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I was shopping at Home Depot and I came out of the store and it looked like I had been playing in the mud. Do they spray a light coating of dirt on everything? Lowes is much cleaner.
They go after that authentic warehouse feel. If everything was clean, well organized and labeled it just would not be construction orientated.
They nailed it. I thought it used to be cleaner.
Also they used to hire knowlegable people, now they are a bunch of rejects that don’t know anything about the isle they are working in.
And I thought it was just me. I figured I must just ask the wrong questions because the employees always stare at me blankly….too bad we don’t have a Lowe’s around here.
Lesley
One of my customers was talking to a couple at the granite shop I use, and they told her they contracted for a kitchen from home depot, it’s been 9 months and the kitchen is still not done. That made me look real good.
For some reason we always did solid surface tops on cabinets that were ordered and installed by the box stores and they were never happy with them. I have not heard one positive thing from one of their jobs. Which is good for us contractors. Of course by then you already lost the cabinet business.
We templated a job last week that had already been sold and templated by Depot (and one of our chief competitors). It was a remodel job, lady had no counters, and they told her 6 weeks from template to install. She called us, I templated, and got to see her smile when I told her we were running about 6-7 working days, then we did it in 5.
She offered to pay us extra, I told her thanks, but no thanks, just tell all her friends where she got her Hi-Macs.
I like those stories.
Here’s something interesting, Lowe’s sells Hi Macs and I was wondering how to become an installer for them. Come to find out the Hi Macs distributor chooses which fabricator does Lowe’s work , and this is based on which fabricator buys the most material, anyone wanna play Monopoly?
That sounds like they are trying to follow in the steps of some larger distributor in your area Norm. I guess they see that someone else has been getting away with so they would try it for size.
Norm, If you have not been chosen to do work for Lowes, that is not a bad thing. Go your own way, do your own thing, trust me on this one!
Norm W. wrote
Here’s something interesting, Lowe’s sells Hi Macs and I was wondering how to become an installer for them. Come to find out the Hi Macs distributor chooses which fabricator does Lowe’s work , and this is based on which fabricator buys the most material, anyone wanna play Monopoly?Norm,
If you were Hi-Macs and could do whatever you wanted, how would you do it? Just curious.
Norm,
I know I am new to this industry, but I thought I would give you a little insight into my experience with the way LG and Lowe’s work. We fabricate and install for them in the California central valley. Currently we have 5 stores. We were NOT major purchasers of their products prior to getting the account. What happened was the fabricator (a large company with several branches all over California) that had those stores was flaking out. The distributors rep went looking for a fabricator to take them over and approached the prior owner of our company. (I am not sure how he picked him, or if there just wasn’t much choice in our area.) This all happened right around the time we took over in March. We actually started with 2 stores in April and by the end of May they asked us to take 3 more that the same company was screwing up. (For obvious reasons Lowe’s and LG, specifically, have fairly strict time frame requirements for their fabricators.) The rep now has 3-5 more stores he wants us to take, but we are not ready for that yet. (maybe by December)
The reason I say all this is that it may be true that the distributors go with the companies that purchase the most material most of the time, but the small guys can get in if the larger companies don’t do their jobs. (at the time we took over we had 5 employees total.) I think the first step would be to become extra friendly with your rep, then let him know you are interested in possibly being a back up fabricator in case they run into problems with their current one. (It may be worth taking a store some distance away just to get your foot in the door with them.)
It makes sense the distributors usually go with the large volume purchasers first because they know them and are familiar with their operations, so the key would be to get to know them too. ( I can appreciate your frustration with the system, but I too think I would probably do it the same way….) I have no idea why, but our rep has adopted us and is constantly getting us jobs. It really depends on your rep and your relationship with him and then his relationship with other fabricators in the area. Obviously he is going to recommend to his bosses whoever he likes best and thinks can get the job done.
So far I have been very impressed with the Lowe’s sales people and the people with LG. They have been very easy to work with, they pay immediately, and they are not ridiculous in their requests. Also they restructured their pricing in June so that the profit margin is considerably higher than it was when we first started with them.
My husband talked to a lot of other fabricators about Lowes when he went to the Expo in March and they highly recommended going ahead with it. Interestingly we just did a job through Lowes for a guy who works for Home Depot. Our installer asked him why he had gone through Lowes and he said because the quality is better.
So far I haven’t had any complaints about working with Lowes. I do think though that it is important to realize when you work with these kinds of companies that you have to do things their way while you are on their jobs. Fortunately many of our policies are the same so it has not been too much of a problem to adapt while we are working on their projects.
Anyway that is my two cents about LG / Lowes. Hope it helps. 🙂
Lesley
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