Been a Home Depot customer for a couple of years. Used to shop at Lowe's and then switched as HD seemed to have a bit more on the ball for commercial buyers. Not into "lifestyle shopping".
Been seeing Lowe's come up from behind. The ChiCom Virus is really showing the difference. Home Depot has put a ton of money into a wide-ranging web and in-store computer system which, if it worked, would be fantastic. 90% of it is there but the other 10% is really annoying. I have their "Pro" membership. If I check out at a cashier, I will have the option of a printed receipt, an emailed receipt or both. If I check out at one of their automated kiosks, it spits out a paper receipt without asking for my choice (I want emailed). Simple crap like that which could have been discovered in a few rounds of software testing.
Cue the ChiCom Virus. Home Depot makes everyone line up to get in the store. The line area is partitioned off. One morning, I was the 5th or so person in the line so I ducked under the rope and was immediately shouted down by one of their employees. I wanted to special order a specific kind of plywood (MDO - not common but not uncommon either), they could only get siding or OSB in that size. Bunch of silly crap like that.
Lowe's on the other hand has been really responsive and their queue to get into the store is well managed and the people at the store are friendly. Their inventory is not as bare and picked over as HD's. Been shopping there more and more. This morning, it was packed. Swung by Home Depot and the lot was only about 20% full - the Lowe's lot was 90% - had to drive around to get a space.
Looks like a lot of other people are getting the same message. Good - capitalism at work.
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