[Lilred]

I'll only git in on this here thread cause I werk fer Lowes.
HD & Lowes do hire stupid people sometimes. Or they put em in areas they aint used to. Like an electrician werkin in plumbin.
But sometimes, they do hire smart people that are actually freindly. My store has alot of great people in it, and I'm good freinds w/ all of us "old timers" whos been there a while. Then they hired a bunch of new people w/ their britches hangin off their butt and so forth...werthless. I dont understand why they even bothered. It depends on findin a good store, and iffin a HD just moved in, you can bet Lowes wont be fer behind.

On the subject of prices/brands, I can tell you bout that.
Lowes' & HD are always concerned w/ each others prices. They both got their spies they send to compare prices in the stores on a daily basis and that 10% guarentee crap, which is used often. But it aint werth the lil bit of savins iffin you caint fnd a good store w/ good help in it.
Lowe's brands I can tell you bout..well..some of em. Our vendors/suppliers always have these people come in our store to downstock, clean & whatever alot. Plus we go to these dern trainin classes on their product all the time.
I keep a close eye on which stuff is made here and which aint..cause I'll sell the US stuff for I'll sell anything else. And the customers want that too..they'd rather buy US stuff.
All our sidin is made in WVA. That sidin is made for Lowes by NAPCO, and it's made in by-god wva of all places. I sell the heck outta sidin, and proud to do so for a company that still manufactures that stuff from scratch here. As far as the quality goes, I'll add a lil somethin fer ya'll to think bout.

At Lowes anyways, I will give them credit fer this: ALOT of their "in-house" brands are made here, by smaller companies.
Now, when Lowes asks them to produce a certain product fer em, those smaller companies are so excited, because they know they will make a fortune sellin their product at Lowe's. And they put do R&D like you wouldnt believe to be sure it will do what it says. I was there when Phillips made their ACQ treated deck screws fer Lowes, lifetime warranty and all..that company now has 4 er 5 plants insteada the 1 they started with. I think they are based in Ohio. Dont be ashamed to ASK, because there are some associate who do know, and the best person to ask about a product, is the vendor themselves.
So, not all stuff from the HIW (home improvement warehouses) comes from China, and next time ya'll go in, ask somebody werkin in that dept about it. You can spot store "veterans" perty easy in Lowes. They usually have alot of buttons on their vests, and some will have "employee owner since 199_ "on their nametags.
The tags that say "specialist" will usually be a good person to ask too, but not all the time. There are some who choose not to be a specialist that know more than the specialists..lol

I really dont know about HD, but it's a shame there are so many "illliterate" people at Lowe's with no product knowledge, because they dont utilize the product training classes and the in- store vendors, but that is entirely up to the associate who is willin er not willin to learn.

Dont git me wrong, I aint sellin Lowes..I'm sure HD has some of the same products like we do,but it eases my job every day werkin fer such a big company, that at least, in part, it creates jobs and keeps the small factories from closin. In turn, it keeps that dam "made in China" crap from bein stamped on every dern thing you buy.

Edit: Think about the basis of how China got it's start..because we caint seem to pay the higher price fer the made in usa stuff. Fer the average Joe, would you werk yerself 70 hrs a week like them fool Chinese people fer 1/2 the pay? I dont think so, and until we are willin to sacrifice that..then unfortunatly, the phrase "made in China" is here to stay.