Lowe’s Home Improvement

Every one of the four stars here is for the significantly larger and better-​stocked-​than-​average inventory and layout of this Lowe’s, better than any of the other area big box home stores, which elevates it to best-​in-​its-​breed. This Lowe’s has more of the contractor-​end items Home Depot often carried that other Lowe’s do not (in my experience) and has a bigger garden department.
And not a one of those stars is for the clodpated staff, who are all too typical of Lowe’s everywhere, where the training regimen seems to consist of how to look things up in the inventory system and offer to order it for you online and little else. How does someone end up in the tool department and not know how to replace a handle on a tool? How do you end up in lumber and not know what construction adhesive is? How do you end up in the gardening department and not know the difference between a hoe and a rake, much less more arcane tools?
Pretty much every Lowe’s and the like I’ve ever been to has maybe 2 or 3 people who have a clue about things in general, and finding the one who’s working at a particular time is its own challenge. The neighborhood hardware store, on the other hand, has the guys who know how to do things but they frequently don’t have the stock on hand. I feel guilty flitting back and forth; I’d like to patronize a place that has both decent service and decent stock, but it’s 21^st Century America and I am pretty sure they don’t exist anymore.
So, in the meantime, bring your smartphone to surf for the right component, show it to your remedial-​rated staff person and speak very slowly, and then pray that the instructions have been translated from Chinese correctly this time.