>You go to Home Depot for expertise as much as for parts
Has not been my experience. Ace hardware is a little better, but not much.
I suppose sometimes they get lucky and a knowledgeable retiree is willing to work for those wages.
A friend recently told me about a time he sent his wife in to Home Depot with a list of things to get, and she came home with a different set of things that an employee recommended. My friend went back there to raise a stink about being sold the wrong things, found out the employee was a out of work plumber, and that "sharkbite" is great stuff.
"That's funny" I told my friend, "Literally yesterday I was talking with my plumber and he pointed out that I had sharkbite running to my sprinkler system. I told him I didn't know what his opinion of it was, but I didn't love sharkbite, he said he didn't love it either."
Mostly I go to my local hardware store because it's 2 minutes away rather than 15. Lowes is another 5+ minutes further, but it seems to have a lot more choice in some things, and I've had a bad experience with a couple Home Depot employees that I just can't let go of.
Home Depot does seem to have a weird set of things they do stock and don't. Like all their thinset mortar didn't seem to be labeled as modified or unmodified last weekend...
And yeah, I used sharkbite to book my dishwasher up, but it's definitely on the list of "get that replaced next time a plumber is in the house".
I suck at plumbing. For people like me who do the occasional repair around the house, Sharkbite is a godsend.
(clarification: Unrelated to sharkbite, but I appreciate the damage water can cause)
We used to have a really good Ace chain around here, with a proper hardware section and quality tools. They now only stock super common hardware, not the stuff I'd go to a specialty store for, and a lot of really garbage tools.
And they certainly don't have any experts anymore. you're lucky if somebody's working who knows how to run the key machine (which also no longer requires any skill)
Can you offer any further insight?
Perhaps the demise of this particular store (chain) is orthogonal to their cooperative status but you're assuming a causality?
So in the example of REI, it's a cooperative but there is still a central control and consistency between stores.
Between Ace chains, the only thing common is the word "Ace" and some fraction of Ace-branded products in the store. Some chains have tons of them, some have very little. The "Ace cooperative" exerts very little control over the stores. The cooperative is mostly about branding, not about products or quality.
I don't really have any loyalty to Home Depot vs. Lowe's vs. a local mom and pop, just have what I need when I need it.
> Has not been my experience. Ace hardware is a little better, but not much.
Most Home Depot employees at my local store were very knowledgeable for a while, but the construction market is so crazy here (Colorado) that anyone with that knowledge can make at least double what Home Depot will offer.
That said, my local store still does have a few knowledgeable people, but they tend to work morning shifts. I've learned to drop in before work if I have any DIY-type questions.