NEW Home Depot

[John Murphy]

:D Well, we have one home improvement store in Texarkana, Lowes. Hardly ever has a tool sale. I'm about sick of it. BUT, guess whats opening Thursday????? Okay, yes, I did put it in my subject line. A brand spanking new Home Depot!!!! Come on competition!!!!

Later,
Murph

[Dave Arbuckle]

A good friend of mine lives in New Boston, he surely has been looking forward to this. Best of luck, hope you guys get a really good Store Manager. :)

Dave

[Joe Suelter]

Congrats on your new Home Depot! Ours just opened about a month or two ago. They have stiff competition here with Lowes and Menards already established. I have been to Home Depot twice since they opened, and I've got to say, they aren't cheaper than their competitors, not yet anyway. I bought two sheets of oak ply at $39/sheet...Lowes has them for $29/sheet, and better quality to boot (less knots-defects). They did match the price with an additional 10%, so that made up for it! I felt that they are A LOT more helpful than the others, so that alone will keep me coming back! Enjoy.

[Ken Salisbury]

We have 3 Lowes Supercenters here. We also have a Home Depot and several of the old type (not chains) hardware stores.

I will only go toHome Depot as a last resort - having exhausted the other possibilities.

One picture is worh a 1000 words:

<IMG src="http://www.klsal.com/cannon.gif"><IMG src="http://www.klsal.com/homedepot.jpg">

[Bob Reilly]

I agree with Ken,Lowes opened the largest store in the country here last year,and what a difference it's made in choices compared to HD.

[John Murphy]

Well, maybe HD isn't the best store, but it still is nice to have a choice or a backup if one doesn't have what you need!

New Boston, huh? Is he a woodworker?

Murph

[Jim Becker]

It's funny...even with the choice of 7 'Depots and 2 Lowes I have in within 20 miles, I tend to go to the same one...generally a particular HD, with an occasional foray into the Lowes about a half mile farther if a stop at Target is also on the shopping list. New stores are kewel, too...not only are they nice to shop in and reasonably aggressive to get your business, the competitor "kicks it up a notch", as Emeril would say, to fuel the flow of money from your pocket!

Enjoy your new HD and the "competitive" atmosphere it should bring...and remember your shopping trips will now take longer as you'll invariably be checking both stores for the best price! :D

[John Longwitz]

Here in Hotlanta HD has ruled the roost for far too many years. In the 21 years we've been here they ran off Handy City and Builder's Square and dominated the market for awhile after. Lowe's moved in about 6 years ago and seems to be staying. They have locations all over the area now and one of two of their newest stores are a short drive away. I'd say my business is divided about 75% Lowe's and 25% HD.

[Tom Sweeney]

For the longest time I only had a Hechingers here. I'd spend 5 to $10,000 a year there & resent every dime. A home Depot opened up about 20 miles from me & I would then go there every chance I got. Then they opened a HD about 10 miles from me. I didn't even need anything on opening day - I just went to kiss the ground it was built on so I didn't have to spend any more money at Hechingers ;) Then they opened a HD 5 miles from me - across the street from Hechingers -which promptly closed it's doors for good.

HD was great at first - very knowledgeable & helpful staff. For the last couple of years though the service & knowledge have dropped off a lot. Now for the good news - Lowes is going to be building just down the street from HD. I figure the competition will put HD back on their game or I'll just shop at Lowes - either way I win! :D

Hopefully you'll find the competition beneficial for you also.

[Scott Coffelt]

We have orange boxes poping up everywhere, they even started this HD "Lite" as I call it, they carry about 25-30% less selection. I usually go to the HD (full vs lite) about 5 miles from my house versus the Lowe's 10 miles from my house because it is closer and I know where everything is at.

When they first came in the service was awesome, I will say it pretty much sucks nowdays. I was in one day and needed some help, it took me 25 minutes to get a board cut down. I asked the guy about the staff and he said they just keep cutting. You can't hardly find someone who knows the product any more. Heck, the heating and plumbing guy couldn't even tell me the gauge for HVAC duct (which I knew was 30 gauge). let' see his comment was something like "da, isn't it on the box?"

In general, I find pricing about the same between Lowe's and HD, quality of lumber comes and goes, the brand selection can be different with the two. When it comes to lumber I buy most of mine from a lrge local lumber yard, I can buy go wood at much lower prices than the big box.

[Stan Smith]

We had a Home Base and a Lumberjack here when Home Depot came. Now we just have Home Depot. They have a monopoly. Our hot water went out on Friday so we bought a new one with installation on Saturday. The contact said it would be installed that day. The guy who wrote up the order said we would be contacted in 24 hrs. Neither one happened and we cancelled the order. That's how it is when you have a monopoly. We got Sears to fix the old one, but the fix is only temporary.

[John Husby]

We have a Home Depot openning up one of their "mini" stores in an old Kmart store right next to Menards. I do some shopping in the HD about 20 miles away but over all the prices at Menards are lower. I didn't think the lumber at Menards wasn't great till I tried to find some good boards at HD and Menards looked pretty good then. I just don't care to go there as the help isn't to friendly like they were when they first opened. Rumor has it that Lowes is going to enter the market around here. Will be glad as HD needs all the competion they can get.

[Jim Baker]

We got a new Home Depot Store near us about six months ago. When I heard they were coming, I didn't figure I would go there much because of my negative experiences at other Home Depots. The Home Depots that I had visited previously were all too crowded, with much too narrow aisles, too dark, and always had the very annoying warning sounds of the fork trucks echoing all over the store.

To make a long story short, the new one near us has none of those challenges. In fact, we find it to be a nice place to shop for certain things.

That being said, we still prefer to shop locally owned businesses where we know everyone there and they know us. (There was a thread about this topic several weeks back.)

A week ago, a Menards also opened in our area. I found it to be much like the other Menards - generally a cheaper grade of products than either HD or Lowes. We did purchase some 4 x 8 sheets of 3/4" MDF which our local lumber yards don't carry. Moving the heavy sheets from their horizontal storage position to the vertical cart which didn't want to hold still, pushing it through the store to a checker who didn't know what it was, pushing it through the parking lot, removing it from the vertical cart (which again did not want to hold still) and loading it into our truck all with LOML proved to be an enormous job. I wish one of my local suppliers had it because I would much rather walk to the counter, tell them what I want, drive my truck to the stack, and load it directly into my truck.

Thank goodness for great local places to business like Effingham Builders' Supply and Arthur Distributing.

[John Murphy]

One thing I keep hearing. Same thing happened at our Lowes. Service starts off great, then slowly deteriorates to practically nothing! I guess we just have to deal with it, huh?

Murph

[Jim Baker]

Ken - It looks to me like you need Tim Taylor from the TV show Home Improvement to work over your cannon. It needs more power.

[Bob Boake]

woodcraft 1mile away.
home despot 2 miles,
lowes 4 miles.

I once went to lowes looking for pine 4x4's in 8 ft lengths. It turns out they didn't even carry them but they had some beeuutiful laura ashley floral wallpaper. Been shopping at HD ever since.