Loew's North of the 49th

[Bob DeWolfe]

In a few months Loews is opening their first box here in Canada. I am only a 15 min drive from the location in Hamilton.

How do they compare to the orange box and what should I expect in service, selection and prices?

Thanks

[Phillip Thorne]

Personnaly I like lowes better...could be we didn't have the orange box in the town i grew up in...i think their prices are a little lower than the orange box...but these are MOHO

[Alan Trout]

In general I think the Orange Box has better prices than the Blue Box. But I also feel that the Blue Box is better laid out and has some stuff that the Orange box does not. Sevice is about the same. They both suck. I find at least in my part of the contry the Orange Box has a bit more buisness.

What it boils down to Is pretty much same Cr*p different Box.

Good Luck

Alan

[Don Bullock]

I have found that Lowe's customer service is better than the Orange Box. The best thing to me, however, is that I can compare prices both at the stores and online. The store that has the best deal usually gets my money. Having both will give you thatchoice that you didn't have.

[Ron Jones near Indy]

When the orange box opened here they had good prices and knowledgeable help. It seemed to me that 3 months later the prices were up and the good help gone. The blue box seems to have a larger selection, better prices and more knowledgeable help than the orange box. My personal favorite is Menards. Seems to me to have better pricing, bigger selection and more knowledgeable help. Wood from any of them is marginal at best. If I want construction grade lumber or plywood, even cheap stuff, I will NOT go to the orange box.

[Clint Winterhalter]

I too had a great experience when the Orange Box opened by my house. Prices were wonderful and the service was first class. Several Months later.. POOF it was GONE.

Lowe's stores are gennerally: Cleaner, brighter and more organized. I've had very positive service from them as well.

I find there prices in line with the Orange box for the most part...

I think you'll enjoy have a Lowes near by..

Regards,
Clint

[Larry Fox]

I pretty much agree with Alan Trout - except I find my local Orange Box laid out better for me.

To summarize our local boxes - I like the Orange One but my wife likes the blue one. I am not a fan at all of either one as I spent a few years working on an old house and they were of NO use to me.

If it is anything even SLIGHTLY off the norm you are not going to find it at either one.

All that siad, I find myself there quite frequently and rare is the day when I get out for less than $100.

[Karl Knoernschild]

Lowes seems to be better at some things, HD at others. HD has a better selection of loose fasteners and better paint (IMHO) whereas Lowes has a better selection of trim, tile, and some other things. I also go to Menards occasionally - they have a much better selection of hardwood and sheet goods. One big caveat, though: stores in different areas may not carry the same stock.

[David G Baker]

I was going to flip houses in California but the only local source for supplies was an Orange Box. After having several horrible problems with the Orange Box while doing a remodel on my home I canned the idea. Left California, moved to Mid Michigan and a year later a Lowe's moved into my old neighborhood about 3/4 mile from where I lived. Now I am back stuck with the Orange Box in Michigan and have to make a 50 mile round trip every time I need something they have. Menard's is being built not to far from where the Orange Box is located. Can't wait. Now if only they would build a Lowe's close by!
David B

[Ernie Hobbs]

I have a Lowes and Home Depot right down the road from me. I prefer Lowes way more than I do Home Depot. I don't exactly know why but, I usually leave HD angry- I guess it is the poor customer service. I can't ever seem to find anyone to help me or answer questions. I'd avoid it altogether but, they carry Norton 3x sandpaper and Lowes doesn't. I think you'll like Lowes. I find they are more helpful, and seem to know at least a little of what they're talking about. But don't get your hopes up- they aren't a woodworking store. They cater to contractors and DIYers. Real woodworking supplies are scarce there.

[John Schreiber]

We have a Menards, a Lowes and a Home Depot all within a mile and a half of each other. Menards is definitely my favorite. Just seems like they have what I'm looking for and sometimes actually have helpful people.

My expectations for service at these places is very low. Even so, at Lowes I am often disappointed. I won't shop at HD any more because often they only allow self checkout. I don't want to do one more thing to make interacting with people unnecessary, so unless there's a checker, I don't buy.

Now at the True Value, they will spend 10 minutes with me trying to find the exact right bits of hardware, then I take it to the counter and tell the girl that I've got 6 of these for 8 cents each, 3 of those for 12 cents each and she takes my word for it. It's like Norman Rockwell.

[Mike Buelow]

The blue box has the orange box beat in power tools hands down. That section is layed out much better and not the crampled two aisles at orange.

One interesting thing about the blue box in MN is that they all are catching up. The Orange boxes had a 15 year head start. Many of the blue staff had NO clue about their jobs for the first 6 months, where I've only found a few people at HD that don't know what they're doing. One gal at the blue box replied to my question "My boss said this was on the test so I should know the answer and he's not going to help me." For real.

For me Menards is almost like another harbor freight. If you know you need cheap commodity items-- go there. There are a few old school menards that are like a drunk layed out the store and feature disheveled outdated ways of displaying merchandise.

The orange box gets a hard time from a lot of folks, but I continue to go back by choice. I've come to count on certain individuals in different departments and I've also never had anything but cheerful help getting a piece of junk plywood onto the free panel cutter. Most of the folks there seem to like their job and want to help.

[Steve Schoene]

While the opinion isn't unanimous, the thrust of this thread certainly shows why there is a job opening at Home Depot. Bob Nardelli has left the CEO position after 6 years at the helm, taking with him a severance package worth an estimated $210 million. Clearly one thing he was good at was negotiating a great contract when he was the fair haired boy. Companies should perhaps consider the implications when they hire someone who wants to have a hugh severance package in his contract. Seems to me as if he had just a bit of lack of confidence in his own abilities to perform when he took the job.

[Benjimin Young]

Bob, maybe when the Blue Box opens in Hamilton they will have some door crasher specials to beat up the Orange Box. Might be worth a drive for me, I'll have to keep an eye open for ads or info.

Ben, Toronto

[Bill Lewis]

This could potentially be opening a big can of worms. You'll never find any group like this in total agreement over the debate of "Who is better, blue or orange?" Frankly I think it's somewhat of a regional, and even a locality issue.

One generalization I think I can make is that Blue tends to market to homeowners, and Orange markets to contractors. Or put another way, Orange has what it takes to build it, and Blue has what it takes to finish it with a lot of crossover for both.

In my area, I think they both bascally suck when it comes to customer service with the pitifully unknowledgeable staff they employ. As someone mentioned When HD first opened up it was quite a different picture, In our case every staff person greeted you and was helpful. That faded out over a couple of years, and now it seems that they go out of their way to avoid you. Lowe's was behind the curve on this, but quickly caught up to be equally inadequate.

Again I have to emphasize that this is a completely local thing. I have been in some stores in small towns that are completely different. Tons of helpful staff, neat, clean and organized, and this goes for both blue and orange.

If I had to guess, I'd say that these stores use a staffing formula. X square feet of retail space has Y number of employees, regardless of the fact that store A only serves 2500 customers per day vs. store B that serves 15000 customers per day (I shop at store B).

The building boom over the last 10 years or so has also contributed to the loss of good people. So for big jobs, when I want quality building materials delivered to my house I go to a local lumber yard and sit down with a sales rep. He's been there for many years, he knows me by name, and gives me a better price than ordering at the counter. The down side to the lumber yard is that they have limited weekend hours, and finishing materials are practically non-existant.

So if you're lucky, the store will start out great as they are trying to establish a presence, and by they time this fades out you'll know where things are so you won't need the staff later on. Sorry for the cynical rant, I hope your region is better served than mine, I don't wish bad service on anyone. This is the just way it is in my area.

One last story about an experience I had the other day. I needed a router bit, so I go to HD to get one. The one I needed was locked in the (porter cable) display rack. I waited in the checkout line at the tool crib to ask the cashier for assistance. The cashier asked another employee who was there (fumbling with another customer's items) if he knew about opening it, but he didn't either. The second guy left without offering to help, or seek out any further assistance. Then the guy who operates the key machine shows up, and he is asked to help. He gets me the router bit, but does so by using a pair of hand pruners to cut the package from the locked rack. However he won't hand me the ($17) bit, but insists on walking it up to the cashier, who now has a line. The bit goes under the counter, and I wait in line to check out. The thing was, I had a some more shopping that I wanted to do, but obviously I wasn't going to get that bit until I paid for it right then and there. So when it was my turn I had to remind the cashier to get the bit from under the counter I checked out and I left.