Home Depot Rant

[George]

Another thing to consider is that real stores will deliver stuff without you having to run to them and pick through piles of lumber to find good stuff etc.

I did a deck on the house and emailed a list of materials to the local lumber yard and they delivered it. Every piece of lumber was good quality. The neighbor is a big box fan and they have him trained that they are the only game in town. He saw the quality of the lumber and remarked "you must have been at the depot all day picking these out?" . I got the deer in headlights look when I told him the local lumber yard had picked and delivered for me.

I have a rental apartment and the boiler failed under warranty on a weekend. I called the local family owned plumbing supply house and spoke to one of the sons. He asked if we could have the boiler disconnected in the next two hours so he could pick it up when he dropped off a replacement (at no charge).

Do you know any big box store that would do that?

[jJim McLaughlin]

Yes.

[Ron]

I'm talking home repair here, not building houses. lol

[HeyBub]

Big box stores are not all bad. Wal-Mart just took over the lead in my town (Houston) in selling groceries:

What's dreadful is that some cities don't have a Wal-Mart at all! For example: San Francisco(0), Chicago(0), Boston(0), New York(0), St Louis(1), Albany(1), D.C.(0).

We have 16 Walmarts in Houston. Atlanta has 3, Austin has 7, Dallas 9, Miami

2. Heck, here in Houston we not have a Harbor Freight store, but we've got a Northern Tool shop!

[Ron]

Again, I'm talking about home repair. Not building decks, or replacing heatpumps (which is what I have) etc.

Some of these people sound like they would go to a "caulking" store just to get a tube of silicone they hate HD so much.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Wal Mart doesn't pour a lot of money into GROCERY markets where they already know they can't compete with the big players. Right here (Rochester NY) is a good example.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

No, but many of us would go to a hardware store, and if the thing we were caulking required something unusual, we'd get a straight answer instead of a deer-in-the-headlights look followed by drooling. The caulk would not necessarily be more expensive, either.

[Ron]

groceries:

A friend of mine buys ALL of his meat from Costco.

[RickH]

YES in the midwest Menards totally blows away HD, and every other lumber yard I've ever visited in my 53 years for that matter. They are awesome stores that dwarf 3 or 4 home depots put together. Need a whole house or cottage/garage kit? The guy at Menards will send it over in a few days, you cant even buy a house at HD if you wanted to. And they have a greater flow of new products, HD sells the same stuff for the past 10 years and every HD has exactly the same items, very disappointing. But compared to Lowes HD is still better, at our Lowes you cannot get a 2x4 over 8 feet long. But with a Menards there why bother with either HD or Lowes.

[Robert Allison]

And I don't go to a caulking store, but I do go to the roofing supply for my caulk. Geocel 2300 is an excellent caulk and not available at the borg. It is 3.30 when you buy a case at the roofing supply. The nearest thing they have at the borg is Quad sealant which is 5.98 a tube. Same price for a case. When I go to get just one tube at ARS, they know I buy it all the time and they give it to me for (guess what?) $3.30 a tube.

For painters caulk, it comes from the paint store (Sherwin Williams). It comes at the same time that the paint, masking tape, plastic, etc. comes. And better quality and cheaper than the Big Box.

Guess what? The paint store and the roofing supply are farther away than the Home Depot or Lowes, but when I get home, I get home sooner and I have spent less money. I do use a bit more gas. I do that even if I am doing home repairs.

What do you have against saving money, time and getting better quality?

[Ron]

Are you by chance a Star Trek fan?

[JoeSpareBedroom]

You are asking the wrong person.

[Ron]

I don't have anything against saving time and money.

For me, with HD being less than 5 minutes from my house (and the other one less than 10 minutes), that is MY best first option. And 98% of the time, they have what I need.

It would be foolish for me to look else where first.

BTW, did you miss my post about the ice maker I got from Lowes??????

[JoeSpareBedroom]

I saw that. It was a weird example. Nobody in their right mind would expect to find that at a hardware store.

[Ron]

But I could have bought it from an appliance repair store and paid probably about $125.00.

Like I wrote, JUST the control module was $60.00 from there.

I got a whole damn ice maker from Lowes (a Whirlpool) for $50.00.

So to say I don't care about saving time, and money is absurd.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

The discussion began with plumbing parts, which is why numerous people have suggested that the OP find a source that'll make him happy next time. The ice maker is still a weird example, and I stand by that statement because I once shopped for a transmission for my washing machine. The price ranged from $75 to $200 for the exact same G.E. part. It's not enough of a commodity to keep prices within a narrow range.

[George]

I am pretty sure replacing a packaged hot water boiler is home repair.

I don't hate HD. I just do what makes sense to me. You simply have to give me a reason to like you not just tell me how good you are to get my business.

[George]

Did you stock up on that great embalmed "fresh" meat they sell? Those everyday low prices sure are great and their employees keep the state welfare office busy.

[Joe]

Our town in central Illinois is another one where the plumbers cartel has closed off most wholesale sales to the public. Fortunately, there is one old time distributor who ignores this nonsense and, in fact, delights at meeting or beating the box store prices. Our electrical distributor sells to one and all, but with two tier pricing. I suspect there may be changes in the plumbing scene as the housing market shrivels.

Joe

[Ron]

This must be a "northern" thing since I've never heard of a hot water boiler. Isn't that some type of central heater/furnace?

That is why I brought up heat pump, not something I would EVER buy from HD or Lowes, much less try to install it.

I guess depending on your skill level everything could be considered home repair, but I was talking about what most DIY can accomplish on their own w/o making matters worse.