Posted by Wayne-NC on January 14, 2004 at 09:50:43:
You are right. Double is high. One of 2 things will happen, either the price will come down or the biggys will squeeze out the smallers stores. Now, do you EVER buy milk, or any product at a convience (key word) store? Also, factor in delivery costs. HD here charges and the local lumber yards will do it for free. Ofcourse there is a break even point. I try to shop locally most of the time because of the convience and my time may be more valuable than the difference in product prices. Besides, as the previous poster pointed out, sooner or later you will pay double, but not for the product. Time will tell what will happen, and who is right.
Just curious, for those who rehab, who do you prefer to work with.
Also what other suppliers do you prefer?
And what tools have you picked up recently that you really like. I am thinking about picking up one of those cheap $99 steamers and a rigid Shop vac/ bloewr for the same price because of the lifetime warrenty they offer this month. Anyone have any experince in these 2 items. Are they worth having or just nicely advertised junk. What other than basic tools have you been extreamly glad that you added to your collection
Sorry, Its late, I am curious, I cant even be considered a rookie yet. But I love the participation of the site.
Prices at Home Depot and Lowes are very competitive here. Some things may be lower at Home Depot while others are lower at Lowes. Both seem to offer good support. The Lowes store here is newer and bigger, therefore I normally go to Lowes first.
One nice thing about both of them is that they have a 10% price match guarantee. So I check prices at different places on large purchases. Some people may think that this is a waste of time. I feel like if I can save $1000 on a $10,000 purchase of materials then it is worth the extra time that it may take.
Posted by JeffGinFL on January 14, 2004 at 17:19:14:
In my area, HD has the greater selection, Lowes has the more experienced and more helpful staff, and price depends totally on the item being purchased - I get my lights, ceiling fans and the like at Lowes, lumber, tile, trim comes from HD.
One of my tenants recently took a job at HD though so now when I go there, I tend to get personal service. I just find him and we go through my list gathering up whatever I need. That has worked out well!!
As for tools - got myself the Ryobi 8 piece set for Christmas. I believe it carries the only 2 year warranty currently on the market. 18 volt cordless light, recip saw, circ saw, drill, mini chainsaw (practically useless I will admit), jigsaw, charger and two batteries and some other stuff for somewhere around $250. So far I’ve used everything and its all worked well. If it breaks in the next two years, return with no questions asked.
Posted by jasonrei on January 14, 2004 at 10:40:16:
Overall, HD prices here are lower than Lowe’s, at least on my type of rehabs. I swore off of HD several times in my first yr-and-a-half in business, back when I was still doing many of the repairs myself or delivering supplies to my guys.
The last straw was a few months back when I had pulled about $3k in supplies onto carts and I went to the paint counter to get something like 40 gallons of paint. No one was in the paint dept. Asked a cashier to get me someone. Asked a manager to get me someone. Nothing for about 20 minutes. I left and that was it.
Something to consider- If you open up a commercial account and go through the commercial desk you get treated MUCH better. We have an acct at Lowe’s and they’re pretty good. I bet at Home Depot it’s the same.
My contractors prefer that we meet them at HD. We meet them there after they’ve pulled supplies. Spend about 20 minutes going over everything and checking out.
Soooo, Lowe’s has better service but higher prices in general. HD has no service but slightly lower prices. I’d say get commercial accts at both places and go to HD more.
I only do business with local suppliers. They put money back into the community, support the neighborhood where my property is located and keep the local economy viable.
The local guy also sells domestic products, delivers free and gives me an open account. His prices are cheaper than Lowes or Home Depot.
Also, most of the big store’s products are Chinese junk, which will just come back and bite you if you hold a building for rental. Their quality just doesn’t stack up.
Support the big chains and you’ll have nobody to blame but yourself when your downtown dies, your Little League loses its funding and your property taxes soar while your values drop.
When doing a rehab, I usually end up at Home Depot - its a great way to float the costs of materials for 6 months. I signed up for the HD card. Anything you purchase over $299 is no payments, no interst for 6 months. Make sure you pay it off before the 6 months though because interst does accrue and will be retroactivly charged after 6 mos. I can buy $10k of materials if needed and not pay a cent for 6 months.
I’ve never held a rehab for longer than 3 months, so Im always safe.
I understand your concern regarding keeping money in the community and encouraging the economy for small towns and supporting mom and pop operations. The one thing to remember is we live in a free market economy where prices can make or break an economy, product or market. One question to ask yourself is, would you still go to your local hardware guy if lowe’s or home depot were cheaper than him? If your priorities lie with maintaining an economy and not profits then that’s you and I have no quarrel with that. We’ve tried tariffs on imports and that doesn’t work too well. Nowadays, company’s bottom lines are what matters. Especially after all the smoke and mirrors with accounting scandals. The price of products and other expenses play a huge factor. Besides makority of people tend to be drawn to lower prices. Companies know that and have to compete accordingly to increase their earnings and provide jobs.
The cost of labor for blue collar, hourly service jobs is important. The trend has shifted to information based jobs. Americans still have those, to the point that foreigners have to come in for them. Well except for IT which exploded then imploded.
Posted by Wayne-NC on January 14, 2004 at 08:55:21:
It is nice to hear someone say that about the community. I believe in those same principles. However, I usually buy wood at HD which is not from China ofcourse. Also, their prices are not all what they are cracked up to be for all that other junk! We do not have a Lowes here. I live and invest in local small towns so everything I do has more of an impact. I think you are refering to small time outsourcing when money leaves the community for the sake of price. Sounds like a larger problem, doesn’t it?
You are only partially correct in you analysis. LOw prices attract consumers…yes. They also kill competetion…yes. It has been conclusivley proven that when Wal-Mart comes in at least 3 local supermarkets go out. Likewise the same with the other “Big Box Stores.”
Communities are now faced with the dilemna of do we allow the big box stores in to the detriment of our local stores? Locally they said yes because Wal_Mart said that they would provide $500,000 in sales tax revenue per year. An accurate figure. The only problem is that they drove out enough local merchants to cause the city to lose $700,000 in tax revenue for a net loss of $200,000 that we now have to make up in additional taxes.
Big box stores are not always the panacea that they seem to be. I buy locally and get better prices and service that at either of the big box stores here.
Posted by Corey (ND) on January 14, 2004 at 09:23:00:
So would you pay double to “support” your community?
Well that is the case where I live. The regional lumber yard chain here gets TWICE as much for lumber and hardware. I am not exagrrating things one bit either. If they get $1.75 for a 2x4 at Menards, HD, etc… my local lumber yards get $3-4 each.
I have checked prices between the locals and the big boys but it is always the same almost double. So I plan my trips to the big city to buy my things
So it is hard to “support” the community when it will cost you double.