Posted on 11/08/2018 8:27:40 AM PST by deandg99
By now, just about everyone has watched one or more local stores close their doors for good. Lowes, a hardware and home improvement store that has been around for 72 years, is closing around 50 of their locations just after Christmas.
Theyre the most recent victim of the retail apocalypse. Thousands of brick and mortar stores closed their doors this year as executives tried to staunch the bleeding in some companies and othersHere went bankrupt. Buyers are flocking to the internet to purchase their goods from companies with lower overhead (and thus lower prices.) And the economy, despite claims of grandeur, doesnt seem to be thriving for everybody.
Why is Lowes closing stores?
(Excerpt) Read more at dcdirtylaundry.com ...
Looks like a lot of them are in Canada.
From then on it was SJW rules.
As I understand 35 are in Canada.
Vast majority are Canadian stores.
The two Michigan stores aren’t in the best area. Probably not a whole lot of home improvement going on.
I live in a rural town in Kentucky. We have a lowes that serves a LOT of other small towns around us. I just found out that the lowes in Lousville that I pass every day on my way to work has MUCH better lumber prices. I’m done with the local store other than for small stuff.
Mostly Canada - 24 there I think, 4 in California, the rest are onesies and twosies per state.
Lowes and Home Depot get their framing lumber from artisans. I’ve never seen pine trees that grow like pig tails. But Lowes sells 2x4’s made from curly pine trees, grown by modern artists. It’s the only way to get lumber to curve, bend and twist like that.
Aliens..............
The closures are split between Canada and the US. (List via CNN)
Alabama
1100 Bankhead Hwy SW, Graysville
California
26501 Aliso Creek Rd, Aliso Viejo
13300 Jamboree Rd, Irvine
720 Dubuque Ave, South San Francisco
750 Newhall Dr, San Jose
Connecticut
48 Boston Post Rd, Orange
Illinois
1333 Schaefer Rd, Granite City
7735 Grand Ave, Gurnee
Indiana
6221 US Hwy 6, Portage
Louisiana
5770 Read Blvd, New Orleans
Massachusetts
599 Thomas Burgin Pkwy, Quincy
Michigan
4274 E Court St, Burton
2100 T.A. Mansour Blvd, Flint
Minnesota
2015 Bassett Dr, Mankato
Missouri
11974 Paul Mayer Ave, Bridgeton
3180 N Hwy 67, Florissant
New York
2008 Broadway, New York
635-641 6th Ave, New York
Pennsylvania
250 South Conestoga Dr, Shippensburg
Texas
3500 W Airport Fwy, Irving
British Columbia
(Rona) 105-1015 Columbia Street, New Westminster
Alberta
(Rona) 11520 24th Street SE, Calgary
(Reno-Depot) 12330 Symons Valley Road NW, Calgary
Ontario
Rona:
1133 Dundas Street West, Mississauga
1692 Lakeshore Rd, Mississauga
132 Black Road, Sault Ste. Marie
943 Barry Downe Road, Sudbury
1575 Chemong Road, Peterborough
1452 Bath Road, Kingston
178 Water Street, Lakefield
Lowes:
6600 Yonge Street, North York
248 Northern Avenue, Sault Ste. Marie
Québec
Rona:
335, Route 209, Sainte-Clotilde-de-Chateauguay
870, boulevard dIberville, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu
723, boulevard LAnge-Gardien, LAssomption
788, rue Moeller, Grandby
134, boulevard Sainte-Rose, Laval
9200, boulevard Maurice-Duplessis, Montréal
1200, rue Mantha, Rouyn-Noranda
194, rue Principale, Ange-Gardien
100, rue du Parc Industriel, Saint Elzéar
Newfoundland
Rona:
825 Conception Bay Hwy, Conception Bay
53-59 Main Highway, Goulds
1297 Topsail Road, St. Johns
60 OLeary Avenue, St. Johns
710 Torbay Road, St. Johns
239 Conception Bay, Bay Roberts
I live two blocks from a Home Depot. The nearest independent hardware store is about 15 miles away. Lowe’s is about the same.
So, unless I need something specialized, Home Depot it is.
I work for a large and very well known building materials manufacturer. Whenever I go to Home Depot or any hardware stores, I take a walk past our area and try to advise anyone looking at our product category.
Whether I recommend out products or not, I always tell them who I work for. Sometimes I recommend a competitor product depending on their project.
Old growth trees are harder to come by. Most newer pine is grown so fast, the growth rings are farther apart so the lumber isn’t as strong and twists easier.
The truth is that we have WAY too much retail space in the US. There’s 23 square feet of store for every man, woman, and child in America. Canada is second with 16 and Australia is third with 11. In Europe it’s more like 5, and yet I’ve never felt a lack of places to shop in Europe. Ultimately, it’s unsustainable and we’re going to end up with a lot of empty space. The interesting question is what’s going to happen to it. They’re already turning dead malls into residences, entertainment venues, community centers and stuff like that.
Industry experts have said that Home Depot has better real estate than Lowes and has invested more in its e-commerce fulfillment.
In Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Home Depot and Lowe’s are only two miles apart. Both stores are ok as far as big box stores go; decent selection at good prices.
But Lowe’s has failed to keep up in many areas. Check out at Lowe’s is slow, few registers are open, and lines can be long; there is no self-check-out. Returns are a total disaster at Lowe’s and are often so fouled up they take 30 minutes. At HD, a return can take less than a minute with or without receipt.
Finding knowledgable people is much harder at Lowe’s.
The Lowe’s online experience is just awful while the HD online experience is really excellent and now in Amazon-class. HD makes it easy to find products on their site, add them to the cart, and pay for them. There are no shipping charges if you pick the products up in the store. I can find obscure parts for $1 or $2 that I need on the HD site that aren’t in the Lowe’s site and have them available for pickup in a couple of days.
Lowe’s has fallen way behind HD in many areas. These closures do not surprise me.
Just a quibble, but the phrase is “STANCH the bleeding.””Staunch” is generally an adjective meaning strong or unyielding.
Same here. I have a Home Depot and lowes in oposite directions of my house but almost exactly the same distance away. I’ll go to Home Depot every time if I can. Had several poor experinces at the lowes near me.
I helped my father build our house in the Seattle area back in the late 1960’s. I remember picking out 2x4’s with him back then.
A couple of months ago I was at the local lowes trying to pick out wood for the last bit of railing for our 40x24 porch and the ENTIRE STACK of 2x4’s were almost worthless. I didn’t need perfection and found the four boards I needed, but even they were flawed - cut from the edge of the tree with bark in large parts of the corner of the wood profile, or the bark gone. Those edges I could hide though.
But most of the boards were so TWISTED as to be literally unusable. I wondered if wood somehow changed in the last decade.
I avoid them now if I can help it.
I buy almost everything from Home Depot if I can. They keep track of all my purchases for tax time.
Lowe’s does, but one year I went to get my printout and it was all gone. They couldn’t help me. So I have bought almost nothing from them in the years since.
Maybe they’ve corrected the problem, but why would I want to take the chance?
The highway is torn up for construction in front of the Texas location. They may be losing their parking lot.
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