Shopping for Home Improvement Supplies

[aem]

Hello -

We are graduate students working on a school project and would be very grateful for the input of some Do-It-Yourself experts. Could you please take a couple of minutes to answer the following questions? Any information that you can provide would be much appreciated.

Thank you very much.
- Stacey, Alex and Amy (Boston University)


1. When buying home improvement supplies, what kind of in-store experience are you looking for? What kind of on-line experience?

2. Under what circumstances do you/would you use store websites to research home improvement product features and prices before buying?

[LazyPup]

I am currently subcontracting for a large property manager and we have a project to rehab older homes to transition them from condemned status to viable rental property. We have completed 15 transitions since February.
Needless to say, we basically need a little bit of everything so i find it most convenient to purchase the small to moderate materials at a large one stop home supply such as Lowes or Home Depot.
For the large ticket materials we usually purchase from a trade specialty wholesale house, plumbing supply,electrical supply, HVAC supplier etc.
I think most working tradesmen would agree that we often spend hours of our free time just browsing through the supply houses to check on material availabilities, become familiar with new materials or techniques, or check out new tools.
Although I do not purchase materials online I do spend considerable time researching materials. I find that the larger stores such as Lowes, Home depot, Sears and many more have a ZIP CODE search feature where you can key in your zip code or the zip code of the jobsite and check the actual store inventory availabity of the needed materials.
Many of those sites also offer free DIY information clinics on their websites. I often browse those to see new methods or materials.

[aem]

Dear LazyPup,

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and thorough responses to our questions about home improvement stores. Such detailed information from your perspective is very valuable to us.

If you are interested in registering additional input, we would love to receive your answers to the four questions listed below. Although one of your previous answers provided some information about the features that you seem to like about the websites you use to research, please feel free to expand if you choose to answer question #1 below.

We enjoy researching this topic very much and are grateful for your willingness to participate.

Thank you again.

- Stacey, Alex and Amy (Boston University)



1. If you use websites to research or buy home improvement supplies, what do you like or dislike about the websites?

2. If you use websites to research home improvement supplies but then go to the store to buy the products, why don’t you buy the products online?

3. What would you like to change about your in-store or online home improvement supply shopping experience to make it better?

4. If you are familiar with Sutherlands Lumber & Home Improvement Centers, what do you like or dislike about Sutherlands as compared to Home Depot? As compared to Lowe’s?