DepotManager

Home Depot vs. Lowe's: Which is the Better Investment?

I have no idea where the former employee who was complaining about his/her store manager is coming from (likely works at Lowe's). We test for drugs and alcohol all the time, and people are fired for failing these tests. There is a 1-800 number that any Associate can call to report problems like this, why didn't you use it? The call goes to the SSC, not the District or Region.

Lowe's has a good store, but all they do is copy HD. They wait until we build something, then put their store across the street. HD has better people, better merchants, a better product, and Associates at the lowest level can deal with you on the price for volume purchases. Lowe's can't.

On the financial side HD has anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion in cash on hand at any time (we can survive this downturn and come out stronger). We pay cash for things that Lowe's has to borrow for (like new stores). We are pretty much done building new stores in the USA, but we are expanding like crazy internationally (where the real growth is). We will be number 1 in China for the long run (they are building American style subdivisions there like crazy over there). We are number 1 in Canada and Mexico. We will be number 1 in South America, Lowe's will never get there. I doubt we will bother with Europe (margins are too low because of regulation).