"top choice" lumber at Lowe's - NOT!
OhioGuy
in a bathroom I'm remodeling.
The wood they had available was twisted, warped, and all messed up. It
was obvious that it had all been picked through, because about 2/3 of the
space there was open - most of the boards were gone.
In the past, I've complained about the lack of selection, with no results.
In fact, one employee told me "Oh, you'd be surprised - some folks will buy
them and just use a small section - they don't mind that they're warped".
I discovered what I think is the REAL reason why they aren't in any hurry
to restock, and why they will happily keep lumber nobody would buy on
display - because it drives people over to the other side of the aisle,
where they have EXPENSIVE wood in the same dimensions. Yep, wood that costs
3x to 4x as much, looks about the same, but is SPECIALTY wood like fir,
instead of the plain old pine. What a crock!
So why would they want to keep good quality pine on hand, when they can
just get you to give them a lot more money for what's on the other side of
the aisle?
Mark Anderson
> So why would they want to keep good quality pine on hand, when they can
> just get you to give them a lot more money for what's on the other side of
> the aisle?
Some stores just have crap wood and should be avoided. I doubt this is
a corporate wide Lowes problem, more likely it's just that individual
store. Your suspicions about them trying to get you to buy the more
expensive wood is probably that store or department manager's bright
idea.
Lumber yards are a good source for wood but they can be consumer
unfriendly when buying in small quantities. For 1x3s I typically buy
1x6s and rip them in half with a table saw. It's harder for a 1x6 to
warp in storage. Plus you save a few bucks doing this too.
Around me I've been happy with the rough pine 1 by whatevers from
Menards. The Home Depots around me suck when it comes to pine 1 bys but
they have pretty good 2x4s. You just have to shop around and know where
to buy what.
Parallax
> I was just at Lowe's looking for some 1"x3" trim to use around the window
> in a bathroom I'm remodeling.
>
> The wood they had available was twisted, warped, and all messed up. It
> was obvious that it had all been picked through, because about 2/3 of the
> space there was open - most of the boards were gone.
>
> In the past, I've complained about the lack of selection, with no results.
> In fact, one employee told me "Oh, you'd be surprised - some folks will buy
> them and just use a small section - they don't mind that they're warped".
>
> I discovered what I think is the REAL reason why they aren't in any hurry
> to restock, and why they will happily keep lumber nobody would buy on
> display - because it drives people over to the other side of the aisle,
> where they have EXPENSIVE wood in the same dimensions. Yep, wood that costs
> 3x to 4x as much, looks about the same, but is SPECIALTY wood like fir,
> instead of the plain old pine. What a crock!
The other reason if they restock, people will avoid the crap pieces all
over again. If that's all that's left, some people will cave and just
buy it. The store doesn't want the substandard wood either. I had a
friend redoing his porch, and I think he picked over about 4-5 Home
Depots to get enough good wood to finish the job. Luckily for him their
stores are like manure in this area.
--
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SMS
> The other reason if they restock, people will avoid the crap pieces all
> over again. If that's all that's left, some people will cave and just
> buy it. The store doesn't want the substandard wood either. I had a
> friend redoing his porch, and I think he picked over about 4-5 Home
> Depots to get enough good wood to finish the job. Luckily for him their
> stores are like manure in this area.
I once asked at Home Depot for them to get down another pallet of wood,
and they pointed to the remains of the previous pallet, a bunch of
warped mis-shapen boards. To their credit they did go ahead and get down
another pallet, but it took them a long time.
I have to calculate the time to drive to a real lumber store versus
picking through the junk at Home Depot. Lowe's actually seems better
than Home Depot in my area. Much better service.
I'll never forget asking an HD to cut a piece of plywood for me. He
pulled out a tape measure and asked me which 8" I wanted trimmed, the
long one or the short one. Well he had a tape measure that showed both
inches and tenths. He thought there were two kinds of inches, not
understanding that 8/10 of a foot is not the same as 8".
George
>
> The other reason if they restock, people will avoid the crap pieces all
> over again. If that's all that's left, some people will cave and just
> buy it. The store doesn't want the substandard wood either. I had a
> friend redoing his porch, and I think he picked over about 4-5 Home
> Depots to get enough good wood to finish the job. Luckily for him their
> stores are like manure in this area.
>
Yet people seem to think the big box stores are the only suppliers in
town and believe all of the marketing about how great they are. I did a
deck on the house and ordered the lumber from a local lumber yard using
a list I emailed to them. They dropped it in my driveway. A couple
neighbors were amazed at the quality and commented "you must have been
at the "depot" all day picking this out". I explained I had ordered it
sight unseen and all of the wood at the local yard is decent quality
with no picking required because thats what they order.
Logan Shaw
> I'll never forget asking an HD to cut a piece of plywood for me. He
> pulled out a tape measure and asked me which 8" I wanted trimmed, the
> long one or the short one. Well he had a tape measure that showed both
> inches and tenths. He thought there were two kinds of inches, not
> understanding that 8/10 of a foot is not the same as 8".
Maybe he was from a foreign country and mystified by our strange
measurement system. :-)
I had a similar experience at the supermarket deli one time. Having
decided 1/2 lb. of roast beef was too much and 1/4 was too little,
I came up on the idea of walking up to the counter and asking for
1/3 lb. I got a blank look from the woman behind the counter.
Noticing they had a digital scale, I volunteered "point three three
pounds". The blank look continued. I tried "one third of a pound
is point three three pounds" and STILL the blank look was unchanged.
I can't recall what I eventually got (maybe 1/4 lb or maybe 1/2 lb),
but whatever it was, it wasn't 1/3 lb.
- Logan
Chloe
news:46ef0d22$0$11057$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
> I had a similar experience at the supermarket deli one time. Having
> decided 1/2 lb. of roast beef was too much and 1/4 was too little,
> I came up on the idea of walking up to the counter and asking for
> 1/3 lb. I got a blank look from the woman behind the counter.
> Noticing they had a digital scale, I volunteered "point three three
> pounds". The blank look continued. I tried "one third of a pound
> is point three three pounds" and STILL the blank look was unchanged.
> I can't recall what I eventually got (maybe 1/4 lb or maybe 1/2 lb),
> but whatever it was, it wasn't 1/3 lb.
I sympathize with your frustration, but the custom of selling food by
quarters of a pound is so long-established that it's not surprising you had
trouble. I'd probably have asked for "between and quarter and half pound."
They'll usually add a little bit to the scale at a time, so you'd likely
have the chance to tell them when to stop.
hchi...@hotmail.com
The blank look could have simply indicated the clerk was busy farting.
Don
> The other reason if they restock, people will avoid the crap pieces all
> over again. If that's all that's left, some people will cave and just buy
> it. The store doesn't want the substandard wood either. I had a friend
> redoing his porch, and I think he picked over about 4-5 Home Depots to get
> enough good wood to finish the job. Luckily for him their stores are like
> manure in this area.
Thats the long and the short of it right there, between Menards, Lowes &
Home Depot you can usually get what you want but you have to pick everything
out yourself.
In the past year I built a triple garage a 28' 2 story porch and every
single stick was hand picked by me.
Its time consuming as all get out but there really isn't any other way,
unless you buy in bulk.
I hate buying PVC fittings at those places because NONE of them ever have
everything you need, you have to go to the others to get the rest of the
stuff.
Arggggggggggg...............
Don
> I had a similar experience at the supermarket deli one time. Having
> decided 1/2 lb. of roast beef was too much and 1/4 was too little,
Just one question, how could a half pound of roast beef be *too much*?
Don
"George" <geo...@nospam.invalid> wrote in message
news:9tadnS5a5YNckXLb...@comcast.com...
Thats fine, for the larger projects.
But it doesn't make sense to pay a $50 delivery fee for $100 worth of
material.
Logan Shaw
> "Logan Shaw" <lshaw-...@austin.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:46ef0d22$0$11057$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
>> I had a similar experience at the supermarket deli one time. Having
>> decided 1/2 lb. of roast beef was too much and 1/4 was too little,
>> I came up on the idea of walking up to the counter and asking for
>> 1/3 lb. I got a blank look from the woman behind the counter.
>> Noticing they had a digital scale, I volunteered "point three three
>> pounds".
> I sympathize with your frustration, but the custom of selling food by
> quarters of a pound is so long-established that it's not surprising you had
> trouble. I'd probably have asked for "between and quarter and half pound."
I suppose that's the practical solution.
Still, I'd prefer to believe that the woman working at the counter that
day was merely weak enough with fractions that she got confused. I'd much
rather believe that than to think that she knew perfectly well how to convert
1/3 into 0.33 and key that into the machine but was incapable of carrying
out the task because it was too unorthodox a way to order roast beef for
her to accept.
- Logan
Anthony Matonak
...
> Still, I'd prefer to believe that the woman working at the counter that
> day was merely weak enough with fractions that she got confused. I'd much
> rather believe that than to think that she knew perfectly well how to
> convert
> 1/3 into 0.33 and key that into the machine but was incapable of carrying
> out the task because it was too unorthodox a way to order roast beef for
> her to accept.
If the machine was anything like those found in fast food joints,
there were no number keys. It only had '1/4 lbs' key and '1/2' lbs
key and '1 lbs' key. She couldn't find the '1/3 lbs' key on the
machine. :)
Anthony
Logan Shaw
Ah, now we're back on topic. At the time, I was a poor college student,
and roast beef was something like $5 or $6/lb, so the difference between
1/3 lb. and 1/2 lb. was around $1. When you're spending maybe $20 total
per week at the grocery store, $1 makes a pretty noticeable difference.
Also, 1/3 lb. was just enough for two sandwiches.
- Logan
Chloe
news:fcpuv...@news4.newsguy.com...
I guess one example would be if you wanted to buy it for immediate
consumption when you were away from a refrigerator.
Don
"Chloe" <just...@spam.com> wrote in message
news:46f1134a$0$7507$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
I still don't see the problem.
2 more slices down the hatch.
Don
Thats what I was gonna say, if there ain't a button with the correct picture
on it your SOL.
Once at the Burger King drive-thru I gave the pimply faced, pregnant 16 yo
old girl $4.75 for a $4.56 bill.
That poor chow trudged all the way to the managers office on the otherside
of the store and came back with a calculator.
After a moment of punching buttons and scratching her head she gave me a
quarter and a few other coins back.
While waiting for my order I pondered the fact that she was soon going to
deliver to this earth another human just like her.
Dennis
wrote:
>Thats what I was gonna say, if there ain't a button with the correct picture
>on it your SOL.
>Once at the Burger King drive-thru I gave the pimply faced, pregnant 16 yo
>old girl $4.75 for a $4.56 bill.
>That poor chow trudged all the way to the managers office on the otherside
>of the store and came back with a calculator.
>After a moment of punching buttons and scratching her head she gave me a
>quarter and a few other coins back.
>While waiting for my order I pondered the fact that she was soon going to
>deliver to this earth another human just like her.
Sad but true.
I once had a similar experience. I handed the fast food cashier a
five and a handful of (exact) change for a $3.68 bill. She poked at
the change a bit, then looked up at me and asked, "Is that the right
amount?". I said, "Yes, but you owe me back $2." She said, "Oh, OK."
and handed me two ones.
Dennis (evil)
--
I'm behind the eight ball, ahead of the curve, riding the wave,
dodging the bullet and pushing the envelope. -George Carlin