[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

I am very close to both and have shopped in both. I'll give my impressions and you're welcome to give yours. No arguments please. Remember that these are just everyone's opinions and impressions.

My first impression is that Home Depot is set up to deal more with professional contractors and Lowe's is more of a store for amateur Do It Yourselfers like me.

I went to buy a Christmas tree at Home Depot and they had a very small selection. The tree I wanted was out of stock and I couldn't find anyone to help me or answer questions so I left.

I went to Lowe's and found a much nicer tree that was on sale at 33% off and found a young lady to answer questions.

In general it seems that when I go to Home Depot and ask questions about how to do things, the people seemed annoyed that I don't already know. It seems that they think that their knowledge is general knowledge and they shouldn't have to be bothered answering such basic questions.

I find the people at Lowe's are much more willing to help you find what you need, make suggestions and take the time to explain how things work and how to perform certain tasks.

Home Depot doesn't seem to have as big a selection of non-hardware/lumber items where are you can find all kinds of things that professional contractor are not interested in at Lowe's.

Like I say, I'll shop at either depending on what I need. If it's something that I don't need any information about like a pair of wire cutters I'll go to Home Depot because it's a bit closer to me. But for something like the four fans I just bought and installed I went to Lowe's because I could ask some questions without feeling like I'm an idiot.