Lowes vs Home Depot vs Sears

[Stuey]

Okay, so I've been doing a lot of shopping at these 3 retailers lately, online and in-store. So, I decided to compare and grade my experiences at all three stores.

To simplify things, I only considered the shopping experience at these stores. Tool prices and selection were for the most part ignored.

The full writeup is up at ToolGuyd, and here's a not-so-quick summary that captures most of the points.

Lowes & Lowes.com: A|A. Aside from one incompetent employee at the local store that I somehow always end up stuck with, I haven't had any issues with Lowes. Both online and in-store experiences have been spectacular.

Home Depot & HD.com: A|B. In-store experience has been great, with no complaints. Granted I shopped less at HD recently than the other stores, but enough to judge them on. Home Depot.com is a bit buggy, with the search a bit of a mess. I caught quite a few pricing errors, usually in the favor of the customer such as with that double-discount Dewalt combo set. I really didn't like how an item I ordered was tossed into a box unprotected and shipped via torturous snail-mail.

Sears & Sears.com: A|C. ****** Sears. In-store, everything is pretty decent. Pickup of online orders seems to take way too long with 3/3 orders late, but that may be dependent on individual locations. One retrieved my order in 5:05 during an extremely busy time, another took ~10mins and ~15mins for 2 orders when nobody else was in the pickup area. But for the most part, I enjoy shopping at the local store.

Sears.com has been an absolute disaster lately. A nearly ineffecitve search engine, price discrepancies, and a recent issue where I was charged $14 more than I authorized at checkout. I'm still trying to get my refund for that. Will probably have to resort to a BBB complaint and credit card dispute.

I really do love Sears' tool selection and prices. I just wish that it was separate from the Sears.com experience, which can be excellently delightful or excruciatingly frustrating.

 

[HandyManny]

I absolutely hate Sears website. Takes forever to load. Not only that, but I feel like they've now become a an internet seller of products for 3rd party businesses that aren't even Sears. Like it's a search engine for other business or something.

 

[adamsredlines]

Sears website *****, but after dozens of "site to store" pickups, I've only had ONE be late. I'm in there weekly and they do a great job at my location.

 

[xurusaibobx]

i hate the fact Home depot doesnt price match their own website

 

[blarf]

I'd give Lowes an F for the political minefield they've recently stepped in and can't seem to extricate themselves from. My last trip to a Home Depot was comically bad, but at least the store manager sent me a followup e-mail ASAP (after I complained to corporate) on a weekend. HD is worth another shot, I suppose...

...but I live about a block away from an independent hardware (non-HD/Lowes/Sears/ACE/TrueValue) store. I don't buy tools from them, but for supplies and whatnot they're my first stop. The cute girl behind the counter doesn't hurt either.

 

[ChargedUp!]

I like Lowes, the dot com and the iPhone app. All are easy to use. For the most part, relatively helpful people when I need them too and I'm completely fine with their recent "political" issue. I rate them an A - A - B

Home Depot: I ended up having a bad enough experience at te local one to where I actually complained to corporate. They apologized by email and called me and gave me a $50 gift card to give them another shot. I finally did and they appear to have their **** together. Their website has some search issues but not bad. The iPhone app is handy also. I give them a B - B - B

Sears: our store organization is not very nice and the employees look "interrupted" if you need assistance. Their website is **** and I don't have an app for them on the phone. I give them a C - F

 

[MastoidPress]

I'd give Lowes an F for the political minefield they've recently stepped in and can't seem to extricate themselves from.

Thats funny, for that I give them an A+. If it wasn't for my commitment to buy "American Made", I would give them some business. To go against the grain in this politically correct climate and have the spine NOT to waver in the face of adversity AND a bad economy, should be acknowledged AND rewarded.

 

[bobcatdan]

All those store ****. All you need is Fleet Farm. Don't have one, move to the midwest.

 

[Stuey]

i hate the fact Home depot doesnt price match their own website

Did you try this recently? From what I've been told, I'm under the impression that they've been trying to do whatever it takes to satisfy customers in attempt to boost business. I haven't tried to price-match anything from web to store lately, so I cannot confirm.

 

[Grogan14]

Customer service is sorely lacking in all 3. But then, that's about par for the course in general, today.

 

[thooks]

Sears has been told repeatedly by many folks, including myself, on those stupid, time-consuming online surveys, that their website *****.



The Sears near me is reverting back to K-Junk. It was a K-Junk several years ago, turned into a Sears with appliances, tools, clothing, Lands End, Electronics.

There were a lot of Monday and Tuesday nights I dropped by where I was the ONLY customer in the store at 6 pm.

Sad. And this area would be considered "Extremely Rich/Affluent" by the Obama administration and it's water carriers.

 

[Toolhorder]

Thats funny, for that I give them an A+. If it wasn't for my commitment to buy "American Made", I would give them some business. To go against the grain in this politically correct climate and have the spine NOT to waver in the face of adversity AND a bad economy, should be acknowledged AND rewarded.

Ditto, that show is a mess and only exists to further cause problems.

 

[woody 73]

I thought I was the only one that had trouble with the Sears Web site, it sure ***** for sure!

Although I have never bought tools from the other two web sites I like buying tools at the lowes stores they are very nice to work with.

For some strange reason I don't buy many tools from HD, not sure why but I never see many good deals like I see at lowes. Finding help is sometimes hard and the store colors drive me crazy.

 

[wafrederick]

I get a cheaper price at Lowes thanks to my father,he gets the everyday 10% discount on everything since he is a veteran.

 

[powertrip]

Thats funny, for that I give them an A+. If it wasn't for my commitment to buy "American Made", I would give them some business. To go against the grain in this politically correct climate and have the spine NOT to waver in the face of adversity AND a bad economy, should be acknowledged AND rewarded.

Amen brother. Im in FULL agreement.

 

[RicardoD]

Sears website is terrible. Browsing is very difficult. Its like they are trying to prevent you from buying their products.

 

[pro machine Engineering]

I shop sears when I can over all other retail. Why because they are one of the few stores that if a employee gets called to active duty deployed with the military they will still pay the employee there regular wages while the are deployed minus what the military pays. LOWEs and Home depot or HF cant claim that

 

[ChrisF250]

Home depot can't find items in their own store even when the computer says its in stock

 

[GoBlue]

My sears has the best tool selection as well as the highest quality of tools available...at least compared to H.D and Lowes...i shop there

 

[blarf]

Thats funny, for that I give them an A+. If it wasn't for my commitment to buy "American Made", I would give them some business. To go against the grain in this politically correct climate and have the spine NOT to waver in the face of adversity AND a bad economy, should be acknowledged AND rewarded.

There will /always/ be another boogeyman. Just ask the Irish, French, Germans, Russians, Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, Persians, Koreans, Vietnamese, Italians, and don't forget the Pilgrims. Pandering to the current scare is hardly showing spine "in the face of adversity".

Much to my amusement, it seems like Lowes has shot themselves in the foot. The crowd most likely to be pleased by shunning the scary Muslims is, I suspect, also the crowd most likely to pay attention to the COO... and thus the same group of people who've already written Lowes off for selling junk. So hats off to the management team there. They've just pleased a group of people who won't patronize Lowes anyhow.

 

[chickenhauler]

Thats funny, for that I give them an A+. If it wasn't for my commitment to buy "American Made", I would give them some business. To go against the grain in this politically correct climate and have the spine NOT to waver in the face of adversity AND a bad economy, should be acknowledged AND rewarded.

 

[Stuey]

Home depot can't find items in their own store even when the computer says its in stock

I've seen this happen at many retailers, actually, especially if there are only one or two of an item.

 

[85camaro]

I do the bulk of my shopping at HD. I've tried and tried to give Lowe's a chance, but everytime I go in there to get something they don't have it. I then go to HD and, of course, they have it, and then I wonder why I keep giving Lowe's more chances.

 

[e30bradley]

HD: exelent service in stored... tool department is kina shity. the only thing they have that I like are dremils, bosch tools, hammers, and channellocks. sears.. been to one and it was terrible, lowes.. haven't been to one in years.

 

[Lawson4450]

I have been to both HD and lowes lately since im doing so much work on my house and i dont ever seem to find stuff I like for decent price at lowes. I have on occasion but not regularly. I go with either or depending on who has what i need and I dont buy alot of tools from either one just the deals you find once in awhile. I either get them from sears or harbor freight depending on what I need at the time.

 

[xurusaibobx]

Did you try this recently? From what I've been told, I'm under the impression that they've been trying to do whatever it takes to satisfy customers in attempt to boost business. I haven't tried to price-match anything from web to store lately, so I cannot confirm.

i stand corrected i just rechecked the homedepot website it looks like this week they started the buy online pick up in store.. its about fricken time they stepped up to the game of big box retailer status....


i like Sears online pickup in store app on my iphone. i walk around sears tools section find something i like... take a photo of the barcode or enter the item number on the app send it to my cart.. check out on my iphone for instore pick up in 15minutes its ready for me! lol and i always save a heck of money too

 

[Greatbear]

Lowes caving to the nutjob org "petition" sent my last major purchase to HD. As for Sears, I have pretty much written the local stores here off. The Sears website is frustrating, the partsdirect.com site a bit less so. I've ordered stuff from the latter with success, though finding parts for older/obsolete stuff is hit-and-miss.

 

[dwm]

I have to laugh at characterizing Lowe's move as "have the spine NOT to waver in the face of adversity". They did the opposite, they caved to a small lunatic fringe.

My local Sears, which is in a mall that's been otherwise empty for a long time, has generally been good to me. But I'm not inside the store very often, only the pickup area. The website is a mess. I'd like to say you couldn't do worse, but the craftsman.com site proves that you can indeed do worse... MUCH worse. Maybe that's part of the problem... if the craftsman.com site is your measuring stick, the sears.com site is downright fabulous.

My local Lowe's is good for what I buy there. Same for Home Depot, which is right down the street (that's fairly common around here). But I buy very few tools at either place; the selection is fairly limited beyond carpentry, and I'm mostly set in that area and where I'm not, there are significantly better options. I buy gloves once in a while, and consumables. And of course nails, lumber, etc. Neither of their web sites is stellar, but Lowe's seems to be better about being correct about my local store's stock status.

 

[kippieland]

My grades:

All three get F's in the "now your ****" department. At Lowes or HD you can only find one dude that nows what the F he is talking about...and mostly they are retired and end up giving you outdated advice. Sears...well...as someone said "don't ask to many questions of them (associates), they were probably selling dishwashers yesterday!

I think all three of them sell some pretty good stuff and some down right ****. Wood seems to be a challenge for both HD and Lowes....sick of warped Chines plywood! I hate Sears power tools...old design and heavy as hell IMO.

I have both HD and Lowes right near me, so I have learned which store to go to for a given product. I feel lucky because there some big differencies in some areas. Sears reminds me a lot of HF...they can have the strangest stuff some times..but I guess that makes them Sears!

 

[BUCKNERBUCK2]

HD around me = terrible. All my home improvement stuff comes from Lowes or Menards.
Sears I basically just take care of warranty. They lost me with a junk drill a few years back.

Overall, I choose amazon over all 3.

 

[larryq]

I've caught some breaks on the Sears.com website. No _major_ problems, though I know which buttons to push when checking out (eg, the bottom-of-the-page "submit order" button and not the one on the right, etc.) It's certainly glitchy but I get there in the end.

Sears has had some real deals of late and I have to give them credit for not simply playing dead like a lot of dept stores have done with the rise of HD, Lowe's and others.

Lowe's has a pretty good website in my opinion. Never ordered anything online from HD, it's easier for me to go to the local store, so I can't comment on them very much, though I've usually found what I've looked for when searching on their site.

 

[pipsters]

In my area Home Depot has the most knowledgeable staff. Seems to be a lot of out of work construction guys there or retired tradesmen. The Lowes and Sears both employ much younger and/or more retail oriented staff that know pretty much nothing about the products in their stores.

This sounds racist but at my local Sears there are quite a few guys who don't speak English as their first language, it's very hard to communicate with them. Fine if I'm doing a grab-n-go (in-store pickup is excellent here) but not if I need a price adjustment. One clerk wouldn't exchange a Craftsman screwdriver because they didn't know about the lifetime warranty. You'd think that would be Day 1 in training for the tool department...

Just like anything in life you get what you pay for and Sears is paying min wage and attracting high school dropouts. Same as Lowes and HD. I used to work at HD and there was a time back in the 90's and early 2000's that they would pay a decent hourly wage for full time help, $15-$20. They did the Circuit City route and fired them all and rehired people like me for $8.50/hr working part time in college.

 

[blarf]

Home depot can't find items in their own store even when the computer says its in stock

Sears.com did one better. Shows things as out of stock that were hanging on the wall.

All those store ****. All you need is Fleet Farm. Don't have one, move to the midwest.

Hah. We had a pretty decent little chain of home improvement slash hardware type stores. Home Depot bought them out and shut them down.

 

[Grogan14]

This sounds racist but at my local Sears there are quite a few guys who don't speak English as their first language, it's very hard to communicate with them.

No, it does not.

 

[Provincial]

Home depot can't find items in their own store even when the computer says its in stock

I've been doing a big project lately and spent quite a bit of time in the Home Improvement stores. I find that a common problem, especially at Home Depot, is that items are located in the wrong bins/shelves. I have learned to closely examine whatever I pick off the shelf and match it to the description that I want. Plumbing and electrical fittings are often mixed together male/female, wrong size, wrong shape, etc. After being burned too many times I have become more careful. I hate stopping a project to return a wrong item.

I think too many customers pick up an item, look at it, and put it back in the wrong spot. No one from the store checks the bins, so the mixup continues on to the next customer. We are doing their quality control.

 

[BigK600]

All those store ****. All you need is Fleet Farm. Don't have one, move to the midwest.

Fleet Farm is GREAT. But Menards is also great, people in other parts of the country don't know how much HD and Lowes **** until you get a Menards.

 

[ajchien]

Lowes: D/F. In my local store employees are more interested in socializing with themselves than providing any customer service. I have never been able to order online delivery from lowes successfully. The website says it can be delivered, but won't do so.

HD: B/I. In store experience okay. Just a little disorganized with items not where they're supposed to be at times. never made an online order from HD.

Sears: B/B. Not every store carries every item. I couldn't find a 1/2 or a 1/4 breaker bar when I wanted one once. Online search *****, but after the item is ordered, store pickup has worked well for me.

Yeah, my lowes is 2 minutes from my house, yet I choose to drive 15 minutes to go to HD instead.

 

[dwm]

ajchien's post reminded me...

The Lowe's nearest my workplace is a couple of grades below the one nearest my home. I've had the same experience at Home Depot and Sears locations; there's a considerable amount of variability store-to-store.

 

[ajchien]

ajchien's post reminded me...

The Lowe's nearest my workplace is a couple of grades below the one nearest my home. I've had the same experience at Home Depot and Sears locations; there's a considerable amount of variability store-to-store.

I think I would concur. If I had to go to Lowes, I'd consider going to the next one further away, or the next one, or the next one away from my local one. Lol. There is a lot of store to store variability.

 

[kngelv]

As others have stated it really depends upon the store and the personnel you end up dealing with. I have had good and bad experiences at all three. I will say that going to the local Sears is kind of depressing. I used to go to there with my grandfather when I was kid in the 1970's. That store led to my love of tools. It is nothing like that now. I usually to go to Lowe's because they are a little closer and give me the 10% discount for being a veteran. The advertising controversy does not make me too happy. I lived in Dearborn Michigan from 1994-2006. American Flags flying everywhere – even before 9-11. I was the only non-muslim on my block. Never had a problem. Nicest people in the world. Very family oriented. As one of my friends recently said: "You never see any Muslims on Cops." I live around six miles from there now but still shop at the local markets once a week. Unbelievable fresh foods. That Florida organization is nothing but a thinly disguised hate group.

James