Home Depot vs Lowe’s - The Great Hardware Store Debate

Every guy has a hardware store he will defend like it’s his favorite sports team. So today we’re settling it. If you could only shop at ONE hardware store for the rest of your life… which one actually wins? Because by the end of this, one of these stores might end up looking terrible.

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Transcript

Opening Debate Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:00

We're gonna go through the big box stores and hardware stores. They're the ultimate like specialty tool brand. What?

Twinkies Snowballs And Snack Nostalgia

SPEAKER_01 0:06

I gotta be the best one of all the stores. It's great, man. Bolas, Ace, and Harbor Freight. Yeah. Alright, it's a well-known fact that all of us have our preferred hardware store, and it literally has nothing to do with anything except for personal preference. You've got your Home Depot per potentially is for what the ProSumer. And then you've got the home DIY or the more cleaner, aesthetically pleasing lows, and then everything in between. We're getting into it today. I've got my opinions. Lord knows Sam has his, and Joe's over here foaming at the mouth so he can tell us what he's got going on. This should be a good one. But before we get into it, Sam's gonna feed the people with something I do believe will bring a giggle and a sparkle to your eyes and your bellies. So what we have in here. Is that a is that a case of poker chips?

SPEAKER_02 1:03

No.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Are we turning this into a gambling show? We could. I think I could get behind that.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

For the what's in the box, the right sponsorship.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Which I think we could get into gambling on here. Dude, I'm not gonna lie. My buddy used to tote one of these around in his car, like two or three of my buddies, which is because they had chips in them. I was I I was in high school during the heyday of the World Series of Poker. So that's all these ever had of them. So I'm I have no idea what he's gonna bring in a safe next week.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Hate to inform you, it is not the world series of poker. No, no poker.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Two of my favorite hostess treats, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Cockroach?

SPEAKER_02 1:39

What is well, speaking of cockroaches, the only two things that could survive a nuclear holocaust are cockroaches and these fine Twinkies.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Oh I thought they were dead.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

No, well, it's so funny. No, they whenever I think 2013 they filed for bankruptcy, and there was such an outcry from the people wanting the Twinkies back that two investors pulled together, bought the company, reproduced the Twinkie. There's rumors that the formula has changed, but but I mean When's the last time you had one? It's been a minute, but when I was in high school, I would have one of these every single day. I used to have this, it was a Twinkie holster.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

So you've been conditioning your cockroachiness since uh, yeah, yeah. I was I I was never allowed to eat these. A Twinkie? We never have I feel like I've had them, obviously, but like those I don't they weren't in my house. Mrs. Maleky, if you're out there, avert your eyes because just thank you, mom to eat and appreciate you for keeping these out of my life. I was fat enough as a kid, I didn't need this. You knew it. Then again, we had unlimited cannoli. So I don't know if you want to go and judge us. Unlimited cannoli, unlimited ladylocks, homemade, fresh, Irma coming through. Okay, you know, but uh Twinkies were not there.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

And then I also got snowballs.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

So I've never had one of those. I've never had one of those either. See, that's so funny you say that.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

What draws you to a pink ball of fluffy trash? As a kid, my grandma, she used to love snowballs, and I was I feel like when you're a kid, you don't like coconut. It's just I will get behind that.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

No, but as an adult, coconut's fire. Exactly. Have you got into coconut yet? He's young. I drink coconut milk. No, no, no, no, no, no. You gotta eat. Are you eating coconut yet? No, I'm not. Dude, we gotta Joe. You're about to. We got it next week. We got it next week. Hold on a second.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

You need to get a whole coconut?

SPEAKER_02 3:23

We have a coconut in the fridge.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

The things you guys put in that fridge.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

You're gonna try lab coconut today, Joe. And what it is, it's lab coconut, marshmallow, uh chocolate cake, and then a cream filling on the inside.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

I wasn't allowed to have a lot of these just like John, except the stuff I did have. I used to have the brownies. Um, the brownies, yeah. The brownies.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

The ones with the little swirl on there.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Yeah, those. There was also um the packaging with the girl on it. Little Debbie. Little Debbie. I had the little Debbie's. Yeah. Those the other thing with like Easter. We had hojos. He used to crush peeves. Hojos were big. I mean chocolate ho ho's, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Yeah, loved ho-hos. But I'll say this I don't know if Hostess made it. But the honey bun for me.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Is it little Debbie?

SPEAKER_01 4:09

And this is like, I don't know, is it little Debbie? Is it Hostess? I don't know. Okay. But the honey bun, you could get one in middle school. Remember, we were talking how like in middle school your parents might give you some jingle in your in your pocket. You could go and buy your own stuff, feel like an adult, right? Honey buns, they would nuke them. I know what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

We're we're test we're one of these episodes. We have to taste test big Texas cinnamon rolls because you've never had one.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

I don't even know what big texts roll. Do you know what that is? Oh, yeah. I know about the big Texas rolls.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

John's never had one. What? We need to we've talked about it too a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

My diet has gone completely down the drain since we started this show. The next snack. Well, I want to thank you for tuning in. Next snack will be savory. No, the next snack is coconut. We're going, hey, we're gonna get Joe into coconut. I my dad loved an almond joy growing up, but I never understood it. And then I became a dad and I was like, it makes sense. These things are glorious. I don't love almonds. I don't hate them. I can't. There's no almonds in an almond joy. No, it's coconut. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Sorry, I meant coconut, not almonds. I don't love coconut. So I'll eat it. I just it's I don't like crave it.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

You know, that's why I'm you yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

We're gonna get it's just gonna change my taste button. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

As you get older, right? You stop putting bullshit in your coffee, you start drinking it black. Yeah, you're not wrong. You start smoking unfiltered cigs, unfiltered cigs, right? You know? I'm doing this.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Unfiltered cigs. You smoke an unfiltered cigar.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

I'm not, but I wouldn't be if you whip one right out, and then would you partake? Give this man a glass of something brown. I will say an unfiltered, he's in heaven. I will say, like, I don't smoke cigarettes habitually, but like in the rare occasion that it's like, oh, there's like an event, we're having a few beers. Lucky strike came back, and they have the unfiltered Lucky Strikes. I smoked one of those. It was life changing. It's like, wow. But I wouldn't recommend it.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

If you would like Jeff could get in here and give us a breakdown on every sig that's ever existed. Um, all right, so anyway, crack those open. The uh well, so the other edge of glory that I believe exists in regards to these snacks is the cult following around the hostess Christmas tree treat. You guys ever see this? Uh people go nuts for those things. They have the little Christmas tree. People go ape shit for them. They buy them by the case. Oh, okay. Supposedly they're phenomenal. I I'm obviously I've had them, but they weren't like they didn't blow my mind to like what point where I'd I'd I'd want one ever again. You want to do this first? Oh my goodness! It's incredible. These have an expiration date of May 11th, 2026. There's no way. There's no way. I there's studies out there that these last longer than the McDonald's cheeseburger. Yeah, there's no way.

Snowball Taste Test And Marshmallow Wars

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Well, this only has 43 grams of sugar. That's pretty good. 43 grams? That's so much. Is that per snowball? I don't know. How many snowballs are we? Maybe it's like the total. All right. I'm gonna take a bite. Cheers, boys.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

It's good. Make sure you get a good inch down to get that cream filling. Wow. Day show I thought it would taste. Always a little moist.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

There's a little layer of grease on there. No, it's not grease. That is straight up Kara corn syrup, baby. Right in the bloodstream. Right in the bloodstream. That's not bad. That tastes like cancer. Yummy cancer, but cancer nonetheless. Wow. That's a weird after taste than I remember. That'd be better than that dog shit he got from that French spot. I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll just do that. I'll take that processed killing America crap all day long over that crunch thing you got.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

I can't even do the smell of this. It's not a big I will say.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Kind of a weird thing about these snow. Why are you playing with it? When you squeeze that snowball, doesn't it make you want to act up a little bit? It's not squishing as much as I would like it to. Come on, now what's what's giving it that bounce back is the question.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Why is it so firm and marshmallow in there?

SPEAKER_02 7:56

As a young man, it's chocolate? You can enjoy a snowball. Yeah, you feel it.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

So I'll say uh no. Give it a grill. I'm not going near that. I I'm I'm an i I'm adamantly against marshmallows. I think marshmallows should be canceled. I'm going out on it. It's not that bad. It's getting good to you. I think marshmallow is a waste of time. It's a waste of a treat. I I love s'mores. See, I think s'mores are the stupidest fing thing ever. Really? I we might constantly like our neighbors love them, always want to eat s'mores. They're just filthy. There's no point in them. They don't taste that good. Right? Maybe you're not making them right. You you think I'm not making a s'more right?

SPEAKER_00 8:34

No, I'm saying maybe it's a kind of chocolate. I know you're big on taste and flavor, different kinds of chocolates.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Bro, you can give me the most high-end cracker chocolate and marshmallow you've ever had, or the most dog food shit ever. It's still gonna there's they suck. Well, what else are you gonna eat when you're like say you're on like a camping trip? If I'm at a bro, all day long. Mountain pie. All day. Mountain pie, you can go get pre-made frickin' like cherry and apple and those are blackberry filling. Make the I'm taking that 100% of the time over a s'more.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

I will say, I'm not obsessed with s'mores. I'll always have one just to say I had it, but it's never I guess it's never like an innate desire, but it's like, well, I don't want them to have to do it.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

My mother-in-law likes to do it too for the kids, and I'm like, well, all we're doing is burning my children's roof of their mouths and their fingers, and then I just have to clean all these sticks off when they're done. It's just a I don't know. Marshmallows are stupid.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

I guess I get it with kids.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

S'mores are stupid.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

I don't know. I don't have kids, so I can't relate, but I enjoy making a s'more and eating it. Really? Yeah. I just, it's like uh maybe it's nostalgia, but around a campfire, it's the summertime, having some drinks, relaxing. Throw a s'more on the fire, bro some marshmallow.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Marshmallow has to be perfectly toasted.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Like 4th of July? You wouldn't even have one for the 4th of July? Your fireworks, fires going. You we don't want to talk about 4th of July here with me.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

I'm I'm I'm I'm supposedly I'm like anti-American because of my thoughts on you like the Fourth of July? I love the Fourth of July. I think fireworks are f so dumb. Yeah, that's crazy. That's so surprising, too. Nothing about them brings me joy. I feel like I feel like with a lot of I don't know why. I just don't like them. Jason hates me for it. I would describe them. Just wants to blow shit up. I'm like, I do too, but like not in the sky. I feel like you're a maximalist too. I'm surprised you do. I'm blow that shit up all day. Like, yeah, let's go. But I don't need to like boo! Oh, pretty.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

But it's the it's the whole effect in the 4th of July. It's it's the fireworks are a little part, you may not love them, but they're it makes it feel like the 4th of July.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Like so does like rocking a tank top and shotgun beers with your friends and like eating jello shots at nine o'clock in the morning because you need an excuse.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yeah, and then you got fireworks in the evening.

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SPEAKER_00 12:49

You know, the city's the worst for fireworks, I'd say.

The Big Box Store Loyalty Debate

SPEAKER_01 12:51

I'm a grumpy old man now, so you've got like traffic and all that. So we'll talk about it at a later date. But things about we're talking about traffic on the next episode. Things that I don't dislike. It's spending a few bucks at a big box store. I don't think anyone's know me. You know, the only people that like spending more money at a box store than I do are these two. And it's usually they're spending my money at the big box store. I think Joe's got Joe's right now looking at our month and he's just trying to tally it up to get to the end because that budget, every time it's left over. Well, we have a budget now. POW! Straight to Home Depot. No.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Before we didn't have a budget, that was the issue.

Why Home Depot Wins For Tools

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Yeah, so there's I think there's a pretty good segment of the world that like believes that they have the greatest hardware big box store big box tool store, whatever you want to call it, around. And so we gotta weigh in. I agree. We're gonna let our experts start. Kick off. Lowe's are home deep. Stranger in the parking lot. What are you?

SPEAKER_02 13:56

I mean, the big three the big three I looked up, it's either Lowe's Home Depot, or it seems like in the Midwest, Menards is like king out there. But I I will say, obviously, I have to go with the one and only the Home Depot. The Home Depot is just the best. I enjoy going to a Home Depot, sometimes not even buying anything, just walking through the store. It's lovely. I feel like I feel at home there. I've had to take it there. Even before I worked here, I've been to a Home Depot so often. It's like it's just such a weird feeling to just go to a place and you know where everything is. Like I the layouts are nearly identical. You just peruse the owls, they always have new and interesting things on the end caps. I recently got a headlamp that you could talk to. You'll like you'll be like, it's called the Coast Headlamp. It's the most anti-pullish shit I've ever heard. I know, but it was so like it was I actually got it a couple more.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Well, we use good Bluetooth headphones. Every but he'll get a headlamp he can talk to you. You once again make no sense. We're just we're every episode you constantly just prove.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

I'll tell you when it came in handy. I was adding a breaker to my panel in my basement, and I got to have both hands where I needed them, and you just yell at it because I like shut down the main so all the lights are off. Well, you can only call it coast, so you have to go coast on, and it'll you got coast high, high beam, low beam, red light, green light, and it works great. But every time I bust it out, Kristen will always be like, just put that fucking thing away. We'll go walk our dog at night, and I'm like, let me get my headlamp on. She's like, You don't have to wear it. I told you my dad used to do that too. Jeffrey and I just pop in our room, headlamp on. We're like, whoa! I think I'm getting older. I like coconut, I have an affinity for flashlights. It's just it's all downhill from here.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Right. He just finds himself being drawn to magazines for no reason whatsoever. Standing in an aisle.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Do you like Depot's home layout or like their store layout better than other stores?

SPEAKER_02 15:44

I like ever literally almost everything better. I like their store layout better, I like their tool selection better, I like their rewards program better, I like I like their paint better because like at least they have their own type of paint with like Bear, where like Lowe's, you have Valspar. I'm not a huge Valspar guy, but then they have like a handful of Sherwin Williams colors. I may be getting this wrong, but I don't think you can get every Sherwin Williams color there.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Only like a they're like a teaser, like baby Sherwin Williams.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Yeah. Well, I think we all agree too, than power tools, like Home Depot clearly has better power tools.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Yeah, I wish that Home Depot had Bosch, but other than that, I've got to do that.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

I guess I forgot the uh Lowe's has Bosch. But they carry like seven Bosch tools. They don't carry anything close to the tools.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

It's the same with Matabo. They have like a handful. Yeah. You can't build, with the exception of DeWalt, like you can go to Home Depot, you could build out an entire battery platform system. You could be like, I'm all Ryobi or all DeWalt, all Milwaukee, like lawn care, power tools, like outdoor equipment, like but Lowe's, I agree. I feel like everything, they just have like a handful.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

It's like half-assed. They don't care as much about like the power tool buyer, I don't think. I will say the hand tool side though, they used to be primarily, I think, Klein, and now they let Southwire creep their way in there. So they're carrying it. I believe they're carrying both.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

They have some good deals on DeWalt Tools sometimes, better than other stores. And I think it's just because them they're trying to get customers back in the doors.

Lowe’s Strengths Deals And Frustrations

SPEAKER_01 17:08

It's the only big brand they carry, almost a full line. Yeah. Right? You can't we I think they do carry pass load, which is good. But like you're not buying as many, like passload only makes nailers. Yeah. But it's a great nailer, but like how many nailers you need to buy, right? Yeah. Lowe's, I feel like Lowe's for me is like like that fun experience. You don't know what you're gonna get, right? If you want consistency and performance, it's like buying a Ford. You just go to Home Depot, skew it out, right? Just go to Home Depot, you know what you're getting, you know what they've got. If they don't have it, they're gonna get it for you. And they're probably gonna get it for you within 24 hours. They're probably gonna treat you a little better. We never get shit. Home Depot, we watch Lowe's. I feel like Lowe's for me is like like that fun experience. You don't know what you're gonna get, right? If you want consistency and performance, it's like buying a Ford. You just go to Home Depot, skew it out, right? Home Depot. Just go to Home Depot, you know what you're getting, you know what they've got. If they don't have it, they're gonna get it for you. And they're probably gonna get it for you within 24 hours. They're probably gonna treat you a little better. We never get shit. Home Depot, we walk in there, they they treat us like like members of the family. God's we go into Lowe's, we get side stairs, we get people asking what why we exist on this planet, right? They just don't love us the way Home Depot does. So I think that that plays in it for me too, is like Home Depot, and I and I'll I'll go out on a limb here. I've been doing this for like shit 13 years now. And where I grew up, there was no Home Depot. Same with me. Like, so you had to go out of your way. When I moved and I was in the when I was in Homestead, and like when the channel and stuff were just getting started, there was no Home Depot. You had to drive 25-30 minutes. So I was going to Lowe's all the time. I mean, Lowe's was a daily occurrence. It was five minutes in the water at Lowe's in the waterfront. Oh, yeah. And that's the biggest lows in in our area. That's the most well supplied. That's the central location for all Lowe's in in Pittsburgh. And the best Lowe's, I'd still be going to Home Depot for shit. Because I was just like, you just can't. There's there's don't they don't I don't think they care as much about the the contractor or like the actual builder as much as Home Depot does.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

I would even argue the consumer in general. Like I feel like Home Depot, they have so many deals and sales, and like I feel like Lowe's, they they have some, but it's it's very few and far between. They're always confusing too. Like if there's ever a sale on like a certain type of tool or something, it's like, oh, buy like these like four select tools, and they'll have like the serial numbers written on there. It's like you get this one free battery. Joke and a test. We've gone several times, tried to cash in on one of those deals. It turns into a 40-minute excursion where they're like, oh, sorry, that's the 10046, not the one zero zero four seven. The deal doesn't apply. Correct. You call a manager, like that's gonna be another hour. Do you have to be anywhere later today?

SPEAKER_00 20:01

There are no people ever in Lowe's either. Lowe's is the worst for trying to get help if you need it. You need to get something out of a cage, you better chalk another 25 minutes onto your trip.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Lowe's will have, though, wild, like out-of-the-box shit all the time. Yeah. Like I remember going there when I was doing a lot of like planner boxes and like Adirondack. They'd have like two by six cedar beams. For whatever reason, right? Yeah. And you'd have like cedar posts, four by four. You're like, why do you have these here? Like they were wet as shit and absolutely pull noodled, twisted, but like they were there. They were there.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Whenever we were building that doghouse, we ended up not using metal roofing, but nowhere else except Lowe's carried a specific color of metal roofing. And it was like, why are you carrying this? Yeah. It was just like a weird item that why would they have it nowhere else that no one was buying it? Yeah. It was in stock in the store of all the stock.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Yeah. They have a much better selection of plywood too. I forget what it's because like ready core or something. And it's like, it's not even that expensive, but it's it's a solid plywood.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

It's more towards the furniture grade side of plywood than than Home Depot. Yeah. But I'm like, they also Lowe's pushes a lot more like fun shit for just like the home consumer. Right? They've got golf carts, they've got like little little uh goat karts, trailers. They do sell trailers, which is nice. Ton of um home appliances. Home depot does too, but I feel like Lowe's carries a good better assortment of brands. I've always just felt Lowe's is more for like that home DIY or Home Depot's for like you do real work.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

I was telling Pola, I think Home Depot is a way better store than Lowe's, but I do think Lowe's is better in just two categories. One is home appliances. I think home appliances they carry way more, and everyone I've ever talked to, like contractors and stuff that purchase appliances from Lowe's, way easier time returning them if they ever needed. Home Depot, like they're terrible with returning appliances. They don't like it. And then I would say the other end is lawn and garden. I think Lowe's lawn and garden is way better for a homeowner. They have way more things, way more plants, pavers for for paver patios, um, assortment of mulches, rocks. I'm just saying, like you got they did have those twenty dollar bonsai trees there. They got bonsai trees, man. They have everything flower-wise. You're planting stuff, trees. They do have ego too. I'll give you that. Yeah, they're craftsman isn't the worst for buying like a cheap leaf blower or something. You don't want to spend$100 on a Ryobi one. You can get a Craftsman one with battery for$40. What? Really? What? My dad has one, it's the worst. A full mower? No, leaf blower. Oh, oh, oh. I think there are a lot of garden sections, honestly, pretty solid. I mean, it's not it's not the other brands that Home Depot carries, but it's ego is nice. If you have ego, it's it's they last.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

I I agree with you that the it's easier with the appliances. I used to work for a contractor. He would haggle scratch indent appliances for like quick uh you can negotiate the prices. Yeah, but I will say general returns. Home Depot has them cooked. Home Depot, especially when you have a pro account, you can return anything. Like it's like a crazy window at times. Like I bought this like 60 days ago. It's no problem. You don't even need a receipt, you just need your phone number. Lowe's, I feel like we've tried to return things, or it's such a hassle. It's like, do you have proof of citizenship?

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Can we get it where's your uh passport? Do you have that? Yeah, you can just stamp it.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

There's no trust at home. No. They all I will say, and it might just be ours, but like Home Depot, way more friendly. Like, oh, you're clearly returning this Lowe's. You always get this glare. Like, you have the receipt, like, well, no, I don't, but it's on my account. They're like, he stole this shit. He stole this shit.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Sandbagging bastard. I think our Lowe's video, yeah. They brought no less than a dozen employees over. They did, and but where were they? Obviously, nobody else in the store was getting any help.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

None. There was at least 13 people. And that was the first time we've ever been to a store to film when it and if someone doesn't want us to film them, we're not going to. We respect them. But that was the first time ever filming at a store that someone didn't like that we had a camera. Yeah. They were being very jumpy, asking me, like, you didn't get me on camera and stuff. And I was like, no, we did not. Like, it was just it was very strange.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

I think I don't know. I I I just feel like the people that work at Home Depot want to work at Home Depot. People who work at Lowe's have to work at Lowe's. They probably didn't get a job at Home Depot and went to Lowe's. You know?

Loading Help Returns And Store Culture

SPEAKER_00 24:21

They both don't like helping you load stuff into your VC.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

None of them want to help you load shit.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

You asked them that, you might as well give up a leg or an arm.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

None. None. Trying to load toolboxes in Ohio. Like Jeffrey has he's lost limbs trying to load stuff. Do you remember the stuff me and you went through for that? Oh yeah, dude. You they shut the store down to load one toolbox. Dude. And we had a ramp into U-Haul truck. We didn't have to do anything but roll it.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Yeah, I was there.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

And you'd have thought I asked him to like disassemble half the store.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

I think that's just a problem with big box stores in general. Because I remember when Jeffrey got that big black uh toolbox in the shop there. That was uh he I like he called me, he's like, Can you come help me load this? I'm like, what do you mean, Jeff? Isn't there anyone there that could help you? They employ a hundred people. Yeah, and he's like, Nah, they said that no one's available. And then I drove up and I remember it was so big. They stand there and watch. Yeah, it was so big we need a third person. I got frustrated. There was just a guy sitting behind the counter. He said, Can you help us with this? He goes, Me? So I was like, Yeah, we we can't lift this thing in. He goes, I guess. We were like, What do you want us to do, man? What? Can you use that forklift to help get it in there? I don't have the the the certification for that. Does anyone here that no? He called off today.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Why do they only have one person able to use some of their machines? I don't understand that.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

I get the certification parts, but it's not like you should have someone on ship and incentivize someone to get certified.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Like corporate can do that. Like, hey, I'll give you two dollar an hour raise if you get forklifts certified.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

I feel like there's politics involved. Whenever I I when I was in college, I worked at a Walmart, and I remember the it wasn't the a forklift but the little genie lift thing. I remember the dude that ran it was adamant about no one else getting certified because he's like as long as I'm the only one, I ride this thing all day long. Could I learn that? No, you're not ready yet.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

You don't have to be on your feet. I kind of get that one.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

They're voting against anything more because yeah. No, we need to keep the number down. It kind of makes me think though, like going to like the loading issue. It makes me much more prefer going to like tractor supply or harbor freight or ace. Because anytime you ask for help at one of those stores, the whole store comes to help you. You're like, oh, you got a bag of beef jerky stuff. You want me to bring that out to your tractor supply?

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Nicest people in the world.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Oh my goodness. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Remember they were busting your balls when we filmed the video there? Someone was making jokes with you, and it was hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Right? One of them called corporate's boss, like their boss at corporate in order to then FaceTime them to show them that what we I was like, look at this, huh? Oh, yeah. They'll give us discounts. Employees who want to be there, yeah, they enjoy it. Now we do have a lot of fans across the channels that like work at Home Depot and Lowe's and stuff. We're not knocking you guys, we're just saying, you know, our local store, there's some great employees there. They've roll out the red carpet for us. But then you go to like a random store and No. But to go off, will not help you do anything.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

They don't just roll it out for us, they do that with everybody. Like my dad always talks about he has the account at Tractor Supply, and he always has a phenomenal experience. Yeah.

unknown 27:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

Tractor supply and our local tractor supply has been phenomenal. Even the we went to four tractor supplies, they were all great. Yeah, they all were. Well, it's the one bad experience. Our harbor freight's phenomenal. Harbor our yeah, the cram, yeah, cranberry harbor freight in Pittsburgh. Great.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

It's probably the nicest harbor freight you will ever go to in your life.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Absolutely elite. I would eat off the floors in there. It is clean. Actually, we should probably host our Nest holiday party at that Harbor Freight. I would I would legitimately love that. Can we reach out to them and ask them? Yeah, yeah. Corporate. We shut down the store. Shut down the hardware. So also the ACE in Wexford, and I've had this experience everywhere. I think Ace is like the most wholesome still of like employees because they like pride themselves on being like the helpful hardware store.

SPEAKER_03 28:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

I'll say this they don't know shit, but they're always willing to help. They'll try to find you an answer. I was in there two weeks ago. I was looking. So if you ever do tiling work and you already have all of your electrical installed, they make spacers that go in the electrical box that space out the plug. Oh, nice. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, so it's like these little folding things. Yeah. So I go in there, I'm like, hey, I'm looking for these spacers for an outlet. They're like they're like black or orange or green plastic. You just fold them and you can stick the screw through them. No one in the store knew what they were. They didn't even know what to look up. So I'm walking around with a Home Depot link. I'm like, do we have anything like this in the store? I wasted more time walking around the store trying to talk to somebody to try to find it because they had it online, but they didn't have it in then. I should have just went to Home Depot. I ended up having to go to Home Depot because they didn't have it. But like nobody knew what they were talking about. Remember we were trying to buy chainsaws there?

SPEAKER_00 29:06

Oh, they had to start it up before letting us take it away.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

They were super helpful, but it was just like the most unnecessary shit of all time.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

I have to start it up. I was like, I don't want gasoline in it.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

They're like, you can drain it after. I was like, no.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

They're like, you're gonna have to drain it. We can't let you leave without starting.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

Like, we need to make sure that it works. Steel forces us to do that. I was like, how about I just take the burden and buy a new one if it doesn't work? No. I was like, all right, I'll be like, I'll give it to you for standing on your morals. I've been looking forward to this all day, and I'll be damned if you're gonna take it away from me. You were in there, like eight people were buying chainsaws. I was like, I'm not the only one you're having a good time with here right now. I mean, I get it. We're about to drop like$9,000 in your store. See, I feel like I have like the opposite uh But I love Ace. I'll say this of the secondary stores, Ace gets my heart. They just have so much cool other shit that I don't want, but I always want to get it.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

See, I think Harbor Freight's like that for me. I think Harbor Freight, I feel less judged in Harbor Freight than other stores. Oh, yeah. As someone that's not like a pro, like either has like done it like you guys. I can go into Harbor Freight and like I'm not getting looks from anyone when I'm looking for shit or looking at class.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

Someone's gonna give them money for their junk.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Yeah, exactly. You go into Home Depot though, and you're kind of like guessing on what kind of what you need, they're kind of like what'd you say? You gotta find the right person to ask.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

You can't ask that grizzled old man because he's just gonna tell you you're an idiot.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

Yeah, that is a I feel like that's a legitimate anxiety. The the hardware store in my hometown isn't ace hardware, but it's like Alam's home in hardware. And I remember like you go in there and you're immediately like there's which it's a great thing, but like four different people are coming up to you. Can I help you with today? What are you doing today? And then like you get like an older person, uh which they usually are very experienced, they know what they're talking about, but they start asking about the project. Like, I just need to know where these water shutoff valves are. What kind of plumbing did you run? Exactly. Is it three quarters through the wall?

SPEAKER_01 30:51

How much using one inch on that?

SPEAKER_02 30:53

Oh, yeah. What? Like, can you just tell me where this is? But I I do there is something nice about the hardware stores. You'll usually pay a little bit more, uh, but it's it's something nice. It's like uh, you know, the community of it, you're kind of like supporting like a small-ish business. Like they're all local stores that Ace owns, but it's still like a family. Ace names them, but they're yeah, they're owned by the stuff.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

That's weird.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

There's a local hardware store where I grew up. And I was I was gonna ask you guys, it's called TM. TM Hardware. For about True Value. That's another maybe. Yeah, true value. Yeah, there's actually no value. It's called TN. I'd go to TM and spend a tiny bit more money just out of convenience. Would you guys do the same, or do you prefer? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

That's why I was at the ace trying to buy spacer because I was like, it saved me 40 minutes. Yeah, of a drive. Computing time.

SPEAKER_02 31:37

Yeah, I will I'll pay the premium if it'll save me a little bit of time, number one. And number two, if it's like a small product, like I'm all for like wanting to get like some fittings or some screws or some this or that. I I won't I won't I won't do up, yeah, but I won't do a power tool. Power tools get out of control.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

They sell Milwaukee and nothing's ever discounted.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

No, a lot of it, it's like arguably like forty to fifty percent more than the big box stores. I'm like all the little little shit all day long, but the the big stuff, I don't know. Yeah. From time to time that they'll throw some stuff on sale.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

But I I feel like for me, like so. We grew up um by an ace, but this ace was like a building that had like three buildings slapped together. Oh, yeah. And you'd pop in, and it was only for like the most obscure shit, right? So you needed like four, you know, three-quarter inch stainless steel sheet metal screws, a plumbing fitting, right, and like a belt for your tractor. Like you'd go for that's your shopping list. It's just like the most peculiar and you could find it all. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:33

You were hunting forever.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Yeah, it would like made no aisles made any sense, right? They had this like little corner in the back right where there was a dude that I feel like he just lived in there. And it was like if you walked into the library and like a Harry Potter movie, but it was for screws and fasteners, and you'd ask the dude, and he'd like roll out a sheet. Yeah, and he'd be like, third row, top right corner, fourth side, gray bin, but and you were like, What? Why do you have it? And you'd be like, pull it out, pull the bin down, the gray, and you're like, Why is the why?

SPEAKER_00 33:09

We are spoiled now. Anytime you go to like a Home Depot, it checks your location, and we'll just you're in the store. You get a store map, you can just type in, and it'll tell you the aisle, the use that they put the onus that exists. If you go into the Home Depot and you go onto the app, it'll it'll go to store mode, and so it asks as if you're in the store. I just go on browser. The app is so elite.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Or send you guys.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

They put the onus on the customer with that, though. You have to find it yourself. That's one nice thing about a hardware store. They will take you directly the item. Yeah. If you ever ask someone at a big box store, sometimes you get a good person, but other times it's like, over there, just keep going. Like this is one of those down that way.

Tool Rentals That Change Everything

SPEAKER_01 33:51

Here's a big thing for me that has come on later in age, didn't matter when I was younger. But the accessibility to renting shit.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

I feel like it's a game changer at a box. Like Home Depot is the only one around here that offers it.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Imagine if Harbor Freight did.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Yeah. You can rent Harbor Freight tools. There's no program. You can bring them back when you're done. Most people look at Harbor Freight as a rental store. Yeah. But like, I love it because I mean, you're looking at like we had four trees fall in my the yard at one one of my houses this weekend. I'm like, I need a log splitter. I don't need to buy one, right? You can go rent one at the Home Depot across the street. Like, hell yeah. Yeah. And then you just find yourself being more conditioned. You're like, you know what? I kind of do need to power wash the floors in my driveway. Like the pressure wash. Yeah, the or the floor cleaner part. You know, you're like, yeah, what we did something, we rent from there a pretty decent amount. Scissor lifts. Yeah, lifts. We get like drywall, drywall stuff is great rental. Yeah. But like concrete mixing you can rent. I think that that's another reason it's just sets Home Depot apart from literally almost everybody. Because I don't think Lowe's has a rental program, at least not around here. Tractor supply has a rental program for trailers. No, tractor supply is a it's it's the wildest shit. Like this does not make any sense from the business side. It's just like a hundred percent insurance.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

You can rent big, big machines from Home Depot. Yeah. Big excavators.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

I think it's obscene that you can rent like an excavator and take it home, just dig holes in your garden.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

I wonder if like they're directly trying to compete with like a Sunbelt, like what their goal of like those big machines are.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

They are because it's convenient. Like I'm I don't even know where Sunbelt is. I know there's a couple around here. Yeah. Like I'm going to Home Depot first because the convenience and I they I know them and like I know the story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

I wonder if Sunbelt's cheaper or something, but the convenience you pay more of a premium. Like they've got all the stuff.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

They have everything. I just think it's awesome. You can like you can get a nailer. You want to throw a shed together on a weekend with some nails, you can go rent a nailer.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Yeah, people don't even people think you have to buy it. You don't have to a lot of the times nowadays.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

So if you're running like a small business and you know how long you're gonna need a tool for on a job or something, home deep, like I think that's such an incredible value addition. Then they also they sell those tools sometimes. You'll go in and they'll have a shelf of rentals that they're they're they're beat to shit, but they're selling them. Getting rid of them, you know, uh, which I think is pretty rad. Yeah. A bold move to buy a rental tool.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

But everyone's having a lot of things. You've literally got to be you. I even I'm before I draw the line.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

I get to I get this at a 75% discount and I get to tinker with it unlimitedly.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

In I'm I'm always adamant whether it's tools or cars. I'm like, I'd much rather buy a used one or even more used, but one person owned it versus like everyone got to have it for a set period of time because you're guaranteed to abuse it because you're like, it's it's not I'm not connected to this, I didn't pay for it. I'm gonna give it back. Like yeah, no, like a gas axe.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Yeah. We rented one around. We've rented a few gas axes, and the things that you can imagine people doing with a gas axe, you're just like, mm-hmm. What I never want that in my mind.

Menards Northern Tool And Mega Stores

SPEAKER_00 36:59

You guys have you ever been to Menards?

SPEAKER_01 37:01

So I walked around a Menards once. I was at a tool show, I got invited to go somewhere, and then I was just menard, I was bored I had time to kill. I walked around it. Nice. So it's like tractor supply had sex with Lowe's, and then they had like a bastard child that moved to the Midwest. It's all not a lot of power tools, but you can get like farming stuff, you can get like feed, you can get lighting, you can get like uh you know, the random shit that you didn't know you needed.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

Well, they're power tools in the ones we just tested. Master Force, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

They impact driver wasn't very good.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

It was the worst, it was the wildest thing I've ever seen. Enormously, Ranger. It was from like Korea in like 2004.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

It was just this massive, like, I don't know. But it is like an experience, right? I think you can get like food in there. Uh it kind of reminded me of when we went to Hartville Hardware.

SPEAKER_00 37:51

Yeah, Hardville, yeah. They have like everything.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

Super Sick store had everything. Dude, Hartville is the most elite store I think I've ever been in my life, period. I don't care what the category of things are.

SPEAKER_00 38:00

I wish they'd work with us. I want to go there so bad and film a video. Yeah. But uh biggest hardware store in America.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

Hard to get a store to work with you when you're asking them if we can live in it for 24 hours.

SPEAKER_00 38:09

Can we stay in your store for 24 hours straight, even when you guys go to the house?

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Listen, actually, at this point, anyone has a store that we can live in for 24 hours. Please contact us. But it it it it makes you think, you know, like how do these stores make money when you have to compete with something that big? Like these mom and pa stores, like, I love them. But I remember living in the south side. There was a hardware store down there. Take a guess of the hours. I'm gonna say eight to three. What, like probably ten to two? It was literally like nine to four thirty. So, like, if you had a real job, you couldn't go there ever. How are you staying in business? Home Depot, man, they're open until nine or ten o'clock. Dude, they open at six thirty in their own. And they close at 10 p.m. That's nuts.

SPEAKER_02 39:00

It's amazing. If you have the right location, I think it could work. If you're far enough away from a big box store, there's a place uh uh called Bassetti Hardware. Are you familiar with that? It's like a tiny little store, it's not owned by Ace or True Value, it's its own thing. And there's been numerous times where I've been on like a job or something, it's like it's gonna be like 20 minutes to get to Home Depot. I could just go down to Bassetti and pay twice as much for it.

SPEAKER_01 39:23

I'd just go there. You know, you're feeding a family too. You're like, well, yeah, this money's going to a good place, going to a kid's belly. Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02 39:30

It's not going to shareholders. You trade the time for the money, you know. It's like I'd rather just you know pay a little more and then.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

And I want to do that more. It's just such a hard business to make money in. Yeah. And you're like, uh, which makes it tough.

SPEAKER_00 39:43

But I mean, Menards, and there's also Northern Tool I've never been to. So there's a Northern Tool.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

This is just the most personal thing no one ever knows. Whatever. So we drive to Hilton Head every year, and when we're driving to Hilton Head, there's this place called um uh Rock Something on the way. It's in North Carolina. Rock Hill, North Carolina. Rock South. It's in South Carolina? Okay, so it's we stay there and then drive like the last couple hours, right? Yeah. Do you go to Northern Tool? There's a Northern Tool in the parking lot at the hotel we stay at every year. You've never been there. No, I just pop in every time. Yeah. Is it nice? It's the same thing as tractor supply. There's straight up tractor supply. Yeah, they just don't have as many tractors. But it's like they've got their own brand of tools, which I wish they had more of because we would definitely do a video. Yeah. Um but it I think it's all like white label. They just slap their stuff on. It's like cat, they just like slap their shit on whatever nowadays. Um one thing I will say that was this is where hardware stores like of that caliber have a place in my heart, is that they always have like bags of candy that you can't get other places. And for me, it's the fruit flavored Tootsie Rolls. Oh, if you've got fruit-flavored Tootsie Rolls, I love you. I love you. I love fruit-flavored Tootsie Rolls, except the vanilla, those are bullshit. That's not a fruit. Get that the f out of the bag, right? They put it in a blue wrapper to trick your ass. You think you're getting like blueberry or something? No, it's fucking vanilla. Get that out of the bag. But they'll yeah, but they still have those and the peach rings and the gummy bears. It's like going to Bass Pro shop if you've been there. Like at the end when you go to leave, there's just a mountain of candy, and your kids are like, give me all that stuff. Get you on that shit. But that's what um I remember they had that at Northern Tool, but it they have that tractor supply too. Tractor supply is just littered with jerky now at the end. Jerky and energy drinks.

SPEAKER_02 41:27

Yeah, they had they had some old timey candy, I thought. You ever been to a rural king? I love I think I rural there's a rural king in Beaver, right? Yeah. I've been in there once.

SPEAKER_01 41:35

It's like a tractor supply, but you could also fire arms there. Really? Why is that part? That reminds me of a Menards. And then I've also have you heard of Fleet Farm? Nah. This is a Midwest thing, I think. Fleet Farm, never heard of it. I've never been to the Midwest, but if you watch like You Betcha, that that dude, he's pretty funny. He's always talking about construction shit. He he he does a lot of skits at Fleet Farm. Um, and then you've also got him, and then there's Charlie something is his name. He's um Charlie, he he's he's he does like the Midwestern humor stuff too. Those guys are pretty funny. But they're always talking about how like you can spend a whole day at Fleet Farm, get everything your family needs. I'm pretty sure you can like go grocery shopping, you can buy like you can buy fishing because yeah, what the heck, dude. So we might need to do fleet farm. Where is the or we could you know what? Road trip it now that this kid's here. I could probably my wife will kill me. Love you, honey. She listens to every episode, by the way. RBS fan. You guys should get on that. Share it. She's sharing it with everyone. Um we could do a road trip to a fleet farm and a Menards and Rural King. Oh, what a trip. Showdown between the three of them, competition-wise, the three of us. We each get a store. Time limit. That could be a video. That would be nice. Fleet farm versus rural king versus um what was the last one? Menards? Menards. We could try it. A thousand dollar one-hour challenge. I'm calling rural king right now.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

It's been said here, I've called it. You're the least rural dude in the room. That's not true. I grew up uh no. No, not at all. How many, how many horses growing up? You ever have a horse?

SPEAKER_00 43:05

Yeah, you had horses.

SPEAKER_02 43:07

You two don't even belong in the tractor. I belonged in that tractor supply more than both of you. We had horses, but they weren't ours. You ever milk a cow? I know, but I've always wanted to. You don't want to. No. How many cows have you milked? A couple. When did you milk it?

SPEAKER_01 43:20

As a kid. So when we get bored as kids, we would literally just go into fields and light shit on fire and steal booze. We would do that too. Where? There's no fields where you grew up.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

I had a horse field. At a horse in a city? I was in raccoon township. You haven't been out that way. No, no, no. You've been claiming Aliquippa for mailing address. Well, that's mainly because when we get in that football debate, I'm from Aliquippa. City of Champions, what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01 43:46

Alec dude, Elite. No one's on you. Take the cake there. You're from Aliquippa, better better football than Burjo and I come from all day long. Rural. Hey.

SPEAKER_02 43:56

Come on, man. I didn't even know burning tires was illegal in It's like 11 years old. Blame your dad for that one. He might be the rural case. Very well might be the rural king. You might have to take him on that trip with you. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

What's his sawdust stack looking like these days?

SPEAKER_02 44:12

We would actually, when it was sawdust, when it was just the pine sawdust, not the plywood or anything like that, he would have a separate thing where we'd shoot it outside, and then we would put it in the back of uh the trailer on the tractor and then use that for the horse stalls, use sawdust. But you can't use like plywood or like walnut or anything.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

Walnut melts when walnut mixes with horse piss, it melts their hoops. Really? Yeah, so actually big wood wood shops will swap their, they sell their sawdust because they do so much volume. They swap their sawdust, or excuse me, swap their buckets when they do walnut, and they all they'll like only process walnut like once a week because of that. So they because they can't sell it to the horse farms.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

I didn't know that. Why aren't we selling our sawdust?

SPEAKER_01 44:53

We don't make any anymore. We make this shit. Plus, it's always littered with like epoxy or this or that. It can never be pure. Yeah, I wouldn't trust our sawdust as far as I can throw Sam. And I can throw Sam pretty far.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

Well, so going through these lists, we'll we'll we're gonna take the top five hardware stores, big box stores, put them on uh Mount Rushmore.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

Isn't there only four in a rushmore?

SPEAKER_00 45:14

Uh there are four, but we're gonna pick from five. Pick from five? Yes. Oh. So one will be left out. So one will be left out. I actually maybe we'll all agree so we don't have to do this and we can just go into the last segment for a few minutes. Because I I do think none of us are gonna put menards on it. So we can just rush more. We'll pop it up for you guys on screen.

SPEAKER_01 45:36

Belows, ace, and harbor freight. Yeah. All right. All right.

SPEAKER_00 45:42

Time stamp that. That's our first time agreeing on something.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

We agree on something last week. I forget what it was. We all agreed that Milwaukee was an elite brand. Like it was that was it. Joe's over here fighting for random Hilti shit. By the way, do you how was your like how was your uh voyage to the Hilti store that you were promised you were gonna do? Hilti store? Yeah, you said I love Hilti so much, I'm just gonna go down there and hang out. You know, feel for the vibe.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

I went, I took out a personal loan. I spent$45,000. I got a drill and driver though.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

He stopped at the blood donor, he stopped at the sperm bank. It's like a couple of things.

SPEAKER_00 46:15

I got two tools though, one battery. I couldn't get the upgraded one, only two amp hours.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

You need an appointment to actually shop at that store. It's probably like a c probably like a college bar. They got a guy outside getting a cover,$100 to walk inside.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

You want to look at these? You got a pen.

SPEAKER_01 46:30

Yeah, you need an appointment. I had to buy a drill bit once I walked in. They're like, can we help you? It's like not a store. I was like, I needed a bit. They're like, you didn't call. I was like, no.

Full Tier List Rankings And Hot Takes

SPEAKER_00 46:38

So I have this awesome tier list. Uh everyone loved our pro, prosumer, homeowner, beginner. Oh, dog shit. So we're gonna go through the big box stores and hardware stores. Does anyone else include dog shit on their ass tier list? Uh we're gonna put it on it. We just make our own up. You guys, we had to stay away last time. I figured dog shit's probably more appropriate.

SPEAKER_01 46:57

Dog shit is AD. Depending on the dog shit, yeah. Some people might like it.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

So we're gonna go through these stores and rank them. How does that sound?

SPEAKER_01 47:04

Oh, yeah, all day.

SPEAKER_00 47:05

Let's go. All right. First up, ace hardware.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

Pro Sumer for me. I can love Ace. I love that I can go and I can get a Yeti cooler, I can get a Traeger Grill, I can get a Gosni dome, make some pizza. I can also buy a bunch of Milwaukee tools, a carry Weber, a skill, a steel chainsaw. Yeah. I can get I can get some I can get some plants on the way out.

SPEAKER_00 47:25

They have a Lego mower from there, the ride on the room.

SPEAKER_01 47:28

They have elite uh elite plants. Like if you want to get some herbs in your garden going, which I I I love. They have a solid selection of fittings. Great selection of fittings. There used to be a lot of fittings and screws and stuff like that. You can get your basic electrical stuff there. Get pool noodles if you want. They'll do some pool stuff. They do a lot of outdoor like that. I agree. I think that's a pretty assumer.

SPEAKER_00 47:51

Uh Menards.

SPEAKER_01 47:52

Never been. I'm gonna have to throw it in homeowner. Just the one time I've been. If you disagree with that, you said it's like a tractor supplier. The one I went to was in Ohio. I'm pretty sure I was out by like Cleveland. And the whole front of the store was their lighting section raised above the glass so you could just see all the lights. And then you walked in, and after the lighting section, it was a disappointment. Really? For me. Yeah. It was just, I don't know. It was a giant store, though. I mean, like I could have drove a truck around. It was so big. That's nuts. Tractor supply. A prosumer. I love tractor supply.

SPEAKER_00 48:32

Do you think maybe it'd be a pro for someone in that specific? If you own a farm or someone. Yeah, it'd probably be a pro, I'd say, for because we don't use it to its fullest ability. We don't need it.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

The fact you can buy chickens and like live animals there has to throw it above it.

SPEAKER_00 48:45

If you get horse stalls, you can get, yeah, maybe for certain people.

SPEAKER_01 48:49

You can buy basic livestock. Supposedly at the more rural ones, they even increase the amount of livestock they sell. Yeah, okay. I asked, remember we were looking for that Jeep. I was asking for chiclets. Yeah. They're like, we don't get those till April. They do get them then? You can buy chickens there. By the way, I'm anti-chicken, but like we're not, don't buy any guys showing chickens. I'm gonna kill you.

SPEAKER_02 49:08

I I could see you doing the chicken thing.

SPEAKER_01 49:10

Hell no, dude. Birds are dirty as hell. All the eggs.

SPEAKER_02 49:12

I'm anti-bird. You know that those eggs are just completely. I'm allergic to eggs now. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

I'd I would love if you weren't allergic to eggs though. Still no, that's too much work. I'm all for it. I mean, you want to go homesteading and all that shit, like go ahead. But I'm birds are dirty as hell. I went to school. My kids will be walking in with every fing disease you can get.

SPEAKER_02 49:29

I went to school with a kid. This family had chickens, and that was like his job. This dude wake up like 4 a.m.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

in like third grade to go work and get the egg. I got a buddy who bought like six chickens at the he lives by the tractor supply up the street. Yeah. He's been here a few times. John. He bought six of them. Now they're fully grown. Four of them are hens. One's a rooster, just an asshole, I guess. He's gonna one died. He's like, I've got a hundred eggs a week. Like we can't eat them fast enough. Yeah, sell them. Dude, when when egg prices went up, I actually texted him. I was like, Can I get some eggs? He's like, bro, I can't keep them in stock. He's like, I've got a little egg business going on inside, you know. He's in like a random neighborhood that you're not allowed to have this. He's like chicken coop behind, like, it's hidden somewhere. In the wood the craziest shit, right? And he loves it. And I'm like, that's the dirty, like you there's poop everywhere, they make noise. There were there were I'm ready for like quiet, no animal life. Anyone want two senile ass golden retrievers? No, no, absolutely. Hank just sits there, lays his floppy ass. He's might as well be a rug at this point. All four limbs spelled out, just barks at anything that walks by the hillside. Doesn't move. Doesn't even get up. He just barks for the love of the game. He's just I'm like, what are you gonna do? You're a fing mop. And he's the nicest dog ever. Nicest dog ever, biggest asshole ever. So that's what like chickens do to me, too. I'm like, I don't want to listen to off of the animals.

SPEAKER_00 50:44

I feel like Paul's gonna have a crazy answer here.

SPEAKER_01 50:47

Harbor Freight Five years ago beginner. I'm throwing it up there with Sam at ProSumer. That's good. I I they've pushed, I give Harbor Freight so much credit. They've pushed the limit across the board, not only in the power tools. This Hercules line where we the tools are solid, the batteries junk, but like I love that they're pushing the limit on it. Yeah, I love the affordability, I love the return policy. But also, if you get into like the other shit that they make, these icon toolboxes that we have, nice elite. Yeah, they're super like I'm I'm we're getting rid of other brands. There's no husky left in our shop. These icon ones destroy the husky toolboxes, right? They just blow them out of the water.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

Their icon tools are good too.

SPEAKER_01 51:31

And then on top of that, the icon tools are just I we're we almost got rid of all of our husky tools too. Yeah, right? Sam's got a full garage. They're sitting in a pile because you know that's how he that's how he functions. He likes a pot pull of piles. No, like jokes aside, that you get into like the uh um their pneumatic stuff, they have multiple tiers of that now. It's all great. They have engines, which is great. You get um, and I also like that Apache line that they do for like their plastic um kind of like their plastic blow mold, like um they're a little bit more in like the military container stuff, like the pelican competitors. Like I think those products are cool as shit. The the carriers. I've just gotta give it to Harbor Freight for that. Their CEO getting he he's he's on it.

SPEAKER_02 52:11

They're the ultimate like specialty tool brands, especially with automotives when you have to do like uh with automotive, whenever you have to do like weird jobs, like oh, I need like a like a puller or this or that. You go to the Harbor Freight every time. And before Harbor Freight, you'd have to go to AutoZone, pay like three to four times as much.

SPEAKER_01 52:27

Or you couldn't been to yeah, yeah, no, yeah. I I will say though, Harbor Freight doesn't f around either. There's no there's no snacks in there, right? There's no buttons, there's no beverages, there's no bullshit. They're fishing as shit. There's three front end employees, they know where everything is, they're getting you in and getting you out and getting you back to work.

SPEAKER_00 52:46

And they are one of the only places that I've shopped at. If I didn't realize there was a deal happening, they're telling something they will tell you and they will make sure that you save your money. They want you. Everywhere else, uh, I missed the deal. Oh no, I didn't get a discount. No, hey, by the way, that this one's actually discounted. You should go put that back and get this. Yeah. Thank you. Uh Rural King. I've only been to one.

SPEAKER_02 53:10

Don't get that out of dog shit. Are you no, don't be I'm gonna say pr you get a gun there. Pro Sumer.

SPEAKER_01 53:16

You get a gun there, throw that in homeowner. Let's go. Homeowner. You can't get guns anywhere these days. Let's go. Lowe's? It's homeowner for me. Uh I want it. It would be pro sumer, but they just lean so much at that homeowner for me. All their tools are, Sam, all their tools are the subcategory. They don't carry you could get some pro sumer stuff there, but I do think it's more homeowner. Like even DeWalt, they're all DeWalt's like XR line.

SPEAKER_02 53:44

Yeah, but you could get everything you could get at Ace, you could get at Lowe's plus more inches. No! What do you mean? What can't you get? Ace sells steel, Ace sells Yeti, they sell.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

Yeah, but Lowe's does carry a wide assortment of grills, griddles, plywood, like uh you can get it.

SPEAKER_02 54:02

They sell Milwaukee at Ace. They sell, well, they had Flex. You guys fumbled Flex. I don't know what's wrong with the That's why they need drop down.

SPEAKER_01 54:10

God They fumbled Sam's favorite brand. Now, you know, we for boys. I'm throwing them up. We forgot. We forgot. Um we forgot an elite aspect of Lowe's in this entire conversation. What's that? The discount tool wall.

SPEAKER_00 54:27

The back wall? I hate I hate their back aisle. What? It's the best one of all the stores. I don't know. The deals aren't great, but the way they do it? They never have anything actually there.

SPEAKER_02 54:37

Such an eclectic assortment of items. So what? As much as I want to put it at ProSumer, the back wall isn't what does it for me?

SPEAKER_00 54:45

It's a great discounted aisle, better than the other stores. However, it's always just a bunch of bullshit.

SPEAKER_02 54:49

Gardening gloves and a toilet seat. Look at that. Discounted.

SPEAKER_01 54:53

Tell me. You're not leaving the garden to go take a dump and you're not thinking about it.

SPEAKER_00 54:58

I'd bet my life that we could go to Lowe's right now and they still have these DeWalt drill attachments that are for uh pipes. They've been sitting in there for at least a year. No one buys them, they just leave them in the back aisle.

SPEAKER_01 55:09

We actually probably could outfit every anything we need for Christmas right now on that discount.

SPEAKER_00 55:13

We 100% could.

SPEAKER_01 55:14

Probably. All right, homeowner it is. Northern Toll. Never been. It's just such it's a beginner. It's yeah. I don't know enough about it. Like I said, it kind of reminds me of like a shittier version of tractor supply. Yeah. Right? And it was, they're just so sporadic. We're gonna have to throw it down there.

SPEAKER_00 55:31

And then last but not least, the Home Depot. Obviously Pro Sumer. Can't argue it. You say Pro Sumer? I say.

SPEAKER_01 55:39

I was gonna say, geez, you just wish. No, my bad. I I didn't know we put proof. You don't have any dog shit? Well, dog shit, we didn't, you know, like true value, dog shit, right? Like I have Yeah, it depends on it.

SPEAKER_02 55:50

Depending on which one you go to. I wouldn't say that.

SPEAKER_01 55:52

And that's what makes it dog shit. Yeah, but you could say that with Ace too. You could say that with Ace. Have you been to the one next to the Sharon Williams here?

SPEAKER_03 55:59

No.

SPEAKER_01 55:59

No. And we buy nothing but tools around here.

SPEAKER_02 56:02

We buy every tool all the same time. No, I've been to some nice ones. I've been to some nice ones. I've I've I've got C and I hardware. I've been on the city.

SPEAKER_01 56:10

I've been to some with nice people. The store still sucked.

SPEAKER_02 56:14

Well. No, I still I can't. He can't he can't. I can't put it in dog shit. I'll do beginner homeowner. Not dog shit though. Not the true value hardware.

SPEAKER_01 56:25

If it if dog shit is equated to drive by that place and don't go in and give it your money, we've got to throw dog shit up there.

SPEAKER_02 56:31

Oh come on, man.

SPEAKER_01 56:32

We got it got to. Sam. We can't have nothing in the dog shit category.

SPEAKER_02 56:38

Fine, put it in the dog shit. I'd rather put the unknowns that. Well, but from what you're telling me, it sounds like the northern tool and menards are actually kind of fun. I guess if one has to go, you could throw it there. I buy heart, I don't think. You know what?

SPEAKER_01 56:49

And we have no affiliation with them. We gotta throw Hartville hardware in that pro. I would actually put it in a god tier if we could.

SPEAKER_00 56:57

You know, because they ghosted my emails, they're getting put to homeowner.

SPEAKER_01 57:01

They are.

SPEAKER_00 57:01

Yeah, that doesn't matter. Even though they sell sawmills and full.

SPEAKER_01 57:05

They sell full. Think about instruction equipment. They sell everything and probably more than any other store. This is just a PSA to Hartville Hardware. Joe is hurt right now. He believes in you, he loves you, and you're not responding to his calls. You are ghosting his ass. Guys, let's figure something out.

SPEAKER_02 57:23

Hurtville hardware is my man is hurting.

SPEAKER_00 57:25

Could you imagine John sleeping in your model home for 24 hours straight? Only eating candy.

SPEAKER_01 57:29

Bro, they have multiples in the store.

SPEAKER_00 57:32

They have a section of model. They have a whole festal rack. They have a whole festal section as big as Ace Hardware. Like literally every festal tool, the exco skeleton you can try out. You could test out the shape or origin. You could test out literally everything.

SPEAKER_01 57:45

They literally, if you take that woodworking store at the end of our street, it's just a small segment of the glory that exists inside Hardville.

SPEAKER_00 57:55

It's probably like a 40,000 square foot building.

SPEAKER_01 57:57

Really? Three stories. Each story.

SPEAKER_00 58:00

Basements like showrooms and stuff. They do like uh drive through the lumber yard. Yeah, they do. Did you watch that video? I watched the video, but you guys are broken.

unknown 58:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 58:23

If Jeff wasn't that's all right, Jeff Jeff wasn't getting sick. Poor recipe. Piece of shit. Piece of shit.

Listener Suggestions And Closing

SPEAKER_00 58:29

Anyway. That's all I have. That's it on the rankings.

SPEAKER_01 58:33

Yeah, I mean, I think it's it's there's definitely stores that we missed, unfortunately. Because I feel like nationally and globally, like they're like there's stuff that we don't know. So if you know something we don't know, bring it to our attention. We'd love to do a little uh a little RD. Love to explore it. If we can find one, we'll get after it. Yes, sir. Yeah, we will. Agreeably. And with that, it's gonna be a wrap on today's uh episode. We absolutely love uh shooting the shit with you guys. And if you loved it, feel free to uh share. And don't forget that you can get everything that you want slightly above average early in the builder bunker. With that, love you guys. See you on next week's episode. Peace out.