Home Depot vs. "Real <whatever> store"

We have a local store, an ACE dealer, with a great selection of various items. The problem is that they are very insistent upon customer service, to the point where they compete to put their stickers (with their names on them) on any item you purchase.

Instead of peacefully fondling various items of interest, you are instead constantly getting your thoughts interrupted by 20-something kids insisting that you need "help".

To me, when I want help, I look for someone and ask for it. Otherwise, I like to be left alone.

I mostly shop at HD for this very reason, unless I am specifically getting something the other store carries, and then I leave promptly.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken
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As for quality of service.... Every Post Office was an agency of the Commonwealth Savings Bank. So the inhabitants of Woop-Woop (pop. 57, a significant proportion of whom were drunk at any given moment) -- with a general store (with a "sub Post Office" occupying a few feet at the end of one counter), two pubs and no churches -- had banking facilities. Nobody cared whether the "banking business" done there showed a profit; it was a service to the public.

Since the privatization of the Commonwealth Bank, any location that didn&#39;t show a profit was closed, so many communities have been left with no banking services.

Perce

Reply to
Percival P. Cassidy

I notice a great price difference between two HD&#39;s 20 miles apart in different towns. The same goes for the availability of low priced items which are absent in the higher priced store.

A recent experience I had is I needed to replace the circulator on my wood boiler. Went to HD in local town, nothing under $100.00. Went to next town to Loews, nothing under $100.00 there either. But the HD in the same town as Loews had a model for $80.00 and another for $65.00. It they were quality pump makers.

I think the local managers can do pretty much what they want at HD.

Reply to
Van Chocstraw

Many chain store tailor both the products and the prices to the local clientele. Last time I needed a circulator, it was $75 at HD and $45 at the local plumbing supply house.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Or just go to the real place and pay

Reply to
George

Reply to
Percival P. Cassidy

The Homedepots around here will MATCH any local competitior...I&#39;ve done it a couple of times...

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Reply to
benick

a TACO for $49?? Somethings fishy there....

s

Reply to
Steve Barker

a while? ya maybe 12 years. Probably been that long since a TACO pump was $49.

s

Reply to
Steve Barker

So why not just buy from the local guy in the first place and avoid the running around and price matching? Ask the HD manager why they don&#39;t have the lowest price from the start, just like the other guy.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Not if you only need the cartridge. Check the $55 ones here

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Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Reply to
George

So what would be the point of wasting my time doing that? I can get better prices and often better quality at the local places.

Reply to
George

The reason you would do that is because, according to some posters, if you go to the local store you&#39;re going to get sneered at, laughed at, berated and trampled.

Reply to
DerbyDad03
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Thee may be a few of those stores still around, but most have come to their senses and appreciate anyone&#39;s business. OTOH, some customers still deserve that sneer. I know of an auto parts store where a well to do customer came in, asked for a part, paid, and then asked the clerk if he could do him a favor and install it. Happens more often than you think. Cheap SOB just did not want to pay a mechanic and did not want to get his hands dirty.

Others want the plumbing or electrical supply store to tell them what parts they need, how to do the job and how they can get a discount, all while the store is very busy with tradesmen trying to get supplies for a job they are working.

Go to the plumbing supply and know what you need and ask for it. If you buy

12 elbows, don&#39;t expect to get warm greetings when you return the two you did not use. And don&#39;t expect to get a course on how to solder.
Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Or I guess we could laugh at the folks required to do what my friend calls the "big box dance" running back and forth to match prices like they are on some reality show.

Reply to
George

Ahhhhhhh ... I C i wasn&#39;t aware they even came apart. I only have one, and haven&#39;t had any trouble with it yet.

s

Reply to
Steve Barker

This used to be true, now it is simply not true, maybe there are a few "straggler" stores in your area. But HD made a conscious effort to "standardize" all their stores some years ago. IMO they were a much better outfit when they let the local manages decide what to buy and stock un-standardized. If I go to a HD store in Chicago I expect the electrical aisle to be full of rigid conduit, whereas in Kane county I would expect it to be full of Romex stuff. Now you cant find exactly what you need for local codes because every store is identical and compromised.

Menards here (IL and WI) is a far superior big-box outfit, way bigger than HD stores and the merchandise varies across stores (and time) and they have more commercial building products like rigid fiberglass, etc. And they have a great selection of prefab houses, garages, sheds, stick-build-kits that you can load or have delivered.

But I agree that the local professional suppliers are the best, but you will pay dearly unless you have an account and do volume.

Reply to
RickH

Hardly the case. I&#39;ve been to at least 7 HD&#39;s in my state and no two were laid out the same or had the same product mix.

The quality of employee seems to vary by store more than by individual as well.

Reply to
salty

So, HD attempts to sell snow blowers in Miami?

Reply to
HeyBub

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