Menards

This Menards is one of the best Menards Ive been too… they carry a lot of different things that other Menards don’t…I skip the Menards on Madison’s east side to come to this one for the fact they carry so much more of everything. So why 3 stars… well service here usually sucks… I always have to wait in line.3,4,5,6,7 people in a line while dozens of other employees wander around doing other things… and then they open a new line when it gets longer and take people from the back of the line as you have already been lined up for 10+ minutes.

Worst customer service ever! 45 minutes before closing. Employees avoid you instead of helping you find what you are looking for. Then when you ask for your paint to be shaken. They tell you in a stern voice NO WE ARE CLOSING AND DON’T HAVE TIME. $ 350 purchase and they make you bag it at the regester. time to switch to Home Depot.

The people in the plumbing and electrical department are really helpful. Always have a great selection and the best deals. I remodeled my entire kitchen using their Black Friday sales too!
I just wish you could enter and exit through both sides of the store like at the Depot.

I hate that each Menards is laid out differently; it’s really dumb.
It’s totally true that the employees usually don’t know a thing about the parts or items sold. Often if you ask the wrong guy they will say something like ‘I’ve never heard of that’ and that’s basically the final answer. Don’t bother asking is my general rule.
However, you need to remember the clerk is probably being paid minimum wage or only a buck or two better. The clerk does not claim to be a plumber, electrician, or carpenter so don’t expect them to know the things a plumber, electrician or carpenter would.
You came hear because it’s a little cheaper than Home Depot where the guys/​gals in each department actually seem to know a little about their zone. Being rude to the poorly paid cashier does not help anybody.
I hate that they always have to ask ‘will this be in a Menards card today?‘
Three stars because it’s cheap, delivery service is good and can usually be next day, and the stores are well disbursed around town.
Again…I hate that each store layout is different; so frustrating.

Wow. Literally worse customer service in the department store industry… what a JOKE the staff (older man and «manager») at customer service acted as if I were interrupted the pope for god sakes (no pun intended… okay maybe a little) I didn’t realize pay customers, or customers in general were SUCH a burden to you folks… menards has been getting a bad rap for years… NOW I KNOW WHY!!! Farm and fleet or fleet farm is my only go to now! Mainly because menards (and home depot, which is almost as bad) are a complete waste of my time, money, and business.

I should have heeded the Unilocal star rating when heading to this Menards, but it was right next door to my former storage unit so I thought I’d just pop in real quick to put together an easy DIY project — giant Jenga.
I am not inclined to the sorts of projects one would need to visit a Menards for, so after spending some time wandering their giant, giant store I saw a counter that did custom jobs and inquired where I could find 2x4s and how many I would need to get the number of blocks I desired. The older gentleman sitting at the computer was unhelpful, but a younger woman who was behind him walked over to help. She was the one bright spot in my soon to be hellish trip (and worthy of her very own star in the rating).
The woman helped me calculate out how many pieces of wood I’d need, and drew a little diagram with the cut measurements. I opted to have Menards cut my wood for me — I don’t own a saw and while it’s a little steep ($ 1/​cut), I figured in the end it would be cheaper and easier than me renting a power tool and measuring everything myself. I was probably wrong about the latter part.
After helping me out, the woman referred me back to the man at the computer to place the order. He told me to take my printout up to pay, then to go out back to the lumberyard. I was to let the gate guard know I needed wood cut, and they’d radio ahead to have someone meet me with a forklift and they’d grab the wood and cut it. Sounded easy enough.
While paying for my order, the woman who had initially helped me came sprinting up — she realized she’d made a mistake on the math and I’d need one more 2×4. She ran over to customer service, printed out a new invoice, and had me on my way. This is where the good part of the trip stopped.
After paying, I drove around to the lumber yard. I let the guard know I needed cuts. He radioed it in. After some searching I was finally able to find the correct barn to pull into. I pulled up next to the stall number that had the 2x4s and waited. And waited. And waited. After 30 minutes of no one showing up and no workers in sight, I called the store. And waited. And then got an automated message saying no one was able to take my call and then got hung up on. Awesome. I got out of my car, and was finally able to track down an employee.
I explained that I’d been waiting for 40 minutes and no one had helped us.
«Well, you should have picked out your wood then driven it over to the saw. I got the message telling me someone needed cuts, but I thought that was for someone else.» I explained I was told he would meet me with a forklift and that he would bring the wood to the saw. He told me that’s not how it works.
After finally getting the wood to the saw, I showed him the diagram and he had no idea what to do. I explained it, and he went about cutting everything. With a presumably dull blade that chewed up the wood. While complaining. The whole time. I came to find out he was literally the only person working in the entire lumber yard, which is insane for many reasons — the most disturbing being that if he got hurt, no one would have any idea. From a consumer standpoint, there is no way one person can adequately staff such a big area.
While the guy cut our wood, another truck pulled up to ask if his order was ready. The same older man who had been initially unhelpful had told them he would call in their order and have it ready by the time they were done shopping. Again, this is apparently not how it works. The other customers had already spent an hour putzing around waiting, and were not pleased that they had to wait for my order for theirs to even get started. Totally fair, considering I needed 40+ cuts.
Another Menards employee eventually showed up zipping around on a cart, and talked to both of us customers after the complaining cutter told him that everything was being done wrong and he literally can’t do his job. Zippy guy went to track down the old man inside, but didn’t do a whole lot to help the situation in the lumber yard (and again, left the saw man alone in a giant yard with no help).
After nearly two hours since I had set foot in the door, the order was ready, albeit shoddily since the ends were all chewed to bits. Glad I grabbed a big old stack of sandpaper, as I don’t think I would have been willing to return for more.

Stopped here close to closing recently. I asked for help which I received but the guy at the desk seemed less than interested. The checkout person was a young lady and she was super nice. The store is just so damn big. I wish it had 5 entrances that led to where I wanted to shop.

I usually shop here when the local hardware store down the street doesn’t have what I’m looking for or if I need lumber. One day, I accidentally dropped a bottle of rust remover gel in this store and it spilled everywhere. I did the right thing and went to the service counter to let them know. The guy behind the counter said nothing and called someone to the front to clean it up. It was an awkward exchange given he didn’t say anything. Usually a costumer service person would say «don’t worry about it» or «no problem» after you apologize for making a mess but whatever, maybe he was busy. But, then the guy who is coming to clean it only brings a roll of paper towel so I try to tell him that this stuff is pretty wicked and that he might want to wear plastic gloves. He gives me a look like he is confused as to why I am talking to him, says nothing, and proceeds to clean up rust remover gel with his bare hands. So bizarre! If you have to shop here I recommend avoiding the employees as much as possible. From the other comments here, it sounds like they try to avoid you so it should be too hard.

I just keep going. Why? Because we do not have a Lowe’s. I stopped in for a sale on Klement’s brats. I am a sucker for a sale. 10am, one line open. A quick stop for some brats and it took me 30 minutes.
Lesson learned, money saved is time spent.

Was hoping to get the right parts for our leaky shower handle. Its a sad day when YouTube is more helpful then these employees. As my wife points out, the first guy wouldn’t even look away from the boxes he was breaking down.

This past summer I built a new expanded porch on the front of my house. In the process I went to home improvement stores a lot. This Menards was recently remodeled and expanded. The yard area out back is much nicer and easier to get around than it used to be. The inside is huge, but arranged poorly. Now when you need to order stuff from the yard you have to go to the back corner farthest from the entrance. I get that they want you to wander through and maybe pick up random crap, but when all you need is bags on concrete it’s annoying to have to make that trek. The new checkout lines are set up in a really dumb way. It forces the checkout person to have their back to you for most of the time that they are checking you out and you have to bag things yourself now. Inside the store I’ve had to hunt around when I did need help with something, but once found they sales people would be helpful. In the yard you can rarely find anyone to help with locating products or loading the heavier stuff.

This place might get 3.5 stars really, but the lack of wasp spray had me downgrade a smidge. We stopped in here looking for 2 things: some wood stain touch-​up stuff and wasp spray. They had numerous options for the first, but none for the latter. We were told it existed, but among the myriad ant, mosquito, bedbug, spider and even mole repellent/​fogger/​eliminator, there was nothing for wee flying beasties. However, I did learn they are carrying couches seasonally. And that was good news.

When walking into this store you get the impression of distrust right off the bat. You walk into a highly secure well thought out maze that forces you past all of their high profit items or whatever they want you to see on the way to your can of WD-​40. They just «remodeled» the Monona store and made it much larger (like it wasn’t large enough already), and it is now ridiculously large, to the point I will not go back unless I absolutely HAVE to. I am partially disabled and can have a difficult time walking, so when a store forces you to walk through needless extra aisles it becomes very daunting.
This store seems «artificially» large and there is a TON of wasted space, it appears that they made the store as large as they legally could, and for no other reason than that.
I also resent being distrusted to such a high degree. I fully understand that they must maintain a secure place, but Mernard’s makes it super obvious. On the subject of distrust, I think they may distrust their employees even more than the customers. This is blatantly obvious when the cashiers have to get a manager’s approval to accept a $ 20 bill or do any sort of pricing change in correcting one of their all to frequent «computer goofs”(funny how these «innocent» computer error/​pricing over-​rings are ALWAYS in their favor). They also boast a computer at the customer svc. counter displaying the Menard’s website, but it doesn’t go «on-​line». They offer a price guarantee but have no way to verify or look up a competitor’s price due to this seemingly and prevailing level of distrust of everyone.
I will give Monona Menard’s props in just ONE area (Monona Menard’s has an extra large wood shed and selection) and that is their lumber quality and selection. They have the most extensive assortment of awesome quality lumber I have ever seen in any lumber retailer anywhere. They have lumber assorted by species and size and it is not all culled and picked over, it is always nice, clean and straight.
If I have to ever return here it will be only for the lumber and building materials selection which is far superior to The HD or Lows.

I’ve been in a Menards a LOT ever since I was a young kid following my Dad around on the weekends. However, this review is mostly based off of a shopping experience that I undertook there.
I was in the market for a couch and shopped around at a lot of places, wasn’t looking for anything too fancy or expensive. Someone gave me a tip that Menards was selling a decent one for $ 250 so I went in to check it out (this was their East Towne location). After giving it a day of thought I decided to pull the trigger. I called the east side and they said they only had the floor model left (they were priced to sell). I asked if their other two locations had some in stock, and they said the west side did, so I called the west side and had one put on hold so I could buy it that evening.
Get to the west side and they have the loveseat, not the couch. ARGGG, I thought these things were organized by SKU, you messed up on the store computer on that one, East Side. The Monona location still has one left though! It’s the floor model, but now it’s $ 200 (after $ 50 rebate). OK, fine. I go to the Monona location and ask if I can buy it now and pick it up in a few days when I can borrow my dad’s trailer and haul it to my apartment. They say «No» we don’t do prepay anymore. Darn. I ask if I can put it on hold and my dad can alter his schedule so that he can pick it up tomorrow morning (this was a deal on a couch that I didn’t want to let get away). The sales associate calls his manager and they make a big exception for me. That I’m happy with, and I commend them for being flexible.
However, I go to put it on hold, and they say that I need to pay for it now when I put it on hold. What??? So you first say that Menards doesn’t do prepay (pay now, pick up later), but when I put something on hold to buy and pick up later, I have to pay now? What’s the difference???
Anyway, I’m happy that I found such a deal, and I’m happy that they were willing to make a small exception to their rules, but Menards you really need to get your stuff together.

Don’t shop here. The owner John Menard is PURE EVIL… Menards is a terrible place to work, not a good corporate citizen, and a terrible customer for its’ vendors. Spend your money in a local hardware store.

Okay, if you would have asked me what I thought of Menards when I was like 10 years old, I would have said «I fucking hate that place». I didn’t swear when I was 10, but I probably would have if you asked me that.
My parents did nothing but drag my sister and I to car lots, boat lots, and Menards on the weekends. I remember so many long Saturdays of going to look at boats, and sitting in the car with my sister for an hour trying not to beat the shit out of each other, and then going to Menards and being dragged around the store for like EVER.
Now that I am all grown up, I will go there for door knobs and screws, and plastic for the windows, and whatever else. It basically has everything, and now I totally get it.
Plus, I totally love that they have the same song playing that they have had since the dawn of time playing on the loudspeakers.