Menards, Home Depot, or Lowes?

[gim]

Given a choice, where do you do most of your home improvement shopping?  I have a Home Depot and a Menards pretty close and I prefer Menards simply because they seem to have a better selection of products.

[Buckeye Ron]

I've always preferred Home Depot over the others because they appear to have a better selection of quality tools. Not the cheapest for sure, but I like them best.

[A-Jay]

Lowes for me - 10% retired Military discount drives that one.

A-Jay

[Russ E]

Menards is number 1. When I moved from Eastern Iowa to Kansas city there were no Menards nearby.

Now we are finally getting a few in the area. I will drive by a Home Depot and a Lowes to shop at Menards.

[ohboyitsrobby]

This ones pretty easy. Lowe's is 28 miles away home depot is like 70 and I couldn't tell you where the nearest Menards is. Sometimes convenience is king

[whitwolf]

Lowes because of proximity. 

[Crappiebasser]

Home Depot because they are the closest. I do drive to Lowes for bigger ticket items because of the 10% discount.

[slonezp]

12 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Lowes for me - 10% retired Military discount drives that one.

A-Jay

Home Depot has the 10% discount as well although they do not openly advertise it.

Normally, Home Depot for me. It's only about a mile and a half away with Menards being about 3 miles away. On a side note, there was a shooting out front of the local Menards last Sunday. I'm done with Lowes. Never had a pleasant experience at their stores.

[James Pondscum]

  Depends on what I need.  Each store seems to have a better selection in some areas.  Lumber landscaping bricks nails Menards. Plumbing , electrical , tile and lawn mowers and accessories Home depot. Lowes excels in other departments.  Spent the most with Lowes this year.  Menards last year?

[Al Wolbach]

1 minute ago, James Pondscum said:

  Depends on what I need.  Each store seems to have a better selection in some areas.  Lumber landscaping bricks nails Menards. Plumbing , electrical , tile and lawn mowers and accessories Home depot. Lowes excels in other departments.  Spent the most with Lowes this year.  Menards last year?

 Ditto. In my area they seem to build within a mile of each other except Menards, none in this area.

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

All three are roughly 5 minutes from me so I go to the lowest price/best value one for what I'm after 

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, slonezp said:

Home Depot has the 10% discount as well although they do not openly advertise it.

Normally, Home Depot for me. It's only about a mile and a half away with Menards being about 3 miles away. On a side note, there was a shooting out front of the local Menards last Sunday. I'm done with Lowes. Never had a pleasant experience at their stores.

 

OK ~ Thanks.

 With Both Home Depot & Lowes close to each other ( and about 10 miles away in town) what one may not have the other usually does.

No Menards here.

A-Jay

[Fishing Rhino]

Home Depot because of convenience, and, I know where the stuff is inside the store.  Lowes build one nearby a couple of years after HD.  Went to it a couple of times, but I wasn't familiar with how the inventory was laid out.  

 

Didn't see enough difference that it would be worth my while to learn where Lowe's kept the items I use on a regular basis.

 

Never seen a Menards, let alone been to one.  Til now the only place I say Menards has been on the side of a race car.  I thought they sold furniture.  Don't ask me where I got that idea because I could not give you a coherent, logical answer.  

 

Ahh, that's the new thing I learned today.  Menards competes with Lowe's and HD.

[deaknh03]

Lowes is more design centered, HD is still hardware store centered. The HD store brand, Ridgid, is dar better than the Lowes brand, Kobalt.

[flyfisher]

13 minutes ago, deaknh03 said:

Lowes is more design centered, HD is still hardware store centered. The HD store brand, Ridgid, is dar better than the Lowes brand, Kobalt.

I am pretty sure Ryobi is the HD store brand and it sucks.  Ridgid is not a store brand at all.  You can get Ridgid at a bunch of different places. 

 

That being said, i go to whichever i feel like will have less traffic getting in and out of on a particular day.  No Menards around her iso it is just between HD and lower for me

[deaknh03]

42 minutes ago, flyfisher said:

I am pretty sure Ryobi is the HD store brand and it sucks.  Ridgid is not a store brand at all.  You can get Ridgid at a bunch of different places. 

 

That being said, i go to whichever i feel like will have less traffic getting in and out of on a particular day.  No Menards around her iso it is just between HD and lower for me

To clarify, neither hd or Lowes owns a tool brand. Kobalt, Ridgid and ryobi are separate companies marketed and sold thru hd and lowes. The ryobi brand is a homeowner tool, whereas ridgid is the pro tool. Both are considered hd "brand" as they are almost exclusive to hd and have promotions, sales and returns primarily thru hd. But yes, ryobi is poor overall quality..ridgid on the other hand makes a solid tool.

[slonezp]

55 minutes ago, flyfisher said:

I am pretty sure Ryobi is the HD store brand and it sucks.  Ridgid is not a store brand at all.  You can get Ridgid at a bunch of different places. 

 

That being said, i go to whichever i feel like will have less traffic getting in and out of on a particular day.  No Menards around her iso it is just between HD and lower for me

They are all made overseas. Milwaukee still does some manufacturing in Mississippi, but a lot of their products are made overseas as well

[Chowderhead]

Have all three within 15 minutes of home.  Usually end up at Lowe's or Menards. HD just doesn't do it for me.

[jr231]

I do contract work for Lowes. Complete kitchen and bathroom remodeling. But I love miluakee tools, so I shop at home Depot. Also their "shark bite" push to fit plumbing pieces have a far better track record than both brands Lowes carries (blue hawk, and prosource ) 

 

Menards has a huge selection in their lighting department. And offer very cheap interior doors . Also is the only place I know where I can get beef jerky for 4 bucks a bag lol. 

I believe home depot's house brand is husky. 

[deaknh03]

3 minutes ago, Yeajray231 said:

I do contract work for Lowes. Complete kitchen and bathroom remodeling. But I love miluakee tools, so I shop at home Depot. Also their "shark bite" push to fit plumbing pieces have a far better track record than both brands Lowes carries (blue hawk, and prosource ) 

 

Menards has a huge selection in their lighting department. And offer very cheap interior doors . Also is the only place I know where I can get beef jerky for 4 bucks a bag lol. 

I believe home depot's house brand is husky. 

That's another reason I use hd, I prefer milwaukee and ridgid. I was upper level management for hd for 10 years, I am a little preferential as I'm more familiar with hd as well.

[flyfisher]

I always thought items that were considered store brand were only available through a specific store aka Ryobi, Craftsman, Kobalt etc...I have probably 10 different stores other than HD that sells ridgid near me not including home depot.

 

I use Milwaukee for all my tools though and can't complain.  Whoever came up with the cordless impact driver was a very smart person.  I use mine over my cordless drill probably 50-1

 

[Darren.]

HD for tools, lumber, etc. So about 95% for me. HD,

Lowe's literally across street from ea. other where I shop,

no Menards.

 

Lowe's for some stuff, store card gives 5% off...

Bought a Kobalt miter saw and stand on sale there last

month. So far very pleased with it.

 

Milwaukee M12 tools for me. Best tools I've ever used.

Have a 40v Ryobi weed whacker (about 3 years old now)

that does the job on my ¾ acre lot, and a fairly new 40v

Ryobi chainsaw that is also quite good for what I need it

for.

 

Same company that makes Ryobi also makes Milwaukee,

and a few other brands. Ryobi can be bought thru Amazon,

as well. Though I don't plan to buy any of their tools, except

maybe the 18ga brad nailer at some point.

[Jigfishn10]

Mostly Home Depot. I do have a Lowes in a neighboring town and do shop there from time to time.

 

My tools are mixed - Skil Saw, Bosch Jig Saw, Delta Table and Miter saws, Milwaukee Hammer Drill, Makita Planer and more - and I do own a Ryobi 18V cordless drill that I've had since 2012. It's the blue family drill. I bought it in a pinch b/c my other cordless drill crapped the bed and I needed to finish a job and had about $60 on me. It still runs very well. It originally came with a Nickel Cadmium battery which are awful after a while. Those batteries have a memory and also drains out when not in use. I ended up getting a Lithium Ion battery replacement for it and have had zero problems with it.

 

3 hours ago, Darren. said:

Same company that makes Ryobi also makes Milwaukee,

and a few other brands.

Yep, true story.

http://toolguyd.com/tool-brands-corporate-affiliations/

 

[buzzed bait]

well this is all i do and i don't prefer one over the other to be honest....  i worked for Lowe's corporate, HD 3rd party vendor and now work for a supplier to both THD and Lowe's.  

Internally, they both know the key difference between Lowe's and THD is a left or right hand turn (convenience).  They've spent millions on market research to find the driving difference and at the end of the day, location is king.  also, not a menards for days around here....

 

 

17 hours ago, deaknh03 said:

To clarify, neither hd or Lowes owns a tool brand. Kobalt, Ridgid and ryobi are separate companies marketed and sold thru hd and lowes. The ryobi brand is a homeowner tool, whereas ridgid is the pro tool. Both are considered hd "brand" as they are almost exclusive to hd and have promotions, sales and returns primarily thru hd. But yes, ryobi is poor overall quality..ridgid on the other hand makes a solid tool.

 

Lowe's actually owns the brands Kobalt, project source (junk), blue hawk (junk), allen & roth, utilitech and quite a few more.  They outsource production of all these materials to other vendors, 99% of them being overseas.  They love these propietary brands because they make a better margin on them by using their own brand.

THD has Husky and HDX that i know of and i'm certain other brands as well, same deal as Lowe's in that they outsource all of these products and make zero of them.

 

17 hours ago, Yeajray231 said:

I do contract work for Lowes. Complete kitchen and bathroom remodeling. But I love miluakee tools, so I shop at home Depot. Also their "shark bite" push to fit plumbing pieces have a far better track record than both brands Lowes carries (blue hawk, and prosource ) 

 

Menards has a huge selection in their lighting department. And offer very cheap interior doors . Also is the only place I know where I can get beef jerky for 4 bucks a bag lol. 

I believe home depot's house brand is husky. 

 

I work for SharkBite and can tell you that if it's not already in your Lowe's, it will be by the end of August!  We are currently in a little over half of the Lowe's in the country and expanding to the remaining states in August!

[Stasher1]

In this area, the Lowes stores are typically cleaner, have wider aisles, and cater to a slightly different demographic than Home Depot. I'll hit a HD store if I'm in a hurry or they happen to be on my way home, but they're never my first choice.  

 

 

No Menards around here.