Same Difference?

It’s springtime so that means I’m back to making at least weekly trips to Home Depot and/or Lowe’s. When I’m feeling particularly ambitious (or perhaps just very unorganized) like I was this past weekend I managed three trips to Lowe’s and one trip to Home Depot in three days.


So as I’m driving back and forth and planning purchases I think about which store I prefer and which store is more likely to have exactly what I need. There are a few givens that apply to both stores:

-When you know exactly what you need and where to find it in the store there will be employees every 10 feet asking if you need help. For the times when you actually need help you will not see an employee within 4 aisles in any direction. When you do spot an employee they’re usually in a group with 3 or 4 others trying to look important with clipboards and tape measures and walkie talkies.

-As a sub point to the above, when you need help and find an employee they will tell you it’s not their department and they need to call someone over. If it’s not your department why are you hanging out here? Or when I ask for help please don’t start reading me the package labels, I can actually do that part on my own.

-On the weekends there will be a lot of employees and customers at either store, yet there will be exactly two cash registers open, and inevitably every other customer will have an item that the register is unable to scan. Half the self check-out registers will be out of order.

-In the Couve we have a Home Depot and Lowe’s just a block apart, which is great for doing comparisons. If I’m in a hurry for just an item or two though I only want to go to one of the stores. This ensures that in the next visit to the competing store I will find said item/s at a better price or I will see a similar, better item I wished I would have bought in the first place.

-I’m no master carpenter, but seems like every time I need some lumber for outdoor projects both stores have heaps of wet, warped boards. I have enough challenges building stuff with straight boards, so I don’t need the crooked stuff making my projects turn out even worse! And when you start sorting through the boards an employee will walk by and give you the stink eye and not offer to help.

-How often do these places take inventories? Especially you Home Depot! Every other time I go to HD there are these inventory counters clogging up the aisles.

Several years ago I used to slightly prefer Home Depot over Lowe’s. But Home Depot got themselves one big de-merit from me when they opened a second store in the Couve because the layouts between their two stores are quite a bit different. I like the Lowe’s garden center a lot more than Home Depot’s. It seems like Home Depot goes in to water rationing mode early in the summer and their plants and flower start looking rather anemic. I think that about covers it. I’m curious which store our blog reader prefers, so cast your vote in the comments!