inventory check and email notification for Lowes?

[Jake T]

Unfortunately, Lowe's doesn't seem to offer a sign up for email
notification when something on their website is back in stock. Does
anyone know of any free, preferably non-registration websites that can
do this for Lowes? Thank you.

[hub...@ccanoemail.ca]

On Sun, 13 Feb 2022 12:01:07 -0500, Jake T <jake...@steak.com>
wrote:

In these days of questionable supply-chain deliveries -
slow boats from China and Canada-US border closures etc
you would rather trust some free 3rd party web source
for your local Lowes inventory - ? - than simply checking
with them ? OK .. if you say so. Good luck with that.
John T.

[Bob F]

If you do not register, where are they going to get your email address?

["\"Re...@home.com]

My pet peeve is when the store's website shows an item "in stock", and
you go there and the shelf is empty. And the clerks won't check "in the
back".

In one case where I showed them a printout, showing the item in stock,
they did grudgingly check and yes they had not yet set out the item.

IME the only "big box" store that is relatively reliable are in-stock is
WalMart.

And why is it that one grocery chain can keep an item instock, but
another has not had that item for months ?
:-(

[Marilyn Manson]

Originally I was going to say this to the OP:

Seriously? Do you really think that some 3rd party has access to
Lowes' internal inventory system and monitors every single product's
information waiting for it to flip from "Out of stock" to "In stock"?

Then I remembered camelcamelcamel.com

That's a 3rd party that apparently monitors every product that Amazon
carries. The site not only stores price history going back years, it will
also provide price-drop alerts based on dollar value or percentage.

It's not always perfect, but that's a huge amount of data to be storing
and monitoring in real-time. It's not clear to me where the data comes
from and it doesn't mean that Lowes data would be available for inventory
status,, but there is a precedent of sorts.

One example with 10 years of price history:

https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B007QUZ16A

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelcamelcamel

[Rod Speed]

Marilyn Manson <comawhit...@gmail.com> wrote
> hub...@ccanoemail.ca wrote

>> Jake T <jake...@steak.com> wrote

>> >Unfortunately, Lowe's doesn't seem to offer a sign up for email
>> >notification when something on their website is back in stock. Does
>> >anyone know of any free, preferably non-registration websites that can
>> >do this for Lowes? Thank you.
>> In these days of questionable supply-chain deliveries -
>> slow boats from China and Canada-US border closures etc
>> you would rather trust some free 3rd party web source
>> for your local Lowes inventory - ? - than simply checking
>> with them ? OK .. if you say so. Good luck with that.

> Originally I was going to say this to the OP:

> Seriously? Do you really think that some 3rd party has access to
> Lowes' internal inventory system and monitors every single product's
> information waiting for it to flip from "Out of stock" to "In stock"?

> Then I remembered camelcamelcamel.com

> That's a 3rd party that apparently monitors every product that Amazon
> carries.

Nope, they don't monitor kindle book prices, Amazon won't let them.

> The site not only stores price history going back years, it will
> also provide price-drop alerts based on dollar value or percentage.

But not when something is in stock again.

> It's not always perfect, but that's a huge amount of data to be storing
> and monitoring in real-time. It's not clear to me where the data comes
> from

They comb the Amazon site.

[Peeler]

On Mon, 14 Feb 2022 05:40:00 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:

<FLUSH the abnormal trolling senile cretin's latest trollshit unread>

--
John addressing the senile Australian pest:
"You are a complete idiot. But you make me larf. LOL"
MID: <f9056fe6-1479-40ff...@googlegroups.com>

[Jim Joyce]

On Sun, 13 Feb 2022 13:15:20 -0500, "\"Retired"@Home.com wrote:

>
>
>On 2/13/22 12:01 PM, Jake T wrote:
>> Unfortunately, Lowe's doesn't seem to offer a sign up for email
>> notification when something on their website is back in stock.  Does
>> anyone know of any free, preferably non-registration websites that can
>> do this for Lowes?  Thank you.
>My pet peeve is when the store's website shows an item "in stock", and
>you go there and the shelf is empty.

My Lowes pet peeve is just the opposite - when the website shows an item
is out of stock and you go to the store and see that there's plenty on
display. In my area, that happened frequently last year regarding
dimensional lumber and especially PT pine decking. When I mentioned it
to Customer Service they said the Pros know it's in stock and will come
in to buy it, while the homeowners will just check the website, thus the
Pros will get what they need first. I guess it makes sense, but I
learned to visit the store even when the site says no stock. That's how
I was able to build two decks while my neighbor waited and watched.

>And the clerks won't check "in the back".

That's a trick question. There is no "in the back" at Lowes or Home
Depot, is there? Everything is out in the store, although in some cases
it might be placed up high for storage.

>And why is it that one grocery chain can keep an item instock, but
>another has not had that item for months ?
>:-(

Different suppliers, I suppose, plus different priorities, different
supply chains, different price structures, etc.

[Ed Pawlowski]

On 2/13/2022 3:25 PM, Jim Joyce wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Feb 2022 13:15:20 -0500, "\"Retired"@Home.com wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On 2/13/22 12:01 PM, Jake T wrote:
>>> Unfortunately, Lowe's doesn't seem to offer a sign up for email
>>> notification when something on their website is back in stock.  Does
>>> anyone know of any free, preferably non-registration websites that can
>>> do this for Lowes?  Thank you.
>> My pet peeve is when the store's website shows an item "in stock", and
>> you go there and the shelf is empty.
>
> My Lowes pet peeve is just the opposite - when the website shows an item
> is out of stock and you go to the store and see that there's plenty on
> display. In my area, that happened frequently last year regarding
> dimensional lumber and especially PT pine decking. When I mentioned it
> to Customer Service they said the Pros know it's in stock and will come
> in to buy it, while the homeowners will just check the website, thus the
> Pros will get what they need first. I guess it makes sense, but I
> learned to visit the store even when the site says no stock. That's how
> I was able to build two decks while my neighbor waited and watched.
>
>> And the clerks won't check "in the back".
>
> That's a trick question. There is no "in the back" at Lowes or Home
> Depot, is there? Everything is out in the store, although in some cases
> it might be placed up high for storage.
>

Some stuff is. I recently bought some tiles for the backsplash. The
guy went in the back to get the tiles, mortar, grout, caulk, etc. Some
tile was out front.

[Marilyn Manson]

I bought a water heater at Lowes last week. It was on the second shelf
of the rack. I asked an employee how to get one down and she said she'd
get someone with a lift to come over.

A few minutes later, Beep, Beep, Beep, this guy comes rolling up on one of
those platform lifts and brings it down. He then spent the next 10 minutes
with me grabbing a pan, fittings, hoses, shut-offs, etc. Even asked some
questions about my current set-up. "Hard-piped or flex tubes?" "Using your
old overflow tube? Never mind take one anyway. Bring it back if you don't
use it." Stuff like that. It was like he actually wanted to make sure I had
everything I needed to get the job done.

You don't get that kind of service quite as often as you used to.

[Jim Joyce]

Cool, good to know. In the stores that I'm familiar with, "in the back"
would be on pallets, outside behind the store, but there's precious
little space out there and nothing of any value. Just stacks of empty
pallets. I guess I don't know where "in the back" would physically be
located. Is it code for inventory that's located at a nearby store?

["\"Re...@home.com]

I guess I'm showing my age, using the expression "in the back". IME it
is/was a common shorthand for "do you have this item somewhere else in
the store, as there is none in its normal shelf spot ?"

[trader_4]

On Sunday, February 13, 2022 at 12:44:55 PM UTC-5, hub...@ccanoemail.ca wrote:

What he's suggesting is a possible third party company that would
do the checking with Lowes for you on particular items that you need
and want to know when Lowes has them back in stock. No reason you
could not have that and do some periodic checking yourself too. But
unless you want to check daily at Lowes, this would save you the effort.
But IDK of any such service.

[trader_4]

Lowes will show you directly if other nearby Lowes have the item in
stock. HD you have to keep checking on your own from one store
to the next.

[Marilyn Manson]

My closest HD has a huge indoor storage area in the back corner. I've
had employees go back there (supposedly) looking for stuff that was
listing as "in stock" but not on the shelf, either down low or up high.

If your stores have no "in the back", where do pallets of newly delivered
products go? I can't imagine that the truck drivers want to wait around
while store employees move pallets into the store aisles. What happens
during inclement weather? They don't leave stuff outside, do they?

[Jim Joyce]

They unload the trucks into the wider-than-normal aisle in the lumber
department, just inside the big garage doors. (Exception for many items
that go directly to the garden department.) From there, the pallets get
broken down and moved to the aisles where they need to go. If there is
no shelf space, items get stored way up on top of the shelves, directly
above the shelf space where they will eventually be displayed.

I've been to a bunch of HDs and Lowes in Kansas, Texas, and MS, among
others, and I've never seen a store that has a designated inside storage
area. I believe you guys but it's something I haven't personally seen.

[Marilyn Manson]

I'll stick my head in the next time I'm at HD and see what it looks like. My
walk-by glances seem to show that it's pretty big, but maybe it's an illusion.
It looks deep (and full) but maybe it's not very wide.

The "upper shelves" are common to all of the home centers, although "directly
above" isn't always the case. Space matters. ;-)

[trader_4]

I was looking for a particular Mobile 1 oil at Walmart. Online it showed
the store had it. I looked at the shelves, that stuff is easy to spot, not only
was there none there, the shelves were full and there was no empty space
where it could be. After being unable to find it elsewhere, I decided to order
it for pickup at that Walmart. Went there in the afternoon and to my
surprise, they had it waiting.

[Marilyn Manson]

We can assume that it was actually in the store but maybe they are as fast
as TireRack when it comes to moving product around.

Back in January, I ordered snow tires and wheels from TireRack. I was told
that they would be shipped via UPS from a warehouse that is about 400 miles
from my house. ~25 hours after I placed the order, they arrived at my house,
mounted and balanced, ready to be installed on my vehicle.

They weren't stocked as a mounted set. You choose tires, then choose wheels
and they mount them, balance them and package them with items specific to
your vehicle: centering rings, lug nuts, lug wrench, etc. I was impressed with the
super fast turnaround.

[Marilyn Manson]

So here's a good one...just happened this morning.

I needed a thermal expansion tank, so I checked HD's inventory. Web
site says they have 2. Great. So I go over to the store, look in the specified
location and, yep, there they are, but up high where I can't get to them.

I find an employee (not from the plumbing department) and he gets one
of those rolling ladders and climbs up.

Now, here's the situation: The boxes for the two tanks are sitting one on top
of the other, and both of them are on top of a bigger box containing some
other product. The top tank box is dented on the corner and on one side, but
the other tank box looks fine.

I say to the guy: "Could you grab the good box, not the dented one?" He
says "Sure". He then shoves the top box (the dented one) towards the back
of the shelf, where it falls behind the big box. Gone. Out of sight from the
floor and even from up on the ladder.

The web site has already been updated to show "1" but right there are only
2 people that know where it is. Me, and the guy that pushed it behind the
big box - a guy that doesn't even work in the plumbing department. (He
actually asked me what an expansion tank is used for.)

The only way that thing will be found is if someone is willing to grab a ladder,
climb up and starts moving boxes around. What are the odds that that will
happen? My bet is that most employees will just say something like "The web
site says we have 1? Well, you know, the web site isn't always perfect. Sorry."