LOW Forum Topics
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- Lowe's: 5 Star Strong Buy [view article]
- Can't Short XHB? Create Your Own Homebuilders ETF to Short [view article]
- 8 Stocks to Benefit from the Coming Uptrend in Housing [view article]
- Lowe's Profit Drop Is Not That Bad [view article]
- Home Depot: Avoiding Shares Until Management Takes Charge [view article]
- T. Boone's Stake - Fast Money Recap (5/20/08) [view article]
- How Lowe Can You Go? [view article]
- Options Trader: Monday Outlook [view article]
- Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [view article]
- Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [view article]
- Home Depot Slows Down Expansion; Still Losing Customers to Lowes [view article]
- The WSJ Is Wrong on the Housing Crisis [view article]
loading ...Recent LOW Articles
- Tech and Healthcare Offer Growth at a Discount - Barron's Interview
- Lowe's: 5 Star Strong Buy
- America Spends Rebate Checks ... at Home Depot
- T. Boone's Stake - Fast Money Recap (5/20/08)
- Housing-Related Industries: Steady Downward Trend - Housing Tracker
- Home Depot: Avoiding Shares Until Management Takes Charge
- Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News
- Lowe's Profit Drop Is Not That Bad
- How Lowe Can You Go?
- Options Trader: Monday Outlook
- Full List of Articles »
The WSJ Is Wrong on the Housing Crisis [view article]
You forgot to factor in the large immigrant population flowing into the USA. Also not factored is the pent up demand that is now occuring as 20 and 30 somethings have been living with Mom and Dad and will be ready to venture out when houses drop some more and times get better which is most probably sometime in 2009.Reply
The WSJ Is Wrong on the Housing Crisis [view article]
The venerable WSJ has been saddled for a few years with editorial page editors who are there to put out ideology from the conservative political viewpoint, not from the business viewpoint. It's been described elsewhere how the professional business journalists at WSJ are embarassed by what goes on on their editorial pages; you're just confirming the problem. Conservatives can't stomach economic downturns, they (rightly) fear the public will turn to government and regulation and taxation and all of the things they hate on ideological grounds, so in Larry Kudlow fashion they try to bend the economy to their will with happy talk... ReplyHome Depot Slows Down Expansion; Still Losing Customers to Lowes [view article]
Truth is HD has hurt itself by opening & flooding each area with too many stores. Waste of money and doesn't really improve the overall sales of each store. It only reduces the total amount of sales of each store at the end of the day. Don't even factor in prices of products, if the product is the same Lowes will price match and beat it by 10%. Appliances? Lowes is the #2 appliances seller behind Sears. Each store pretty much has instock appliances of the displays there and can Special Order hundreds of others. Not really even a good comparison to say every store of each company is the exact same. One HD store may do really better than a Lowes stores in one area and vice versa in another area. Even by amount of sales of stores, a Lowes store will make much more daily than a HD store, due to "cannibalization&... method. You usually have 1 Lowes store compared to 3 or more HD stores in the same area. Customer Service will vary from store to store. Lowes does tend to cater to the "non contractor" retail customers and HD tend to cater to the contractors. Associates? You will often find that both companies will be very very quick to hire the former worker or recruit from each other(often due to less training involved and quick placement on the salesfloor for customer service). HD & Lowes, both got caught up in a buying spree(buying companies that were often suppliers), which both were not really in any position to really run the supply companies. Most customers & shareholders don't even realize that both companies actually stock products that are bought from each other. For some odd reason seems like the "corporate level" thought they could put the squeeze on each other & not notice it would be putting the squeeze on their biggest buyer. As you can probably tell I am an employee of one(Lowes). I have more than a few family members that work for both companies from associates to management. Truth be told, both places are warehouses that sell just about the same products. And no Lowes does not want to be like HD at all. We like our customer base to be the "non contractor" customer and I think HD bread and butter is contractors. True enough HD is our competition but that doesn't mean we want them out of business. Thats just not American and the consumer really benefits from it with getting the best value and eventually best service for the battle of their repeat business. Also, money wise, I do own stock in both companies! ReplyHome Depot Slows Down Expansion; Still Losing Customers to Lowes [view article]
Todd, sounds like you have a little bias toward Lowe's, possibly even a stock holder trying to sway the market. The only reason one can find any help in a Lowe's is because no one shops there. Yes, Lowe's shows better comp sales because they are still growing. Home Depot has recently taken on a new CEO and is changing direction back to what they know. Home Depot is established, the market leader, and will grow further as they clean up issues created by a prevoius CEO. As for associates on the floor, there is a point of diminishing returns. Home Depot has always put just enough people on the floor to help the majority of those in need and get necessary tasks accomplished. If they were to put one more person in every department, employees would have too much time on their hands, money would be wasted, and stockholders upset. As a customer of Home Depot, when shopping, I try to go in with a good attitude, get to know key personnel, research my project, and above all realize that the sign on the front of the building says, "Do it yourself warehouse". Bottom line, if Lowe's sold product at the rate Home Depot did, one couldn't find any associates on their sales floor. Typically, I've found about one associate per two departments in Lowe's and asked by them if I needed assistance on one in twenty visits. I have also found that many Lowe's associates have been let go from Home Depot. A couple final notes; when shopping either Home Depot or Lowe's, your procrastination is not their problem. Don't wait until the last minute to start any construction project and expect the retailer to perform miracles. Construction takes time and is messy. Mistakes will be made and orders late. Plan ahead and educate yourself. ReplyLOWES
Home Depot Slows Down Expansion; Still Losing Customers to Lowes [view article]
I currently work at the depot and do agree with some of the comments above. I do think we need to get a new CEO and i do think we clutter up the stores, which come from corporate on where to put stuff. Home Depot is more of a contractor store than Lowes. i have shopped at Lowes and think the service is worse than Home depot. I also believe that alot of Lowes associates work for commission, which i do not like. I do think hd is getting better than when nardelli was here. He destroyed the company. I think its a good thing the company is closing some stores that are underperforming. When it comes down to it, hd is #1 for a reason, the company just made a couple of bad moves. ReplyHome Depot Slows Down Expansion; Still Losing Customers to Lowes [view article]
Please pay attention when 1Q08 results are released.....these arguments around THD store cleanliness and warehouse environment are half baked and over 1 year old. THD is slowly focusing on core retail and winning back market share. At the end of the day....when Lowes wakes up - they want to be THD. No questions asked. ReplyHome Depot Slows Down Expansion; Still Losing Customers to Lowes [view article]
I run a remodel business and have always gotten better service at Home Depot. The last time I went to Lowes to buy 19 sheets of Drywall and asked an employee to help me put it on a cart. He told me it wasn't his department and walked off. I left and went to Home Depot and they loaded it right up for me. ReplyHome Depot Slows Down Expansion; Still Losing Customers to Lowes [view article]
The stock holders should demand some changes at the HQ level of HD. When you have 2 companies with basically the exact same product lines and target market (and stores usually within a block or two of each other) and one company is doing substantially better than the other, then you've got to question the oveall management starting at the top.I prefer to shop Lowes because of the same reasons already stated... cleaner more eye-appealing store, employees who actually help you, and products actually in-stock rather than having to be ordered. HD was the first to come into our town & we were glad to have it. When Lowes came into town about a year later we had been conditioned to believe Lowes was going to be higher priced so we intially avoided it, but it only took a few trips there for things we couldn't find at HD to eventually discover it was a nicer more organized store with much better service.
Does HD want to cater to mainly just the contracting sect, or do they also want the business of the average consumer??
A note to HD: I've now bought 2 refrigerators, a washer/drier, multiple custom window blinds/coverings orders, multiple ceiling fans & light fixtures, etc etc at Lowes. I may not be a BIG customer, but multiply me by thousands. That's a lot of business to let go to the competition just because you have this "warehouse" mentality at HD. Think about it.
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Home Depot Slows Down Expansion; Still Losing Customers to Lowes [view article]
As I residential builder, I can only concur with the findings, Home Depot is not in the game with Lowe's. They don't even have their own delivery trucks, and cannot make decisions at the local level on much of anything. Their appliance depts. do not carry the products in stock, but you place an order -- like a Sears catalog store. Never again will I buy an appliance at Home Depot unless it is in stock at that moment.Nardelli and his clowns have just about destroyed Home Depot, and it shows no signs here locally (SC) that it knows what problems it has. Lowe's isn't perfect by any means, but much easier to work with.
Home Depot stock should tank, and then I might buy some, but for now, Lowe's gets my business and my money. Reply
ragmatist
Home Depot Slows Down Expansion; Still Losing Customers to Lowes [view article]
Home Depot needs an overhaul of their business plan. For instance: clean up their stores so they look less like a dirty warehouse and more like a business. Get their employees off their dear asses and out onto the floor assisting customers. Train or replace their in-store management people so that they have more than a clue about how to manage a retail environment.Home Depot stocks almost the same products as Lowe’s, but HD's prices are much lower. If they would get their customer interaction on-track and alter the appearance of their stores, they would be much more successful than Lowe’s could ever hope to be with their outrageously over priced goods and services.
Perhaps the best place to start the overhaul is in the HD corporate hdgtrs. Fire the CEO and all the corporate officers and bring in professionals who are dedicated to their professions and less concerned with enriching themselves.
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Home Depot Slows Down Expansion; Still Losing Customers to Lowes [view article]
while my wife and i haven't been to either lowes or home depot in over a year now, which is one telling thing about their business, when possible we always chose lowes over home depot for one simple reason, service Reply8 Stocks to Benefit from the Coming Uptrend in Housing [view article]
LOWI bought in Jan. with the intention of seeing a greater demand by the home owner that still wants to live the new home lifestyle. They just won't be paying a contractor anymore, they will be doing it themselves. As a contractor, I know where we get our materials, and it generally isn't at Home Depot or Lowe's, although there is some shopping there. The home owner will not pay the prices we pay for our materials, and the convenience we get from shopping at the suppliers who cater to contractors.
Now, if you want to see the difference between orange and blue, go for yourself. It will become obvious to you that the orange has done poorly and that Lowe's has done a marvelous job of moving in on HD's proprietary crap.
HD has done a very bad thing, and that was to move into the realm of the contractor by offering in home services. Way to kill you target market you fools.
I am sticking with my LOW. Regardless of what home values do, people will still be sticking money into their homes, they just won't be hiring contractors to do it, which means more money going to these companies.
This should be obvious, but thanks for the article. Reply
8 Stocks to Benefit from the Coming Uptrend in Housing [view article]
NRF .. Northstar Realty Finance .. does not belong in this roundup.It is confined to commercial real estate, and has no subprime or residential exposure.
In that area, commercial real estate, however, it is worth a look.
John K -- Reply
8 Stocks to Benefit from the Coming Uptrend in Housing [view article]
To all who are looking for the best bottom-sign: look for very low attendance at bank REO auctions. The number of potential bidders will be less than the number of lots being auctioned at bottom, and auction winners will need to hold for 3-4-5 years sans on-cash returns while waiting.Doomsters: Unlike equity mkt bottoms, RE bottoms are very wide and grinding in nature. The cicada-like cyclical emergence of infomercial hucksters hyping "get rich quick using OPM" schemes is a classic waypost sign that the bottom is in sight. The reality of their systems is that if they were truly so great you would not be seeing them on late nite TV.
Do some DD about informational advantages and how in the RE markets it is exceedling rare for the small investor to actually have the necessary informational advantage to overcome the high frictional, and carrying costs or RE. Reply
8 Stocks to Benefit from the Coming Uptrend in Housing [view article]
has anyone here ever heard of the" case shiller index ". This is produced by a person who predicted the tech bubble while everyone else thought he was crazy. He thinks the housing market is only at the beginning stages of a terrible downturn. Things are very bad and they are going to get alot worse, dont kid yourself. Reply