Lowes nor Home Depot has everything that I need on a particular task. They may have 80% of it, but never everything.
Got to one, or the other and you end up at both, and still only get 95% of what you need. The rest has to be improvised or acquired elsewhere (Amazon, usually).
I was in lowes yesterday, and I paid cash at the automated checkout, and they wanted my telephone number to complete the sale. I refused and it required a manager over-ride.
I told the manager “you sell home repair/improvement products, not data mining”, stick to that.
Locally, Home Depot inventory control deteriorated. Stuff that I wanted was out of stock.
I started going to Lowes and learned the local emlpoyees were not very helpful.
Presently, before going, I look up the product on line to be certain it is in current stock and then find the location, the aisle and bin.
Since I don’t use cash, with only one or two small items, self check out is both convenient and quick at Lowes.
They likely have a higher percentage than that.
These stores are so enormous even the employees don't know where everything is. Case in point, I spent almost an hour in both stores looking for those little pins that hold up the shelves in bookcases. Never found them and got them online. Then on another trip, I saw those pins hiding in plain sight. There were bags of them hanging on hooks on one of the shelves in a very unlikely area of the store where you would expect to find them.
The online shopping is just a better overall experience. If you ask a Lowes or Home Depot employee about those "pins that hold up shelves", you will likely get a blank stare. But if you put that same phrase into a search engine, you immediately pull up 44,700,000 results in 0.43 seconds. And then you click on the picture below, add it to your cart, and away you go.
Online retail is so superior.
I hate when you go to the check out and they ask for my phone #.
I always say NO. Just ring me up.
and the cashier always looks stunned that i said NO!
Just give them the local area code plus 555-1212 (old directory assistance number). I started doing that thirty years ago at Radio Shack, and at least some of their sales clerks knew what it was. Today's retail workers have no clue; they just want ten digits, and I'll bet the automated kiosk will accept any numbers you input.
Lowes isn't the only company that tries to harvest data every which way. It's good to have a countermeasure or two up your sleeve.
I always give my ex wife’s phone number.
“I paid cash at the automated checkout, and they wanted my telephone number to complete the sale”
for cash, i usually just lie ... and upon the rare occasion someone might challenge me, I demand to know if they’re calling me a liar ...