User 194365

Home Depot Slows Down Expansion; Still Losing Customers to Lowes

Some people like #2's just because they harbor the hope that #2 will someday become #1. But history is littered with #2's that never managed to make #1's. Most recent striking example: Circuit City vs. Best Buy. We all know that Lowe's is brighter, more superficially appealing. But at the end of the day, Home Depot still has the momentum in terms of sales, economies of scale, location, and, yes, reputation. As a prior poster wrote, when Lowe's wakes up in the morning, it hopes it sees Home Depot when it looks in the mirror. But lookit: Lowe's has a great deal going for it, and when this stock falls below 18 or 19, it'll be worth picking up a few shares just for when the economy turns around. People aren't buying houses, which is a fact that sellers presumably know, which means on the one hand, maybe they want to spruce up their houses in the meantime (or in preparation for putting it on sale . . . hah!), or on the other hand, that nobody's got money for nuttin', and least of all to put in granite countertops and skylights. Both HD and Lowe's are still in for many months of tough times, and in a contracting market the argument of growing market share -- well, a larger slice of a smaller pizza pie is, any way the cookie (I mean, pie) crumbles, a smaller piece altogether.
I'll wait till two or three quarters from now before dipping my toe into the moat surrounding these two big box retailers.