What's your most favorite 'big box' home store and why?

[Budweiser John]

Over the last decade or more the 'big box' retailers have captured the Lions share of the building supply, home improvement business to the demise of many smaller independent company's.
Will they all survive? Which one of the big three seems to be the weak link?
Which one, Home Depot, Lowe's, or Menards is your most favorite?
In my trading area all three are within minutes from one another but Menards seems to be the best stocked of all.
What do you all think?

B. John

 

[bcp]

Not Menards as they are regional, not national. I almost always have to go to BOTH of the others to get what I need. They are about 1/4 mile apart.



Bruce

 

[flyerdan]

According to the store locator, Menard's nearest store to me is Casper, so they are limited to the upper midwest at this time. Home Depot is just a couple miles down the road and near the restaurant supply place I frequent. Lowes has a store out by the airport and another in the new Keizer Station mall, I don't get to either of them very often as HD is so convenient and has everything I've looked for so far.

 

[nybirdman]

Only choice we have is Lowes,satisfied for the most part.Home Depot is 40
miles or so.We have a couple local business that have treated us well.

 

[Deere Dude]

Menards is the best, hands down.

I like you can drive right out to the pile of lumber and load it on whereas the others you need to load in the store and bring it to the register with you, generally. I wanted to build a garage a few years ago and HD was new to the area and I wanted to share my business. I went in the store and their prices matched Menards for most things I needed so I was going to try them. I found out I would need to load up the carts and push them to the register, or get someone else to do it for me, so I told them to forget it. I drove across the street and drove right to the wood pile and loaded exactly what I needed, after I paid of course. I didn't feel rushed like I do in front of the Lowes or HD exits load a bunch of stuff.

Menards has plenty of free stuff like tape measures, saw blades. levels, t-shirts, hats, drill; bits, tool sets, ets.

Menards has a big supply of food like cereal, snacks, cookies, jelly, and pet supplies plus everything the other stores have. The others don't.

Menards prices are very difficult to beat and Lowes and Home Depot can seldom beat them.

I bought a ton of stuff from them over the years and the accuracy at the register is better than any other store I have seen.

I moved 4 hours south of the nearest Menards and I feel lost.

The closest I have now is Lowes and a few miles farther is Home Depot. Both are inferior to Menards IMHO.

Between Lowes and HD, I have to go with Lowes most of the time because of price.

Lowes honors my military ID and everytime I go the HD they give me problems with it, plus HD has only certain days of the year and have a cap on the amount purchased.

Menards by a mile, then Lowes then HD.

 

[LD1]

Menards for me too. And for most of the reasons already said. Price, easy to load up, etc.

Around here, there are all three about 30 minutes to my south in columbus, or 30 minutes to my north in mansfield. There is also both a lowes and menards 30 minutes west in maion. Bout 30 minutes east is a lone Lowes. NEVER go there unless its for something small and Im already in that town. Their prices on most of their items are more expensive as there is no competition. Even more expensive than the other lowes around, that have competition. Ant they wont price match their other stores in the area either.....as they are "too far" away.

 

[Mendonsy]

I agree about Menards, but there aren't any stores here so they are out of the running.
Lowes has some nice stuff, but their prices around here are typically about 10% higher than Home Depot.
That just leaves the orange box. Nothing very special about Home Depot but they are less expensive than Lowes.

 

[dragoneggs]

I do miss the old days of driving into the lumber yard and loading up. I suppose it became a liability. The nice thing about the stores now though is that everything is dry. For me I guess HD... it's a little closer and seems better a better layout. But I shop at both depending on my errand path.

 

[BigBoyToys]

Home Depot!
With a "Pro Account" and their "Bid System" you can save a ton of cash!!!

I recently purchased 2 garage doors for a building I'm putting up. One door is 8x10 (H,W) and 8x8. They are Clopay Coachman Series with the arched glass. HD has an 7x8 listed on-line for $2092...Clopay Coachman Collection 8 ft. x 7 ft. 18.4 R-Value Intellicore Insulated Sandtone Garage Door with Arch Window-CXU21_ST_ARCH4 - The Home Depot

So I went on-line and got pricing from "Garage Doors Direct". They quoted me $3997 for the two doors including shipping and no sales tax. So with that number in mind I went to Home Depot and met with a lady in the windows and doors area and we entered the specs into their system. With my Pro Account it comes back at $3897 including sales tax. She then entered the PO into their "Bid System", which I can't find anyone their that knows exactly what it is, and said it might take a while seeing it was after 8 PM. She said she'd call me the next morning with the numbers. Next morning I get a call and says she has good news...the bid came back at $2933 not including sales tax. She asks me if I'd come in the next day as she is PT. I say "OK" see you Thursday. Get there around 4 PM and meet with her, and the first thing she says is..."I have good news" (again!)...she shows me a flyer that say Pro Accounts get an extra 7% off on orders of $1000 dollars or more!!! So basically no sales tax (6.25%). Got both doors for $2897!!!
:cool2:

 

[BigBoyToys]

I do miss the old days of driving into the lumber yard and loading up.

I get most of my lumber fro a place called Mozzone Lumber. They have a huge drive thru yard with guys that will help load you up. They have supplies both inside and outside on racks and a fork trucks to load you up. Lumber is better quality that HD IMHO and the prices are good.