Home Depot stores and products

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Coppersmith said:
I doubt that. They sell 1000's of items that can be misused. If liability was a problem, they would be out of business already.
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True. You have a point here now that I think about it.

peter d said:
Maybe, maybe not. The only way to get truly good pricing on breakers and gear is to be on a buying program but that requires a pretty large minimum order commitment.
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Yes, but for someone getting just a few items HD at times beats the supply house.
 
Number one reason Lowe's and HD are my usual stops for electrical is because they are, by far, the closest to the jobsite for things not on the truck already, and I just do too much different stuff to have a fully stocked truck, especially since most of what I do is air conditioning, and that's what I stock the truck with and those have to come from a real supply house anyway. Lowe's gets the nod over HD most days because even though the latter has a bigger selection, Lowe's usually has what I can use, and I get an everyday 10% veteran's discount.

I can be in and out of a big store much more quickly than I can go to the supply house and stand in line to TELL them what I want. Half the time, I'm looking at the parts on the shelf in order to decide HOW to do a job with what's available.

The big stores certainly have their faults, but the advantages are also significant. Price differences are often the least of my concerns.

Often, I can schedule a job for a couple days away. In this case, Amazon Prime is my usual source, and I skip the store trip entirely.
 
mbrooke said:
True. You have a point here now that I think about it.




Yes, but for someone getting just a few items HD at times beats the supply house.
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I agree. Lately, the supplier I use most often has been screwing up the most basic of orders. Case in point - I needed a 4 gang plate - 3 toggle, 1 decora. They had to transfer it in from another store and put it in will call for me. No big deal. I go to pick it up and it's a 3 gang decora plate. :slaphead::rant::roll: Thankfully they had a few on the shelf so I was good, but if they had delivered it, it would have been totally wrong.
 
LarryFine said:
:thumbsup: Everything you said, but especially this!
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Here's one I learned the hard way. I remember a long time ago I went to the supply house and got my parts for a job. After I get to the job, I find out I'm missing the cover to the LB. I called my supplier, and he tells me it's sold separately! Well, if I'd been getting things off the shelf myself I would have noticed that. And I was a little pissed off that he didn't say something like: "Do you need the cover with that?" Every LB I've bought at a big store comes with the cover. It sucks to drive across town and back before you can finish and get paid.
 
MAC702 said:
Here's one I learned the hard way. I remember a long time ago I went to the supply house and got my parts for a job. After I get to the job, I find out I'm missing the cover to the LB. I called my supplier, and he tells me it's sold separately! Well, if I'd been getting things off the shelf myself I would have noticed that. And I was a little pissed off that he didn't say something like: "Do you need the cover with that?" Every LB I've bought at a big store comes with the cover. It sucks to drive across town and back before you can finish and get paid.
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Don't even get me started. I wish all supply houses were self serve. The only way I can deal with a supply house is to email an order and have it delivered. I despise going to the counter and avoid it all costs. But even then, they screw things up. :rant:
 
When Home Depot first turned up around these parts it was good for a belly laugh. Prominent in the electrical department was stuff to build electric cattle fences with............ YEEHAAH! Ride em cowboy! Bout a half year later it was all gone.
 
I like how big orange has the price right there. It's so nice doing business with supply houses that slip in absurd prices hoping you won't notice. Just the way I treat my loyal customers :roll: :rant:
 
electrofelon said:
I like how big orange has the price right there. It's so nice doing business with supply houses that slip in absurd prices hoping you won't notice. Just the way I treat my loyal customers :roll: :rant:
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I have one here that doesn't even itemize the receipt. I almost never go there unless it's for a product/brand I know my other suppliers don't have.
 
In our area, HD carries a few things most supply houses no longer have.

Edison base fuses. We still need them every now and then but few supply houses have them.

Riser clamps for a mast through the roof. HD and Lowe's have them but no supply houses lately.

Ground clips. I don't like them but need them sometimes. Seldom seen any more at supply houses.

10-24 screws and 10-32 screws for ceiling fans. I've never seen them at supply houses, though a 3/16 toggle bolt is a 10-24 thread if you need one in a pinch. Ground screws are 10-32 but usually too short for a fan bracket.
 
electrofelon said:
I like how big orange has the price right there. It's so nice doing business with supply houses that slip in absurd prices hoping you won't notice. Just the way I treat my loyal customers :roll: :rant:
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You never know what price you're going to get. :rant: Thankfully the supplier I use has every price online, and it's the exact same at the counter. But a lot of places don't operate that way and use the "pricing matrix", aka the ripoff matrix.
 
MAC702 said:
Here's one I learned the hard way. I remember a long time ago I went to the supply house and got my parts for a job. After I get to the job, I find out I'm missing the cover to the LB. I called my supplier, and he tells me it's sold separately! Well, if I'd been getting things off the shelf myself I would have noticed that. And I was a little pissed off that he didn't say something like: "Do you need the cover with that?" Every LB I've bought at a big store comes with the cover. It sucks to drive across town and back before you can finish and get paid.
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Cast aluminum conduit bodies typically have cover installed when you purchase them. Malleable iron conduit bodies you typically have to order both cover and gasket separately. Big box stores usually only have the cast aluminum versions. Supply house may give you malleable iron by default if you don't ask for cast aluminum.
 
kwired said:
Cast aluminum conduit bodies typically have cover installed when you purchase them. Malleable iron conduit bodies you typically have to order both cover and gasket separately. Big box stores usually only have the cast aluminum versions. Supply house may give you malleable iron by default if you don't ask for cast aluminum.
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I knew there was some secret double-handshake code for the difference, but couldn't remember what it was. Thank you for reminding me.

I hate how when you ask questions at the parts counter of a supply house, they act like it's a waste of their time. You should already know the difference. And you should already know how much it costs. Because it's silly to ask how much something is at the counter, when he has to look it up and waste more time, and acts like you're a cheapskate if you simply want to know the price difference between two different products.

What disadvantages there are at HD/Lowe's are buried behind the advantage of walking in, grabbing what I need, comparing a price or two, choosing a suitable available product for the job, and then only standing in a line (sometimes) to get out. I almost exclusively use the lumber yard checkout. It's usually their fastest cashier. Come to think of it, I don't think I've noticed the self-checkout counters in a while. Do they still have them? If no one was in the line, I got pretty good at doing those, but if someone was in front of me, they usually weren't.
 
Here we do not have meter bases for sale at the big box stores. You get them free from the power company. ;) OK, maybe not free, just included in the price of running power to the residence.

Early in my career I worked in a supply house (Electrical Equipment Company), so I always shopped the shelves for what I needed. Loved to find the "old" crap that they just wanted off the books cheap. Now that I have to go to other supply houses, it is terrible having to wait at the counter and get served.

Count me in the CH-CH panel crowd for personal use. Of course, that is what Electrical Equipment Co. carried when I worked there.....:D

In industrial settings now we use QO and I-Line.
 
peter d said:
You never know what price you're going to get. :rant: Thankfully the supplier I use has every price online, and it's the exact same at the counter. But a lot of places don't operate that way and use the "pricing matrix", aka the ripoff matrix.
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Its getting to the point where I have to ask how much everything is. Makes me uncomfortable and seem like a cheap a__, but well dont try and charge me $6 for a 2.5" plastic bushing.......
 
going to big box stores maybe a little more difficult in the coming future... I read this morning that Lowe's is closing 51 locations, 20 of them the United States.
 
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