business with) but I wasnt mentioned until after it was all sent up and they were told I was going to pick it up

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I'm sure that the Lowes in huntersville is real nice.... being just a few minutes from corporate...
 
Our local Lowes is the only big store after HD left a few years ago.

I will spend whenever I can at our local building supply stores.

Our local Lowes treats their employees like crap.

They threatened to fire, layoff, etc all full time employees, or had choice to cut back to part time. Now all employees on the floor and all cashiers are part time only with no benefits.

One floor salesman was doing well, and made good money off his commission, then Lowes corporate changed the store cost on everything he sold, so store made less margin, and he made less commission.

Then they judged his performance against the Houston area, which made his performance look terrible, which is dumb as Rocky mount is no where near the market that Houston is.

I have no choice but to get some things for work from lowes, as it's easier to let them manage the inventory, vs me.
 
rockcity said:
I'll likely just use the installers they were using anyway as I know them already.
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I hope they are better than Lowe's installers up here. Just got done looking at some cabinets installed by some of their people.....they must have left the shims and level in their other truck.

I won't say anything about the cabinets other than the old saying " You get what you pay for" is not true...you pay a lot and you still get :poop:.
 
ramjo said:
I hope they are better than Lowe's installers up here. Just got done looking at some cabinets installed by some of their people.....they must have left the shims and level in their other truck.

I won't say anything about the cabinets other than the old saying " You get what you pay for" is not true...you pay a lot and you still get :poop:.
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I got tired of dealing with the folks at Lowes. I just don't have the time to keep answering the same question as the last 3 times I was in there.

I ended up just going to the local cabinet shop and got a much better product for less $. In an hour of conversation (mostly sharing construction war stories...) he had all the info needed and provided pricing within 24 hours (still waiting 3 months for pricing from Lowes...) from someone that is a pro and has a contractor's license and knows what is needed and when and how and will even be the one to come and do the install.
 
The common thread among most retailers (and big box stores are one of the biggest culprits) is that they have placed merchandising and Profit & Loss above customer service in priority. They are driven from above by sales numbers and accountants. We've seen it at big box home improvement stores, big box electronic stores and parts stores all the same. Customer service anymore is about following the script to find the item they are looking for.

Oh, you are looking for cabinets? Are they for Kitchen or bath?

Kitchen

OK... lets go to the kitchen section.

Do you need 12", 18", 24" or 36"?


15"......


Uhhhhhh Security?!?!?!?!! Asile 7!!!!!!!!! We have someone I can't assist!!!!!


I used to work as a PC Technician at Best Buy just before the Y2K debacle. I liked my job because When a customer brought be a computer with a problem, I could usually solve it. I was pretty much left alone to my PC Tech bench until a new General Manager transferred to our store. He was a shining star that had great P&L numbers from his prior store. First day he met me, he told me I needed to be out on the sales floor. I informed him I was a PC Technician (Notice the different colored shirt?). He didn't care. He needed everyone out selling computers. EVERY computer sold must be sold with "the bundle" - which included a PSP warranty, a Best Buy mouse pad a backup UPC. I didn't really have a problem with this until I was working with a customer on a laptop. He insisted that it include "the bundle". I explained to him that a laptop IS a battery backup and that because it had a built in track pad, they wouldn't need the Best Buy mousepad. He insisted that EVERY computer get "the Bundle". I let him finish the sale since I wasn't going to sell the customer something they didn't need. That was my last day employed at Best Buy.


Another BIG pet peeve of mine is that every store is becoming a convenience store at the register. The other day, I went to Advance Auto, Lowes and Old Navy in one loop. Every place had a cooler with drinks and a display of candy at the register.
 
ManglerYJ said:
The common thread among most retailers (and big box stores are one of the biggest culprits) is that they have placed merchandising and Profit & Loss above customer service in priority. They are driven from above by sales numbers and accountants. We've seen it at big box home improvement stores, big box electronic stores and parts stores all the same. Customer service anymore is about following the script to find the item they are looking for.

Oh, you are looking for cabinets? Are they for Kitchen or bath?

Kitchen

OK... lets go to the kitchen section.

Do you need 12", 18", 24" or 36"?


15"......


Uhhhhhh Security?!?!?!?!! Asile 7!!!!!!!!! We have someone I can't assist!!!!!
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I snipped the second half because I agree and it didnt fit my forthcoming agenda.

I agree whole heartedly with your assessment. I have long held a belief that I do not bitch about something without proposing an alternate solution. However this is one area I am going to make an exception to.
As a society we have come to completely devalue expertise and even to some extent quality. I rarely if ever see a value shopper as opposed to a price shopper.

Business arent faultless in this either as more and more corporate giants look at bottom line and not customer service or brand loyalty.

This has been on my mind all weekend after a scenario played out Friday that I think illustrates my point. I'll give you the background, though I apologize it will be long.

About 3 months ago I got a call at 4:50 on a Friday afternoon just before walking out of the office. The gentleman on the other line wanted a price on a XYZ model of generator. The dollar value here is pretty marginal in my normal business but I always try to help everyone because you never know what they will need next. However I have learned over the years that most folks who call knowing exactly what size and spec equipment they need, rarely do. So I asked the caller a few questions. What was his intended usage, loads, locations etc. In short had he bought what he thought he wanted it wouldn't have worked. As in it would have never even fired up...and if he did modify it to even crank it wouldn't have powered his facility. So I spent the next 45 minutes with the caller and explained and educated him on his needs and the best way to accomplish his mission. The thing is it wasn't an up-sale, all told it required him to spend about $400 more on a $30k purchase it was a reconfiguration. Finally he thanks me profusely, tells me that it was Divine Intervention that we spoke. Said he was just about to order it online and just knew he needed to check locally. Thanked me again and asked me to send him a price on this new item he now knew he needed. But he needed the price TODAY. At this point it is pushing 6pm on a Friday evening, even if he wants to buy it today the manufacturer isnt accepting orders until Monday and it takes 10 weeks to build what he needs. I explain I will get it to him Monday AM. He has some great story about budget meetings over the weekend and really needs the price tonight. Fine. I spend the next hour developing a proposal and price for the customer and send him a weblink to his pricing. That isnt the norm but this way I would know when he viewed it and how long he looked at it. He opened the link after lunch on Monday. Grrrr. Finally the next Friday (a week after our initial call) he calls me at 2pm and says he is ready to place the order. I explain to him the information I need to get it entered and he says, "But first I need you to re-quote it to match the price I got online." I ask where he got the pricing from and he tells me. He explains they are "considerably cheaper". And he wants my "best and final price". I again educate Mr. Customer their price isn't apples to apples, and beyond that I had already saved him $30k by not buying the wrong equipment. I didnt give him a high price I gave him our fair and standard price and since we were in the midst of a state of emergency declaration within our territory I had to be very careful how I priced things because selling to one cheaper than another can be construed as price gouging. My price was my price, if we couldn't do business I understand. He huffed that he couldn't believe I was going to lose a sell over $200, I wished him well without responding. Frankly if he didnt value my service as being worth $200 he would be more headache than he was worth. Didn't think much more about him until last Friday.

While I am at lunch with one of our long tiem clients my cell phone blows up, The same number calls 7 times back-to-back-to-back... I cut vibrate off and after I finish lunch and drop my client off I call the number back. (BTW 5 voice mails all just saying call me and re-stating his number) I dont recognize the number or the voice, so I call and guess who....our friend from above. I had honestly forgotten all about our prior exchange, it comes with the territory. His e-purchased equipment has finally arrived and he has some questions about how to install it. He repeatedly compliments me and referenced how much I helped him before and starts asking me all kinds of questions. You can guess how that went over. I explained that I couldn't offer advice as I didnt know exactly what he had purchased but I'd be glad to send a technician out if he would like. Granted it would be next week before we could get out there and I quoted our standard hourly and mileage rates. This guy proceeded to cuss me out using words I never heard despite a career spent on construction sites. To top it off he called me a "Commie anti-American liberal" because I "wouldn't do my job"...

It is totally lost on him that his current predicament is financial display of his $200 savings.

There will always be a Lowe's and a Wal Mart because of him.

It's why I buy so much on Amazon. If I am going to purely price shop, Ill just take the un-necessary and unpleasant human interaction out of the equation completely. When I need somethin I patronize trade vendors and specialty shops when I can.
 
^^^Similar to the LEB shop, most of our engine builds are in the $5-20k range, $20-30k restorations and we're not price leaders on any of our parts. What we do offer is 24/7 contact (or as close as we can to that) for paying customers. We probably retain 10% of the quote requests. Some quotes require rather intensive formulation. We lose most requests because they have an uncle that can build it for $1500 or because they have a hook up that can get them cheap/free machine work and parts. I can't begin to tell you how many times we get calls/messages because they chose to go the cheaper route, but summit racing doesn't know the answer, or JBG won't return their call on twin stick install, or their builder didn't properly install something, etc etc. It's the name of the game, most people don't realize saving a dime now will cost a dollar later. My expertise and network cost something...if it's not worth it to you, that's fine...I don't have a gun to your head to buy from me.
 
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