Good question.
There is a local mom and pop lumber yard in our small town. Their merchandise is all good, but their prices are higher.
All in all I bought over $1500 worth of fencing at Home Depot. I don’t know how much that same material would have cost me at the local mom and pop, but that’s not the point.
The point is - I bought the best material at the best price. I had to reject a lot of “scrap” lumber, but - oh well.
I live on Cape Cod. There is one Home Depot and 2 other similar type stores, one having 3 locations and the other 2.
I have been to all of them. The HD is on average about 20% less item for item. On a $300 item such as a lawn mower that is substantial. They also have a policy of accepting returns for any reason, no questions asked, no receipts necessary as long as it is an item they carry.
It’s amazing the stories that you will hear about Home Depot. I’ve heard them up here from the locals who actually don’t like Home Depot because they think it hurts the local businesses, which I’m sure it does.
People here have told me Home Depot sells inferior merchandise and what they sell is made especially for them by manufacturers but made cheaply so even though the box says the same thing for the HD product and the local hardware sore or home center products the product in the box is not the same.
Quite amazing how gullible folks are.