Got up early this morning. Wanted to go to Lowes to get do some Christmas shopping. I went in at 5:00a when they opened, not because I thought they would run out of stuff, but to beat the later crowd. There were about 20 other dummies like me waiting at the door.
Lowes had plenty of help, there were employees standing all over the place, saying good morning and asking if one needed help. One clerk helped me find items on my list. I get everything (about $200 worth in fairly small items) except a pliers, side cutter, long nose pliers, & 8" adjustable wrench, all in a bundle. The clerk told me they must be sold out. I said that you ran an ad yesterday, and the store has only been open 20 minutes, you can't be sold out. He said he didn't know. I made a comment that I knew I should have gone to Home Depot. That did it, he took me to the tool department where we picked up the items that should have been in the bundle. I'm certain they were much better tools. He charged me only the bundle price (about $5.00) for all the tools. I mentally totaled the price of the individual tools at $27. I was well pleased with my first ever experience getting out on Black Friday.
As a note, I had used the competition between Lowes and HD once before. I had gone to HD to buy an 8' Werner step ladder that was on sale. They were out of them. I made the comment that I should have gone to Lowes to begin with. He said they don't use the "L" word here and asked what he could do to make up for not having the ladder. I told him I would take a 10' step ladder at the sale price of the 8' ladder. He didn't hesitate to agree. I ended up with a 10' ladder which I also needed, for about half price. You may want to try that some time when Lowes or HD don't have something the advertise.
Bob-tx