Home Depot vs. Lowes

My goal is to renovate one house per month. My contractor and I buy a lot of materials! My contractor gets materials from “the little guy” and tells me Lowes and Home Depot are too expensive. I don’t know. I haven’t checked. What I do know is that I run my own company and a household and I don’t have time to shop around! So, I go to Lowes or Home Depot and grab everything I need.

Typically, what I pick out are light and plumbing fixtures, ceiling fans, the cosmetics. I generally spend about $3000. So, in January, I went to Lowes and spoke to someone in contractor sales. I asked for a discount for large purchases. The manager on duty told me to make a list and he would see if he could discount it. He did. ten percent. The next time I went in, he was not there. A woman was on duty and would not even consider discussing a discount with me. I showed her my paperwork from the week before and the fact that, in that very store, I did get a discount. She assured me that she was not going to offer me any discount.

I left, naturally, not happy. I drove to Home Depot and immediately went to the desk and asked how I could get a discount for my purchases. They very politely sent me to the Help Desk where I spoke with the man there. He said that they offer discount on any purchase over $2500. Only restriction, it has to be all on one ticket. Bring them the list of items, they send it into their bid desk, the bid desk goes item by item and then calls back with what the discount will be. Some things, for example lumber, are not discounted. Some things, for example plumbing fixtures, are well discounted. I was also told that I could leave the list and, if I decided to buy, they would pull all the items and have them ready for my contractor to pick up.

So, I made my list. $2600. It was late in the day and he told me they’d call the next day with my pricing. They did. My discounted price ended up being $2100!!! Wow!!! They offer this service anytime an order is at least $2500. The discount will vary but you can be sure I will be shopping Home Depot from now on.

What is your experience? What do you have to share?