Lowe's to close 34 Canadian stores

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by HockeyIlliterate

I'm pretty sure that both Lowes and Home Depot provide the aisle and bin number of an item on their app/website. At least for the US stores, anyway.

It wasn’t a feature last time I looked into it, so I’m glad to hear it is now.

[HockeyIlliterate]

Originally Posted by Table 5

It wasn’t a feature last time I looked into it, so I’m glad to hear it is now.

Seems to be a tad hit-or-miss for me at the moment. You have to set your store location, but some products show up (a test run using nails did), but others don’t (faucets, for me). Could be my location, or just the products that I was looking for tonight though, as I’ve had good success with it before.

[Ducay]

HD >>>> Lowes/Rona

It's not even close.

Better prices, way faster customer service (returns/checkout). Lowes is like stepping back to 2005, and visiting Rona is like going back to 1996.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Interesting perspectives on the level of service at Lowes vs. Rona. My experience has been quite the opposite. When the Crowfoot store was a Rona it was basically the very definition of a do it yourself store - there was practically zero assistance or offers from the staff any time I went. When they changed over to Lowe's it was a completely different experience and last time I was there a few weeks ago I was almost beating them off with a stick there were so many different staff who asked if I needed assistance.

I agree that store improved when it became a Lowes. But I think crossiron lowes declined at the same time. Maybe crowfoot was 0/10 and cross iron was 10/10, now they're both 5/10 or something like that. Service at crowfoot seems to vary by time of day fairly dramatically, and also by department. Online orders are often a crap show, for example.

[dubc80]

I always found the merchandising at Lowe's to be pretty darn good. All their stuff seemed to be displayed nicely with price, descriptions, model numbers, and all the specs listed. The product was usually within arms reach of the display models too.

I went to Rona last year to buy a new vanity faucet for a reno.

Out of the 7-8 display models they had, only 3 were actually in stock and available to buy. They also had a few units new in box, but not out on display. The guy had to open the box and we took it out so I could look at it and touch it. Terrible merchandising.

Reminds me of the terrible car stereo merchandising at A&B Sound and Future Shops back in the day. They'd have a nice big car stereo section but nothing was labelled or priced. You were supposed to be able to press that button to turn the deck on, and match it with whatever subs or speakers but they were almost always broken or never hooked up right.

[Ducay]

Merchendising is great at Lowes, its just trying to buy anything or (heaven forbid) an online pickup, it is an exercise in frustration.

What multinational retailer still has such old fashioned processes where you need to go to a central computer to manually process an online order.

Doesn't help the CS staff are always understaffed at Lowes for the # of functions they serve.

[GP_Matt]

nm

[RoadGame]

Kind of random, but I go to Lowes from time to time because HD quit carrying Weldbond, a Canadian-made wood glue that dries totally transparent. HD USA still carries it, but not in Canada. For scale modelling purposes the stuff is great, I would buy it by the barrel if I could.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by RoadGame

Kind of random, but I go to Lowes from time to time because HD quit carrying Weldbond, a Canadian-made wood glue that dries totally transparent. HD USA still carries it, but not in Canada. For scale modelling purposes the stuff is great, I would buy it by the barrel if I could.

With prime it can be delivered tomorrow via Amazon (of course)

I don't think people get that Amazon is systematically destroying retail stores at a very fast rate, it's a good bet stores like Lowes may not exist at all in 5 years

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

With prime it can be delivered tomorrow via Amazon (of course)

I don't think people get that Amazon is systematically destroying retail stores at a very fast rate, it's a good bet stores like Lowes may not exist at all in 5 years

While I agree in general, I think hardware is likely an exception as a lot of it is heavy or otherwise hard to ship. Lumber, a new toilet, appliances, boxes of tile, paint (dangerous good) are going to be tough to ship.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

While I agree in general, I think hardware is likely an exception as a lot of it is heavy or otherwise hard to ship. Lumber, a new toilet, appliances, boxes of tile, paint (dangerous good) are going to be tough to ship.

I mentioned earlier Lumber and other very large items are fairly safe for now but the rest are not.

amazon toilets

amazon floor tiles

amazon house paints

It won't be long before they get a major appliance retailer to ship for them

[GGG]

You can’t even buy a major appliance in store at Home Depot or Lowe’s anymore. You pay and get it scheduled for delivery. Certainly wouldn’t be a major step to just do it all online.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by GGG

You can’t even buy a major appliance in store at Home Depot or Lowe’s anymore. You pay and get it scheduled for delivery. Certainly wouldn’t be a major step to just do it all online.

Very true although it's usually 3-5 days for delivery/install, you just know Amazon will take it to another level and have it done in 1-2 days and likely cheaper.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

Agree. Even Canadian Tire's website now gives you store specific aisle numbers for their products. That's come in handy for me many times.

And to think when I was a kid CT didn't even have prices on the shelves and you'd have to ask staff to look it up for you.

[stang]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

Agree. Even Canadian Tire's website now gives you store specific aisle numbers for their products. That's come in handy for me many times.

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

And to think when I was a kid CT didn't even have prices on the shelves and you'd have to ask staff to look it up for you.

I freaking love the CT app. No price on an item? Scan the barcode in the app and it comes up, then you can read the reviews.

Need something but don’t want to spend full price? Put a sale notification on it. It comes on sale, boom notification and go grab it. Also has how many there are in stock. Which in my store is pretty damn accurate.

Funny story there was a motorcycle helmet I noticed on the app on sale 85% off. Says there’s 4 of them but no location. Go down and start asking. No one can find them, so I get a couple people looking for them. Most of the employees gave up except one kid who agreed they have to be somewhere. Finally he looks in the back of the parts department and finds them. Boxes have like an inch of dust but I got my $15 helmets haha

[Lubicon]

The CT app is good if it does all that but it also randomly logs me out which RGMG. You don't find this out until you are at the store so of course there is zero chance of being able to successfully remember your login info. If they fix that then it would be an awesome App.