- This is the truth about
Home Depot versus Lowe's. Which store is better? I'm gonna bring you inside both retailers, do a side-by-side comparison
and showcase the 10 major differences to help you
decide where you should shop. Welcome back to the channel of The YouTube Deal Guy, Matt Granite. Today's video, obviously not
sponsored by either brand. And while I wished I could
have incorporated Ace hardware and Menards having spent the early part of my television career in
North Dakota and Minnesota, I'm gonna pick the two largest
worldwide hardware retailers and do that side by side comparison. If you liked this content please give this video a thumbs up. The first major difference
between Home Depot and Lowe's is of course Home
Depot is more industrial. It caters more toward contractors. Lowe's might feel a bit
more homey when you step inside the doors of that retailer regardless of what neighborhood it's in. And if you're a first
time hardware customer you might automatically feel
a little bit more comfortable in Lowe's and that's deliberately tied to how both retailers are laid out. Now, in terms of locations there's more than 2,200
Home Depot locations and Lowe's has pretty much the same number as both retailers grow
and open more locations, their pricing remains highly
competitive across the board. In a few moments, I'm going
to explain the difference in terms of the price match guarantee between both retailers. And one major misstep that a
lot of people think Home Depot made recently but for my
second point of Home Depot versus Lowe's and how one
retailer has the major advantage I would say Lowe's wins
in terms of appliances but Home Depot might actually
win in terms of sales. Lowe's has a larger variety of appliances in stock at their
stores, and they also deal with significantly higher
numbers of appliances flyers. You're gonna find a better
selection at Lowe's. But I'm sure you guys
have realized the top time of the year to buy an
appliance is generally Black Friday, Cyber Monday,
followed by Labor Day 4th of July and President's Day. Let's take the president's day sale of appliances at Home Depot
that has not yet wrapped up at the time I'm uploading this video where you can see they ran from the 4th of February,
right through to the 24th. Lowe's on the other hand,
seems to terminate many of its sales one full
week before Home Depot. And we saw this during the
holiday season where many of us were cash strapped. And if you were trying
to make a major appliance Home Depot might actually
have been the better choice. Before I tackled painting
supplies and a major difference between shipping speeds at
Home Depot versus Lowe's there's one major misstep
that Home Depot made for a lot of people in the industry and that was when they
dropped the ego brand. Ego power equipment, the
world's largest distributor and manufacturer of power
equipment was dropped by Home Depot in the last year or so. And Lowe's actually picked
up the full Ego catalog which for a lot of people
was a confusing move. Ego is a hardcore
commercial grade contractor favored outdoor tool and
power equipment brand. Now, all of a sudden when
Lowe's adopted that catalog a lot of contractors were confused because they wouldn't
typically go to Lowe's and now they had a reason
and incentive to do so, it did anger, a lot of shoppers. So I'm just highlighting
that as a major difference as part of point two. In the number three spot
for a major difference between Home Depot and Lowe's,
it comes down to paint. Now, if you're painting
your home for the first time you might feel a little bit
more comfortable at Lowe's but that doesn't mean you should buy all of your supplies from them. Home Depot has better painting supplies. They have the clear advantage. Not actual paint but painting supplies. Lowe's on the other hand has
the Sherwin Williams Pink contract which may be the clear advantage. And having spent most of my
adult life in Cleveland, Ohio, Sherwin Williams is a
very proud local brand that can attest to the fact
that there are diehard paint shoppers that will always go
to Lowe's versus Home Depot for that, although you will
find comparable paint brands with the exception of Sherwin
Williams from both retailers. In the number four spot, it's the battle of the shipping speeds
between Lowe's and Home Depot. And if you like Home Depot I'm sorry to say their shipping
speeds are just not as good. I ran many independent shipping tests through both retailers, also took into account customer
service reviews and surveys. Lowe's shipping speeds and
their next day delivery which they pride themselves upon not only faster than Home
Depot, but if you are shopping online, there were more complaints tied to the curbside delivery
options at Home Depot. Although from personal
experience, I can tell you that through curbside pickup,
my experience was comparable at both retailers. In the number five spot before
I tackle lumber customer service and to major difference Home Depot has better lighting supplies. In fact, Home Depot
was first to adopt some of the smarter lighting
supplies, the Amazon Alexa voice service and Google
home ready lighting fixtures, bulbs, and adopters. Their smart home section is growing although Lowe's will rival most of their deals on a regular basis. Home Depot from ceiling fans
to some not so generic lighting fixtures that many contractors are putting into very expensive homes, Home Depot is definitely
the favored retailer between the two. Before I discuss customer
service, in the number six spot as we approached the spring
home improvement season whether it's a wall tile
flooring, or a toilet for an interior project
that you wanna tackle take everything I told
you about appliances and throw it out the
window giving Home Depot the clear advantage in this category. Well, Lowe's usually has more
in-stock products overall and you can find this
in most major categories with the exception of lighting, toilets, flooring and wall tiles, Home
Depot takes the leading spot presenting a wider range of choices some significantly better floor displays and some higher end brands
and that's based on a survey of products offered between
March 2020 and February 21 for the sake of my research
tied to this YouTube channel in the amount of time I've
been covering both stores as a consumer analyst. In the number seven spot though as we talk about analyzing
customer service and surveys and what's available many
everyday people that you ask might actually tell you that Lowe's has the better shop ability. Now we already identified the fact that Lowe's caters to
the interior designer, the everyday mom and
dad, that person stepping into a hardware store for the first time. But if you actually
look at how both stores present themselves, Lowe's diminishes that whole intimidation factor. They have lower store
shelves, gone are those towering hardware
displays and stock shelves and that warehouse feeling that
you will find at Home Depot. I do actually find in my research and this is very unique
'cause I cover Costco and Sam's Club regularly on this channel, the folks that prefer Sam's
Club generally gravitate toward Lowe's, it's
not just the color blue and those folks that love
Costco feel a little bit more comfortable at Home Depot. And there's no explanation for that. For this piece, I actually
spoke to some engineers and some contractors having wrapped up some work at a house that I just sold. And my brother-in-law's
a diehard contractor with a very strong opinion. Home Depot, for whatever
reason they love the smell, they love the lumber, which I'm gonna talk about in a moment, but
Lowe's just makes people feel more comfortable
when they step inside unless they're used to
that colder warehouse feel. In the number eight spot let's discuss the store credit cards and why anyone with a Lowe's credit card,
as long as you're not waiting for a very long time to
pay off a major purchase will actually be better off at Lowe's. So I'm gonna compare the
Lowe's advantage consumer card to the Home Depot alternative because I figure you guys are
a hardcore tool specialists a distributor, or a
manufacturer and contractor. You're likely not coming to me for advice and I respect that, you probably
have a very strong opinion of your own. And if you guys do have
opinions to share, please do so in the comment section I read and you guys make me better at what I do but the Lowe's advantage card
has the one major advantage. And that's the 5% off every
day or the six months special financing which Home Depot matches. But the 5% off every
day could be significant if you are participating in a renovation or an
interior design project or just going to Lowe's to shop regularly. There's also no annual
fee for this credit card and new accounts get 20% off
the first major purchase. Great. If you are looking at the
consumer credit card offer from Home Depot, you do score
that six month financing for purchases that are
North of the $299 mark. But you also get up to 24 months financing during special promotions,
which is amazing. If you're building a house this might be the credit card you turn to. This credit card also
gives you a full one year to make returns, and we
will discuss the return and price match policy between
both retailers in a moment. But you don't get any additional
savings from Home Depot. So if you're not building a house or tackling a major renovation
project where it's going onto your credit card you're gonna do better
with the Lowe's credit card and that additional 5% in
savings, it really does add up for your typical
everyday purchases over the course of year. In the number nine spot Home
Depot has the clear advantage in this category and
that's tied to lumber. Home Depot excels in
terms of straight lumber. Lowe's is definitely
lackluster in this category. And if you look through
any of the major Home Depot versus Lowe's customer
service forums online like this piece, I found on Reddit the person that wrote this
has concluded that Home Depot not only excels in lumber,
but it's always better in terms of quality
than Lowe's straighter. Other people have concluded
there's fewer broken pieces of lumber at Home Depot. Home Depot also often stocks carts filled with the so-called reject pieces of wood that they sell for up to 70% off. So if you just need a small
piece for a small project you're going to have the double advantage both in terms of selection and pricing at Home Depot versus Lowe's. In the number 10 spot, it's
the tool rental discrepancy that gives one retailer
the major advantage. And then for a bonus, I
don't know why I wait. I've so weird but I'm going
to tackle the major advantage given to one retailer in
terms of the return policy. But for the tool rentals
Home Depot has been a little bit more
dominant in this category and you can rent countless
outdoor tool rentals. Although since they
don't have the Ego line you might not be so excited
about their outdoor tool rentals but their indoor selection is phenomenal. You can also rent large moving
and lifting equipment as well as trucks from Home Depot from
almost every major location. If you look at Lowe's on
the other hand though, they're very clear to tell
you that you can rent tools at select Lowe's stores. It's not something they specialize in nor is their selection, the deals they run or their flexibility in terms of pickup and drop off anywhere on the
same level as Home Depot. But I guess that would make sense because if Home Depot is
catering toward contractors and people that build houses
and homes and renovate it would only make sense that they're a little bit more
dominant in this category. And now for the bonus before I deliver the verdict. I don't know why that
had to be so formally, "delivered the verdict." Again, it's not up to
me, it's up to you guys but I'll just interject
with my personal opinion. The major difference in terms of return policies is
something to know when you are selecting between both retailers Home Depot has the
industry leading admirable and recently adopted
180 day return policy. That means if you make a purchase you have 180 days to return it. And if you are a commercial
credit card holder or a holder of that credit
card that I mentioned on the consumer grade level you have 365 days to return the item. If you don't have that green of a thumb and you are buying plants as
an example, not perennials but plants and things just don't go right, you can actually return your
plants and flowers that you purchase from the Home Depot
garden section within a year. That's kind of amazing. Many people will tell
you that Lowe's actually has the slightly better garden center but their return policy
doesn't make it as much of a pleasure to deal with, in my opinion. And in terms of price matching both stores are highly competitive. In fact, if you find the better
price that either retailer the competitor will match
it, plus 10%, which is great. Keep in mind, then it really comes down to how do you feel, what do you want? Where are you happier? And now for the verdict I think I'm gonna favor
lows just a little bit because I liked the
faster shipping speeds. I like the 5% back with a credit card. And although I don't like
the return policy as much from this retailer, I don't
need a full year to determine whether or not I'm gonna
return something in most cases because I've already
implemented into my household and it has its own independent warranty. I'm not a contractor and while I am learning a
little bit more about hardware so I am less of a tool
around my own house, I don't have the needs of
a more seasoned individual that might approach
Home Depot differently. But that being said which
store do I like shopping in? I like Home Depot. I like the way that I feel I
don't exude the strongest level of masculinity as you guys can tell despite how hard I try
in front of my wife. So when I walk into a Home
Depot, I like the big shelves. I like the way that it's
all geared toward people who have a far higher level of knowledge than I do when
I'm shopping from there. I actually like the way
it feels in Home Depot. But from a purely customer
service-based perspective for the way that I need
to learn a little bit more about the products and
have things hand-fed to me and the selection and the fact
that Lowe's actually stocks more products I might be a
little bit more partial to them. But that could change. In fact, you guys have a comment or you think I'm wrong,
please steer the conversation. I learn so much from you guys. And if you did like this content please give this video a thumbs up. Please feel free to subscribe,
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(440)-298-2181 is my number. (440) 298-2181. Thank you for watching. Bye bye.
