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Non-Tech : Home Depot (HD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: country bob who wrote (983)	8/16/2002 12:35:34 PM
From: Don Earl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1169

Bob, Although I shop both, I don't really like either one. I truly miss Builder's Square, Home Base and Pay and Pak. The combined inventory of building materials several years ago was far superior to what is available today and the cost to build a house is up at least 30% from what it was before Home Depot and Lowe's/Eagle bullied their way into the market. Lowe's is basically using Home Depot's own tactics against them and I think the end result will be that neither will do well. There's only one pie and the soft economy is making it smaller. Instead of half a dozen fairly large companies, we're basically down to two. The only way for either to grow is to take business away from the other. There will probably be some shifts back and forth between the two, but any real growth will have to come from same store sales in a stronger economy. Cutting back inventory levels isn't the way to accomplish the goal. Currently I'd say Lowe's has the advantage on selection, but Home Depot can usually beat their prices on comparable items. I don't see either one as a good buy and hold in this market. The days when either stock had the potential to double in a year's time are long gone. The upward momentum is history and the trend is down. The American economy has been living on borrowed money for over a year, consumer confidence is low, bankruptcies are high, and the housing market is starting to soften. The only worse place to invest I can think of are life insurance companies, but that's a different topic.