Store Wars: With Home Depot opening, locals face economic hurdle

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on December 12, 2008

After six years of anticipation, the battle of chain home-improvement stores vs. smaller, established businesses is starting this weekend.

The 145,400-square-foot Home Depot store opened Thursday on Route 9 in Hadley, across from the malls. The retailing giant has more than 1,500 stores around North America, selling building materials, tools and hardware, doors and windows, appliances, flooring, and kitchen and bath equipment. The Hadley store also has a large outdoor garden center.

In addition, construction is expected to start in the spring on a 169,000-square-foot Lowe's home improvement superstore on Route 9, about a mile to the west of Home Depot.

The stores represent a challenge for local businesses such as Cowls Building Supply, Hadley Garden Center, Amherst Farmers Supply and Rocky's Ace Hardware.

Home Depot is reaching out to the community during its opening weekend. It was planning to give $1,000 each to two local organizations, have giveaways and drawings for prizes, and offer refreshments and a workshop for children this Saturday.

The store is also a major new regional employer, with 125 jobs, and a taxpayer in Hadley, with an annual payment to the town estimated at $80,000.

To get a sense of how established local businesses are reacting to the Home Depot challenge, the Bulletin invited the owners of Cowls Building Supply in North Amherst to respond to a series of questions. Gert Como and Evan Jones submitted a written statement saying they designed and built a 2,500-square-foot design showroom at Cowls in anticipation of Home Depot's arrival.

The local angle is prominent in Cowls' strategy.

According to Como and Jones, the store can refer homeowners to local building contractors, and the people who make the business decisions have direct contact with customers.

Cowls sells locally grown and sawed pine, oak and hemlock boards and beams, they said.

Shopping at local stores has direct benefits to the community, they said.

"The environmental benefit of local sourcing reduces the carbon footprint," they said.

"The social benefit of community support enhances local educational and environmental programs.

Maximized dollars

The economic benefit of shopping at locally owned businesses maximizes the dollars that stay in the community where the corporate headquarters' are located and the shareholders' live."

Como and Jones acknowledged that Home Depot has the advantage of size when it comes to promoting their products.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that its customers save money over shopping at smaller stores, they said.

For one thing, superstores often promote "loss leaders," or reduced prices for specific items, in advertisements while raising prices on other items to compensate, they said.

"Cowls lacks both the budget and the desire to implement this strategy," they said.

Jen King, Home Depot's senior manager for public relations, was asked to respond to some of the points Como and Jones made.

"Home Depot is committed to delivering the best customer service, offering a wide array of products at the lowest prices while delivering great value," she wrote in an email response. "Our associates offer knowhow and expertise to help meet consumers' home improvement needs. Overall, competition is good for the customer."