February Retail Ratings: Home Depot maintains lead

31.5% of consumers head to Home Depot most often for their home improvement needs, according to the February 09 Retail Ratings Report from BIGresearch. Lowe’s follows in second place with 25.8% of the consumer share and Walmart (5.6%) takes third.

Home Depot’s share increased one and a half points among all adults from February 08 (30%), resulting in a positive Consumer Equity Index (CEI)* of 104.93.

It seems their biggest rival, Lowe’s, has made gains in consumer share as well (23.7% in February 08), with a CEI of 108.78. Walmart’s overall share is flat from last year (5.5%), giving the discount giant a CEI of 100.53. (*CEI measures growth in share of customer preference year-over-year. An index of 100 is flat, while an index of 105 indicates 5% growth.)

Home Depot saw a relatively substantial increase in consumer preference share among men (31.8% v. 27.9% last year), with a CEI of 114.17.

Lowe’s took the second spot with 25.2% of share (up from 24% last year), resulting in a CEI of 105.09. Although their overall share is small, Menards (3.7%) and ACE Hardware (2.8%), both saw growth year-over-year with CEIs of 128.79 and 131.42, respectively.

“Although Home Depot generally maintains a strong lead across gender and income segments, there is a bright spot for Lowe’s when it comes to the 90 day outlook,” said Pam Goodfellow, Senior Analyst at BIGresearch. “38.2% of consumers planning to spend more on home improvement purchases over the next three months shop at Lowe’s most often, compared to 35.7% who head to Home Depot.”

RBR/TVBR note: Ok, we know what you are saying to yourself: "What does this mean to me at my station; I don't get the big chains money?"  Ah, if you know where and what consumers’ intentions are this gives you the inside track when going to the local hardware dealers.

Every market has a number of local hardware stores where people or guys like 'Tim the Toolman Taylor' show up and these are the ones you focus on.

Deliver personal service and by the way you and your staff should also walk into the local stores when you make purchases for your own home improvements.

Wear your stations t-shirts etc when shopping any local retailer to show the local advertiser you support them. It works both ways in business.
 

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