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Home Depot Rant

You just wrote up above that you went to HD first to look for a Moen facet. That isn't a "critical" item?

Reply to
Ron
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No, it's not.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

I've been shopping there for yrs, and I've never had a problem.

One thing I don't like, are those new DIY checkouts they installed, but the grocery store I shop at also uses them, so I guess that is just "progress".

BTW, I went to an AC/heating store a while back to buy some duct board and they wouldn't sell me a thermostat I liked....said they couldn't sell electrical parts to the public. Huh?

Reply to
Ron

You've been lucky. Or, your store has one of the three good HD managers. Rumor has it there's a fourth one somewhere.

That sort of makes sense. Look at some of the thermostat questions posted here. Many of them can be summarized as "I don't know squat about this, but I watch the cooking channel a lot, so I think I could install a thermostat." The specialty stores don't want people coming back saying they blew up the electronics in their furnaces. I suppose they could offer a different service arrangement for the clueless, but how would they tell who's who? It's not always obvious.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

sometimes the cheapest thermostat setback device, and it works without batteries and programming, is located just beyond the wrist.

-b

Reply to
buffalobill

"lets build somehting together" . big box home improvement stores. ,lol you get what you pay for i guess ,

Asht>Are they preparing funeral invitations yet? They get worse and worse.

Reply to
The Freon Cowboy

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I love Debbie Supply, too, but they're sometimes overpriced. I've had good results going to one of the plumbing supply places at 7 am, when they open: try that strategy instead (make it an errand before you go to work).

Reply to
KLS

Where I live, you don't run errands before you go to work. Traffic is so bad you're lucky to get to work on time as it is.

Reply to
Ron

Where I live, Phoenix, the Home Depots are good and the Lowe'ses are bad. Lots of help available at HD, long wait to get anybody at all at Lowe's. For example, a couple of summers ago, I needed a window air conditioner, and at Lowe's it took three employees to find them. Another time, I needed a funny lamp part, and Lowe's didn't know, but a guy in the gardening dept. at HD told me where to find it at the other end of the store, within about two square feet. He even got the elevaton right. And when I couldn't find any copper plumbing fittings near the plastic and steel ones at Lowe's and asked the employee there, she asked someone else, "Do we carry something called 'copper fittings'?" She said she had worked in the plumbing dept. for three years.

I still like better the hardware store and plumbing store about two miles away.

Reply to
larry moe 'n curly

Well, when I need something that goes "ding" and has a pleasant fragrance, I got to Art's Bells & Smells. And when I need a car tire of a known religious denomination, I shop at In The Name Of Jesus Guaranteed Used Tires.

Those are real stores around here.

Reply to
larry moe 'n curly

I used to do that when I lived in Long Island. 90-120 minutes to go 45 miles. It seemed normal at the time.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

The Lowe's near me is less than 2 years old, and you can't enter without the risk of getting help (it IS a bad thing sometimes). They even know things.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

Pretty much. People who shop at big box stores don't value their time, and have to shop from a limited range of inventory.

Reply to
Larry Caldwell

Unfortunately big box places have the warchests to buy mind share. They know that constantly telling everyone how good they are really works because pretty soon people think they are the only game in town.

Reply to
George

If I went to a "speciality" store every time I needed something, I would spend *more time* looking through the phonebook for the closest "specialty" store instead of going to HD and getting what I need.

Reply to
Ron

What kinds of "somethings" do you need from HD that you can't get at a hardware store? I know lumber's on the list, as well as appliances and nursery plants. But what else?

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

I'm not talking about a HW store. (which are far and few in my area) I'm talking about *speciality* stores. A lot of people told this guy he should have went to a *plumbing* store, not a HW store.

Also, a few wks ago I asked about fixing my ice maker here, which turns out needed a new control module. Called a bunch of appliance repair stores and the *cheapest* one I found was $60.00. I bought this

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from Lowes for $50.00. (an exact replacement) That is one example right there of something that Ace isn't going to carry and being a LOT cheaper than a specialty store. I couldn't imagine what an appliance repair store would have wanted for the *entire* unit with a new tray.

Reply to
Ron

I usually call the real stores and tell them what I want. They either deliver it to the jobsite, or pull the items and they are sitting on the counter when I get there.

I don't shop at Home Depot. They are too dishonest and uncaring for me. I do go to Lowes upon occasion, when I want a wax ring for a toilet or a box of nails. I never go there if what I need is important. I don't like wasting my time that much.

My plumbing supply stays open even on sundays!

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Reply to
Robert Allison

Hmm. Carpets. Tile. Fencing. Cabinets. Riding lawnmowers. Pepsi Cola. Stepping stones....

"All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"

Reply to
HeyBub

I already know where all the real suppliers are, so I don't have to look. In addition, any trip to the big box stores usually means a second trip to the real suppliers because the borgs don't have what I need. Where am I saving money?

Sample conversations:

Where is your 22' fir 2x8s?

We don't carry those.

Where is your 2" x 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" sanitary Y in PVC?

We don't carry those.

Where are your 20' lengths of 3" PVC conduit?

We don't carry those.

Etc., Etc.

If they did carry them, they would be twice as much as my real suppliers.

Example:

2-1/4" wedge casing, finger joint, paint grade at Lowes is 77 cents a foot. At BMC West it is 43 cents per foot. And I can get whatever lengths that I want. I am not restricted to 16'. I suppose that I could stand at that cutting station and cut off 2' of each stick so that I could buy all 14's, but my time is valuable and that is a lot of waste. BMC will deliver it to my jobsite in the lengths that I want, WHEN I want. For half the price. (Especially when you consider that Lowes charges for deliveries and BMC doesn't.)

Etc., etc.

Where would I be saving money? Where would I be saving time?

Reply to
Robert Allison

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