Lowes vs. HD....

[Existential Angst]

So far, +5 vs 0.

The latest:

Had a last min. need for Arbor Vitaes, for some privacy issues. Spent 1/2 hr on the phone -- 30 solid minutes of mostly waiting on hold -- with HD, 4 different people, 2 hangups, 3 diff. stories. Ultimately, no arbor vitaes.

Called Lowes: No arbor vitaes, either. But, it only took me 20 seconds to glean this info. Boom, bang, done. Goodgawd....

Unfortly, no Lowes conventient to me, gotta pay a toll to NJ, always a traumatic event for me. If you google Westchester County, NY, you'll see 500 HDs, and not ONE Lowes.... I don't know what (or who) is behind that, but I'm sure there is some corruption at work.

HD is sumpn else.... I think shit service is their own personal artform, and I think managers are rewarded for it, bec undoubtedly shit service corresponds highly with cost savings for them. I'm sure seeing 3 out of 15 cashiers open, with long lines on each, just warms Management's heart.

[Jon Elson]

Yup, an absolutely BRILLIANT strategy! Make sure no customer ever sets foot in the store, and you won't need any of that expensive staff.

Jon

[anorton]

What some stores grasp and most others do not is that if there is always a line at the registers, the sales volume will always be limited (one way or another) by the number of open registers times the rate at which the checkers ring stuff up. If stores want to maximize sales, there should never be a line. If there is any line at all, pausing the line for 5 minutes for a price check on a $2.00 item makes even less sense.

[Lew Hodgett]

----------------------------------------------------- You expected to find garbage shrubs in stock in Westchester County.

Poor baby.

Lew

[Existential Angst]

Don't know what your point is, but if you want to pay top dollar, there are plenty in stock in Westchester County. Sprain Brook has 8 footers for $450.... perty 'spensive garbage, eh? Windy Farms has'em for $65, but full sun only.

HD had'em for $20-35, depending on the type. And, there are proly a dozen varieties.

And yeah, it's late in the season.... so I took a shot.... And your point was......???

MY point was, 20 sec vs. 30 mins, plain and simple.... AND, this is not an isolated case. Getting info over the phone from HD is ALWAYS, without exception, a nightmare, and *almost* invariably incorrect. I've had them tell me stuff was NOT in stock, and it turns out it was in stock. Of course, much more the opposite case. Never fails at HD.

My conclusion is that shoddy service has become a sport with them. Esp. over here, where there are no Lowes to keep them on their toes -- no rhyme intended.

[ATP]

They're not set up to spend a lot of time with phone calls. That's part of the reason the prices are low. WRT Lowe's, the stores in the NY Metro area are much newer than HD, but more oriented toward women. They are seriously deficient in hardcore plumbing fittings, for example.

[Bob La Londe]

500 Home Depots?

You know Home Depot has on-line interactive inventory. I look up what I want on their website and then check the stores on-line to see if they have it. Then I am not stuck with the vagaries of knowledge from a failed contractor who works as a clerk at the store because they failed as a contractor. If do need help in the store I look for the "old guy" who is actually working.

If you mean the tree... arborvitae then they show 4 (1 discontinued) on-line and they all say "on-line only." Took me about a minute to check.

The crappy pride in workmanship that you complain about is why I like to check things myself if I can. I was raised that you do the job whatever it is to the best of your ability no matter the wage. If you agreed to take the money to do the job its immoral to do anything but a good job.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Yeah so? Next week if you call the roles may be reversed. Your experience with one store from each chain proves nothing.

[PrecisionmachinisT]

If I want plumbing, I go to a plumbing supply house....

If I want lumber, I go to a lumberyard....

If I want hardware, I go to a hardware store...

Anyone see a pattern here ?

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per PrecisionmachinisT:

This is probably totally moot to anybody's point but...

A long time ago, I was refitting the bathrooms in our house with new faucets.

I bought cartridge-operated ones from Kmart.

The same day, I went to a plumbing-supply store to buy a Delta brand lever-operated faucet for the kitchen sink.

Out of curiosity, I put one of the KMart faucets on the counter and asked "What's the difference between this and Delta?".

The guy behind the counter got red in the face and almost shouted "*This* is quality and *that* is SHIT!"

It's been 30+ years since that day and I've never had a problem with any of the bathroom faucets. Then I noticed that the local gym where I went for 10+ years used the same faucets.

OTOH, I've had to rebuild the Delta faucet in the kitchen at least five times..... -)

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Ed Pawlowski:

Somebody who follows stock prices told me that HD's stock has come way, way up in recent years.

Seemed to me like that coincided with local HD's service level.

Used to be that when an employee saw me, they'd try to duck into another aisle to avoid answering a question. That's when the stock was very low.

Now I practically have to fend them off.

Sounds like an upper-level management change to me.

[George]

Is there some reason you are fixated on only big box?

We have two local garden centers that have great service with better quality plants and lower prices than big box.

[Existential Angst]

You musta missed my response to Lew Hodgett..... HD gets it wrong *without fail*.

But, anyway, what would pass statistical muster, in a HD/Lowes comparison, O Statistical Swami??

[Existential Angst]

True, I have little bad to say about the front-line help, given their abilities. They try, but still, informational and organizational chaos persists.

But I think you cite pure coincidence in the stock price vs. the help. But, holy shit, indeed, the price doubled in one year!!

makes the chaos inexcusable. But understandable and perhaps inevitable: HD can now do whateverTF they want, and there's not a fukn thing you or me can do about it.

Well, there is, and PMT nailed it. And I really try to go local, but too often the price differential -- and the irritating convenience of HD -- prevails. Indeed, I watch myself f*ck myself, all too often. We f*ck ourselves, we f*ck each other, and HD laughs hysterically, to/fro the bank.

[SonomaProducts.com]

ome privacy issues. Spent 1/2 hr on the phone -- 30 solid minutes of mostly= waiting on hold -- with HD, 4 different people, 2 hangups, 3 diff. stories= . Ultimately, no arbor vitaes. Called Lowes: No arbor vitaes, either. But, = it only took me 20 seconds to glean this info. Boom, bang, done. Goodgawd..= .. Unfortly, no Lowes conventient to me, gotta pay a toll to NJ, always a t= raumatic event for me. If you google Westchester County, NY, you'll see 500= HDs, and not ONE Lowes.... I don't know what (or who) is behind that, but = I'm sure there is some corruption at work. HD is sumpn else.... I think shi= t service is their own personal artform, and I think managers are rewarded = for it, bec undoubtedly shit service corresponds highly with cost savings f= or them. I'm sure seeing 3 out of 15 cashiers open, with long lines on each= , just warms Management's heart. -- EA

I think it is clear who has the problem here. Your expectations are totally= unreasonable. Lowes and HD both offer the same specific value; a huge fric= king building full of deep inventory for all items they stock at reasonable= prices. They are not offering good customer service. They hire people who = can't get real jobs or are too old to want to work hard. Visit the store an= d buy what you find on the shelf or don't. That is clearly what they offer.= Works for me several times a week on average.

[Stanley Schaefer]

With both Lowes and HD, I check online to see if 1) they have anything close to what I want and 2) if it's in stock in the myriad of stores in the area. In some cases, I've seen that they had adequate stock online only to get over to a specific store and find that somebody's cleaned them out between the time I looked and my arrival. So I go hit another. Must have at least a dozen of each in the area, three or four on the way home from work. For those items they don't carry or for a quick trip, Ace is closer and has more oddball stuff, usually higher prices, too. I can usually get floor droids to answer my questions at both Lowes and HD, the local HDs were hiring guys with trades experience for floor workers at one time. If you're getting crappy service at HD, complain to the head office. Might be a local management change is needed. And the HDs here have self-checkout, no lines at those, usually. Lowes doesn't, but opens up checkouts as needed.

Stan

[Lew Hodgett]

----------------------------------------------------- Lew Hodgett wrote:

---------------------------------------------------- "Existential Angst" wrote:

------------------------------------------------------ Lew Hodgett wrote:

Arbor Vitaes are garbage shrubs.

Grow like weeds and are difficult to trim and maintain.

Have a useful life of about 10 years if you're lucky.

About the only thing they have going for them is cost.

They are dirt cheap compared to Yews or similar shrubs.

Lew

[Bill]

That's not fair to categorize all of the salespeople as the same.

I have met my share of helpful salepeople at both Lowes and Home Depot. However, admittedly there are more clueless salespeople on the floor than helpful ones. How many electricians does either store need? If there is one in the store on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday between 9:00 and 3:00, maybe that's enough?

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Lew Hodgett:

Might be a location/climate thing.

I took a bunch of cuttings from my parent's house at the Jersey shore, planted them along the sides of our house about 30 years ago and they've been doing fine ever since with little or no attention. *Really* poor soil: solid shale with a few inches of clay and rocks over it.

OTOH, maybe the deer feeding on them over the winter has something to do with the low maintenance..... -)

I wake up at nite sometimes when I leave the window open to "Chomp, chomp, slurp, slurp.....". First time it about scared me to death.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Stanley Schaefer:

On credit card sales under $50, our HD does not even want a signature.

OTOH, the Lowe's I used to go to has the poorest checkout scheme I've ever seen. Ironically, it is across from Target - which has the fastest, slickest checkout scheme I have seen.