I live two blocks from a Home Depot. The nearest independent hardware store is about 15 miles away. Lowe’s is about the same.
So, unless I need something specialized, Home Depot it is.
I work for a large and very well known building materials manufacturer. Whenever I go to Home Depot or any hardware stores, I take a walk past our area and try to advise anyone looking at our product category.
Whether I recommend out products or not, I always tell them who I work for. Sometimes I recommend a competitor product depending on their project.
Same here. I have a Home Depot and lowes in oposite directions of my house but almost exactly the same distance away. I’ll go to Home Depot every time if I can. Had several poor experinces at the lowes near me.
I worked in a local mom and pop hardware shop when I was in high school and loved it. Because I love tools and the like. It was always amazing to me that people would come in and ask me, a 16 or 17 year old, how to properly seal their gas line and things like that. I happened to know it (”Pipe dope, sir, never teflon tape on gas.”) but it’s a testament to how uninformed but needy people will take guidance from anyone who seems to know what their talking about, anyone at all.