Why HD?

Status
Not open for further replies.
The Ugly Truth

The Ugly Truth

Why do We get sucked into Home Chepo & Slowes ? It's all about Money here.
Monday, went to Square D Dist here in town looking for 100 amp 32 ckt QO Panel. Counter Guy said they only stock the 20 ckt, but can get a 32 in 48 hrs. Price 280.00 plus tax & shipping.
I drive 3 miles to HD, they have it in stock, 131.00, and comes with 5 QO breakers.
 
I have a friend who owns (used to own) a supply house in Cleveland. He knew the BB had lower prices. When they were a lot lower than his he would go down there with a truck and buy up all the wire so people had to look somewhere else.
 
I picked up some 3/0 at the HD the other day, it was half the price I could get it for at my regular supply house, saved $400.00. :smile:

Deron.
 
Sounds to me that your suppliers aren't giving you any great prices, about the only thing thats usually cheaper at HD is tools. I find my suppliers prices are cheaper most of the time, If I tell my supplier that HD is undercutting them on an item they normally match there price. I think thats where a good relationship comes in handy with an electrical supply house. And Like I said earlier I can call my supplier during the day and have it on my door step when I get up the next morning, just my 2 cents.:)
 
wireman3736 said:
... I can call my supplier during the day and have it on my door step when I get up the next morning, just my 2 cents.:)
Click to expand...

But then you miss out on the fun of picking all of the 1/2" 1 hole straps out of the 3/4" bin.
 
I buy at the electrical supply house. They know me and I can call them if I really need a part and they have stayed open until I got there to pick it up. But if I on the other side of town and I need a fitting or something small I will go to HD or Lowes.
 
I know of no product that Square D makes exclusively for any home center. Square D does offer different packaging (consumer products are usually designated with a CP in the catalog number) and volume pricing.
Click to expand...
The Square D site says:
"C" denotes Clam Shell packaging.
"CP" denotes bulk bar coded breakers.

http://www.squared.com/us/applications/residential.nsf/a7e5d89280d594fb852564cd0069e598/288850f0c1d1e19186256c070072fcbd/$FILE/QOCircuit%20breakers12_01.pdf
 
The electrical department in the HD I go too had a electrician working there for years setting it up with all kinds of goodies. The guy is gone now, but the stuff is still there. I like pulling the stuff myself, kinda of a hands on thing. My electrical supply house has a poor return policy. At the HD if I'm unsure if I need something I just go ahead and buy 10 extra anyways, I then just return the stuff I do not normally stock, keeps me from ending up with a wharehouse full of stuff I only use every 10 years.

There is a major plumbing supply house that I use every now and then that has gone real user friendly. You just walk through and throw the stuff you need in a cart. The other day I had bought the wrong part, brought it back and the guy just exchanged it without any questions or paperwork. It used to be they would frown at you and point at the return policy.

Deron.
 
jim dungar said:
I know of no product that Square D makes exclusively for any home center. Square D does offer different packaging (consumer products are usually designated with a CP in the catalog number) and volume pricing.
Click to expand...

There are several items in Home Depot made by a manufacturer that are exclusive to them. There is a disconect HD sells that is in fact not even in the Square D catalog, and our local distributor proved this to us. And to make things more interesting, shortly after Square D told the distributor to only carry thier products, when they have been a dual line distributor forever. So they ended up dropping Square D all together and picked up Siemens ....... so not only does Square D cater to HD, they also try and force local companies to monopolize the market.
 
The reason HD and such can out price your local supply house is that they buy a gazillion items at once and the manufacturers are giving them huge discounts on the bulk, lets face it, in my case my local guy is 10 min away but once I'm there i to usually burn an hour with the joke telling and BSing, but when I need 500MCM that is where I go, when one of my guys is on a reno project and needs something now he goes to HD, If I need 7 200 amp panel my supplier gets the order if I need 1 200 Amp panel usually HD gets it
 
Why ask why? It doesn't matter to me why the orange and blue stores sell for less, only that they do. Profit = income - outgo. If I can't increase the income, I have to decrease the outgo.
 
Kessler4130 said:
There are several items in Home Depot made by a manufacturer that are exclusive to them. There is a disconect HD sells that is in fact not even in the Square D catalog, and our local distributor proved this to us. And to make things more interesting, shortly after Square D told the distributor to only carry thier products, when they have been a dual line distributor forever. So they ended up dropping Square D all together and picked up Siemens ....... so not only does Square D cater to HD, they also try and force local companies to monopolize the market.
Click to expand...

I would be interested in knowing the part number of that disconnect.

Like any other manufacturer Square D has always made "contract" parts to customer specifications. And they do restrict the sale of some products to some distribution chains (i.e. home centers do not sell industrial automation equipment). Square D has a had a program for encouraging single line distributor houses for more than 20yrs. When finally forced to make a choice one electrical house in my area just dropped Siemens and took on Square D instead.
 
jim dungar said:
I would be interested in knowing the part number of that disconnect.
Click to expand...
I will be going to my job where the 200a mains are later, and I'll write down the part number.
 
celtic said:
There is always a reason to ask "WHY?"
Putting one's head in the sand does not help them gain any perspective.
Click to expand...
What I mean is, unless pressing the issue can result in lower pricing from the suppliers, understanding why they charge more for equivalent items doesn't change the bottom line. I'm always interested, but don't always have time to pursue the truth.
 
I would not worry about it all that much.

We buy a lot of stuff from supply houses. We still buy outlets from a local big box store because it is cheaper to get them there than from a supply house.

The manufacturers of this stuff have widely varying discounts and deliberately confusing discount schedules on just about everything these days.

Sometimes we end up paying two different prices for the same item because they are for different end customers.

We have one customer that gets a 0.49 multiplier on instruments that we get a 0.80 multiplier on. Same exact part numbers.

Sometimes it is cheaper to buy extra to hit a price point, and toss the extras out.

I have seen multipliers from companies you would recognize as low as 0.18.

I ordered 22 panel boards last year for a project. I "threatened" the supply house with Big Orange when they quoted me prices that were 50% above Big Orange prices. They actually got the manufacturer to cut us a special deal just for that project to meet Big Orange prices.

<added>
The point is that there is a LOT of room for price negotiation with your suppliers. The counterman is not the person to talk to about it though. They have little or no say in pricing at all.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top