Lowes watches what Home Depot does, if they start a program then Lowes follows, if Home Depot stops or makes changes to a program then Lowes follows. It is and has been apparent that Lowes can't be innovative on their own but instead plays follow the leader. Yes, I've heard the excuses of we let Home Depot try something first and if it works then we'll do it, let them spend their money on it first. That's great but why does Lowes end it when Home Depot does, if it was a good idea at one time why is it not now all of a sudden, might it maybe that it just needs a slight adjustment or rewritten. I understand times change and in order for a company to survive they have to change too, but why the Yoyo affect. I worked at Lowes for 24 years. Started with them back in the 1988 days of Stone, Walker and other great people but the people (Employees) is what makes a company great. I've seen some great people go, people who had a handle on the business who worked their way up, just to be replaced with penny counters. If Lowes wants to become a Leader in the Home improvement business they need to start acting like it and being innovative, instead of being in the back set and enjoying the ride. There is so many things I could list that Lowes has started and stopped due to Home Depot, some of which they should have never stopped, just because Big Orange did. So them restructuring is nothing new,they've done it before with doing away of Operation Managers, by reducing ASM's due to sales volume, in the past reduction on department managers, doing away with team leaders, restructuring or re-aligning of regions and districts, stores that once had a night stocking crew but don't any longer because sales fell below $40 mil. which is totally wrong, they talk about great customer service but yet have fright on the floor where customers are trying to shop and the sales employees are busy putting up freight instead of helping customers and having to block off aisles to get it done, hmmm just doesn't seem customer oriented to me. Then getting rid of the Contractor Yards was a bad mistake, instead of closing them down, they should have opened more and if needed tweaked it and improved upon that concept because that business went somewhere it didn't go to the big box stores. Lowes in general doesn't service contractors nor are they capable or do they really know how, they use too before these big box stores. Sure they try to service the subcontractors and the guy building his own house or even a small and I mean very small contractor but they're missing the larger contractors that they once had. Lowes needs to get back to the basics, they're phylosphy like many company's is sales cures all, so I guess my question for this restructure of cutting jobs is, how's Lowes bottom line or is the just another feeble attempt to play follow the leader.
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If Lowe's wants to control expenses, why did they DOUBLE the salaries of the top five or six people in the company in 2014 !!! They make 42 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR !!! How many CSA's could we put in our stores for 42 Million ?
I am a Dept. Manager at Lowe's for 11 years now and these are the most accurate words I have seen written about Lowe's. These Bean Counters that are running our company now are running it into the ground. Looking for another job before it is too late.
Fact check Lowes market cap $68billion Home Depot $165billion!! HD not shaking in boots by far lol!
Hmmm
If anyone is following anyone, it would be Home Depot following Lowe's! Depot is shaking in their shoes because Lowe's is closing the gap by a lot. If you are going to spout off get your facts straight!
It has to be understood that Lowe's had to make changes to ensure longevity of the company! Retail has changed! You have to compete on so many levels now! Internet shopping has changed the way of the world and how consumers prefer to shop. The company was fortunate to see the writing on the wall and took immediate action to reconfigure the structure of employee operations. I was a part of the realignment. I was fortunate enough to remain on board but I had to change my mindset to understand why change was truly necessary. Without the change business would have fell short and more stores would have closed and more jobs would have been lost. I know that it seems we want to do more with less but visit other retailers and tell me what you see differently! The same concept is applied. Payroll is your most controllable expense. Company have to do what's necessary to ensure that the doors remain open. I know it's hard to hear and swallow but the truth usually is.
I disagree. HD quit there 5% and used lowes as the excuse as to why they were and lied to all there customers about it. Said lowes was to so no need to shop there. That's crazy lowes kept there's and will continue to do so. So to say lowes follows HD is crap.
Home Depot is horrible