POLL: Lowes vs Home Depot?

[StageLeft]

I have been a Home Depot man for a while, in great part because their store colors are just awesome (rich orange is the best color in the world).

However, I was in Lowes today looking through their tools and the selection is absolutely incredible. It is endless. Where Home Depot has a small rack of sockets, Lowes has endless shelves of variations in sockets, a totally ridiculous number of wrenches, etc. Also, absolutely sh*tloads of electrical tools and clamps and things.

Lowes!

 

[waggy]

both home depot and lowes are great stores. either one are worth going to.

if i have a choice i go to Lowe's.

only one i stay away from is menards.

 

[BigJ]

Home Depot. And their store colors suck. I'd like to shoot the man that came up with the "Bleed Orange" campaign.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Here is what I have determined about the two. Home Depot is geared towards the builder moreso than the consumer. They will have 3 choices for a given product (say a pendant light fixture) and carry many items such as specialty materials for new construction. Their items tend to be more of builder grade for the most part. Lowe's is geared towards the average homeowner. Lowes will have 12 different choices, and no specialty items. In those 12 choices will be several higher-end selections.

Where I go often depends on my need, barring having a coupon for one or the other. If I need interior decoration materials, Lowe's usually has a better selection.

 

[reeserock]

I always start with Lowes.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
Where I go often depends on my need, barring having a coupon for one or the other. If I need interior decoration materials, Lowe's usually has a better selection.

You can use either Lowes or HD coupons at Home Depot. I use Lowes printed out coupons all the time there.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
Where I go often depends on my need, barring having a coupon for one or the other. If I need interior decoration materials, Lowe's usually has a better selection.

You can use either Lowes or HD coupons at Home Depot. I use Lowes printed out coupons all the time there.

Some Home Depot's will not accept printed Lowe's Coupons from the internet. Ours is YMMV.

Lowe's would probably give me 10% off if I scribbled a Home Depot logo on a piece of 2x4.

Home Depot seems to have better lumber usually though around here.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
Where I go often depends on my need, barring having a coupon for one or the other. If I need interior decoration materials, Lowe's usually has a better selection.

You can use either Lowes or HD coupons at Home Depot. I use Lowes printed out coupons all the time there.

Some Home Depot's will not accept printed Lowe's Coupons from the internet. Ours is YMMV.

Lowe's would probably give me 10% off if I scribbled a Home Depot logo on a piece of 2x4.

Home Depot seems to have better lumber usually though around here.

Ahh gotcha. The stores around here don't give a damn. Helps that I work at one of them and am friends with cashiers at the 2 other locals

They're actually building a new Lowes around here, so my selection in this poll may change in the coming months.

 

[bctbct]

HD started the 20% off coupon, that makes them best!

 

[ja1484]

Whoever has what I want to buy at the lowest price.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: ja1484

Whoever has what I want to buy at the lowest price.

a savvy consumer will go to the other store and get the 110% prcie match.

 

[Jumpem]

Lowes by far.

 

[Excelsior]

I prefer Lowes, but will go to HD if I have to.

 

[Leros]

Home Depot seems to have what I want more often than Lowes. Usually when I go to Lowes I end up also going to Home Depot for a thing or two I couldn't find at Lowes.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Lowes.

Some examples.

Their Vaspar paint is very highly rated.
They carry Bessey clamps as opposed to Jorgensen.
Home Depot is always trying to pimp their crap Ryobi tools and generic Buck Bros hand tools.
Lowes carries Husqvarna and John Deere lawn power tools.
home Depot's website is atrocious.

 

[Kelemvor]

Lowes > Menards > Home Depot.

I don't shop at HD unless I Have no other option. They never have anyone to help you. When they do they bow you off or don't have a clue what they are talking about, etc.

I prefer Menards but only because I'd have to drive twice as far to get to a Lowes. Lowes is more expensive but higher quality.

Menards usually has the exact same items as HD but they are always a couple bucks less.

 

[ja1484]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: ja1484

Whoever has what I want to buy at the lowest price.

a savvy consumer will go to the other store and get the 110% prcie match.

Only if it saves me more than the gas, my time, and depreciation on my vehicle are collectively worth to drive to the other location and fight for the price match. Most of the time, it isn't.

 

[Kirby64]

Meh. Usually, HD and Lowes each have some crap that the other doesn't. So, both. Although HD is the first stop since it's closer

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
Here is what I have determined about the two. Home Depot is geared towards the builder moreso than the consumer. They will have 3 choices for a given product (say a pendant light fixture) and carry many items such as specialty materials for new construction. Their items tend to be more of builder grade for the most part. Lowe's is geared towards the average homeowner. Lowes will have 12 different choices, and no specialty items. In those 12 choices will be several higher-end selections.

Where I go often depends on my need, barring having a coupon for one or the other. If I need interior decoration materials, Lowe's usually has a better selection.

qft

 

[Mermaidman]

I used to prefer Home Depot for some unknown reason, but then Tony Stewart became a jerk. I'm not a Jimmy Johnson fan either, but at least Lowes is based in NC, so I gotta support the hometown economy.

Otherwise, I give Lowes a miniscule edge in quality of merchandise, store ambience, and service.

 

[Captante]

I don't really like either one, but I find what I'm looking for more often in Home Depot & they seem to have slightly better prices.

 

[Jeff7]

I prefer the service and cleanliness of Lowes, but I think Home Depot's prices might be a bit better. And, in my experience, people at Lowes have had a much higher tendency to speak English.

Out here though, Home Depot and Lowes are both 10 miles away, and they're just across the street from each other. I'll check prices online, and whoever has the lowest price for what I need will generally get my business. If prices or brands are almost the same, I'll either try for Lowes, or else let traffic flow determine which one I go to.

For other hardware needs, there's a Valu Home Center only 2.2 miles away. Their tagline is, "Valu has everything you need." More like, "Value has most of what you need." They have everything a standard hardware store should, but also have a selection of carpeting, linoleum-type flooring, trim, paneling, drywall, basic lumber, waferboard, and small but expensive sheets of plywood.
They also have one of those nice Fastener Centers, where you can buy screws and such either individually, or in boxes of 100. Home Depot (and possibly Lowes too) only have them in the more expensive plastic packs. And I always have trouble finding Philips head wood screws at such places. (I hate flat-head screws of any kind.)
I tend to go to them for any small hardware items (<$100) in part because I'd like to see them stay in business because they're so close, but also because they're on my way home from classes, so again, they're really convenient.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
And I always have trouble finding Philips head wood screws at such places. (I hate flat-head screws of any kind.)
.

just buy coarse thread drywall screws.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Home Depot by far. It's more contractor oriented where Lowes is more consumer oriented. This equals better prices and less flaming idiots at Home Depot in my experience.

 

[AlienCraft]

Alien Design Projects are priced at HD, purchased from my inside connections @ wholesale suppliers, and then I fill in the left off's , out of stocks, etc's from HD. When we dress it out, we go to LOWE''s.

Win + win + Win +profit = profit& economic stimulus that really counts.