Dear Menards…

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I chop down and mill my own trees and forge my own screws. Cuts out the middle man.

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We need to do this with agents too.

(Hoffies put me up to this)

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Now why would you go and say something like that? Me and Pug are getting along so well. It certainly isn’t his fault the agent for the notorious Matt Cooke could only get one NHL team to bite. Heck the rumor was the Wild would have gone and gotten the Carlson Brothers (of Slap Shot fame) if the thug Cooke wasn’t available.

Now…………..say your sorry.

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When is the last time anybody got a straight, dry piece of wood from a box store?

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Last time I went to purchase at HD to to answer your question.

Not in defense of the box stores but at up to 30% difference in price compared to our local lumber yards I will shop around. We saved enough on every building we built by using HD vs local that basically the garages were free materials. We also used Menards adds and took them to HD to price match and at that time an extra 10% off. Most of our lumber was very good quality but out of a full truck of just lumber there were a few that had to go back and we were automatically given a credit and we did not have to take them back they picked them up on their next load. At the time…. Very Happy with HD.

.02

My first stop now is Mills Fleet Farm, then if they don’t have what I need, like another said,
I too go to the local “ACE HARDWARE”.

If I really need Quality, High Strength Fasteners I’ll go to the nearest FASTENAL store where you can buy Strength Spec’d fasteners.

For lumber, it depends what I’m looking for, cheap fix and cover it up I go to Home Depot in Chaska and pay more if I’m in a hurry or Menard’s in Eden Prairie if I have time and they have better customer service. If I’m looking for Quality Construction materials I go to a local or regional Lumber Yard like out in Mayer Mayer Lumber & Do It Best or down to Jordan to Siwek in Jordan.

Home Depot in Chaska is always more expensive than HD in Eden Prairie and Menard’s, except on Sale items. They used to have a few great employee’s, but fired the best employee that provided great customer service after he enlisted the help of another friend and they personally went out of the goodness of his Heart & Wallet installed a New Water Heater for an Elderly couple on his own time.

For me Mills is 1st since they Sponsor this site

Ok, My turn…I am not proud of this but still quite pleased to this day….;lol…Was building flat floors for my 14 ft boat I keep at my dock and needed some marine carpeting. The carpeting was something like $1.69 a square yard and I had around 10 sq yards…the numbers are incorrect but you get the just…Anyway, at the checkout the lady looks at the ticket for $1.69 per sq yd and says..that is sure cheap and charges me $1.69 for all the carpet. I didn’t say a thing and when I got out into the parking lot I ran to my vehicle like a little kid shouting “I screwed Menards…I screwed Menards”..
For all the crap they sold me through the years it was my turn for a little revenge.

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My thoughts exactly. It’s tough to make sodomy jokes and keep it pg-13.

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Whoah, who said anything about…oh, your from Wisconsin.

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Most Minnesotans don’t know what sodomy is–probably think it’s some type of hot-dish.

I dont think the big box stores are any cheaper than the small hardware stores. Yes the big box stores will have a few key items for rock bottom prices but if you need something to go with that item you will pay.

Since we are taking shots I guess it is my turn. I went to Menards for 10 2×4’s. To get my 10 I sorted through 40. Now I get my building lumber from Fleet Farm. I don’t even have to check it or sort through it. I just throw it into the trailer and drive away.
DT

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I dont think the big box stores are any cheaper than the small hardware stores. Yes the big box stores will have a few key items for rock bottom prices but if you need something to go with that item you will pay.

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I noticed about 10 years ago, that especially Home Depot had adopted a sort of “related item” gotcha pricing.

For example, at Home Depot, treated lumber is the same price as the other big box stores. But where they screw you is their treated decking screws I noticed were about 30% more expensive than the same screws at Menards.

I’m sure at some point, someone at HD figured out that you aren’t going to buy the treated lumber at HD and then NOT buy the screws because they are more expensive. The average surburbanite wouldn’t know anyway.

It’s not everything, it’s that you have to watch so closely. I found that Home Depot is cheaper on nails for nail guns by far. From what I can tell, stuff that contractors will tend to KNOW the price on, the Home Despot tends to be at the same level as the other big box stores. But for some items, they aren’t just a little higher…

Grouse

I feel ya! I also broke up with menards! Just sick of there craapy products!

Why is it they have to have everything made cheaper just so they can beat out the next guy on price!

They make way to much of the products themselves and cut way to many corners..

I stopped buy screws from them years ago.. even there construction grade screws are crap..

what did it for me is earlier this summer I decided to run some errigation line out for watering my new trees.>> got the line about 600 feet of it 3/4″ got it home dug it all in by hand had a bear of a time just unrolling it into the trench without it kincking.. finnally got it all hooked up after several delays do to crappy connections and hose clamps you cant tighten more than finger tight with out the stripping out..

all hooked up and it was like a on all the time sprinkler system at every connection..

end up going to ace harwar buy ther better brass connections and good clamps that you can tighten and put two one every connection.. still leaks ended up that the pipe is so thin the rings on the barb fittings cut threw the
pipe wall///

got to looking a bit closer and one side of the pipe wall was so thin I could stick my finger right threw it like paper..

I dug that ^#^$# out said %^$*%^ menards..

bottom line spending a little more at a supply store is well worth it in the long run with the time and frustrations saved!

Yep. Sell sinks, faucets, toilets, ect cheaper than I can get them from my supplier. That $8 strainer for you sink is going to be $30 or $40 for a decent one. A $2 supply shut off is going to be $6 to $12 dollars.

Just lost another customer tonight to Lowes. Customer decided to go with a water heater from them because it was about half the price of the one I quoted him. If I could sell water heaters for half the cost without cutting corners I would. Guess the lowes water heater had a great warranty. Told him he was going to need it and then some.

I really shouldn’t beat these places up to bad. Do get a fair amount of work replacing poor products and parts that people buy from them.

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When is the last time anybody got a straight, dry piece of wood from a box store?

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When is the last time you got a straight dry piece of wood. There are only a few mills left in America. All the wood comes from the same places. And God forbid you to try to find a American made fastener. I don’t think their are any.

I giggle when people complain about the big stores. Menards, Walmart, etc. I think we all know they only work on price. Everything else is gone.

We reap what we sow. The Walmart mentality has risen to every single national store. Buy for less, sell for less, repeat several times as the lambs will keep coming back for more.

It is even in my business, people demand the low cost imports from Korea and China. To hell with quality made in America equipment.

Sad time for Americans old enough to have known quality craftsmanship.

Alotta truth to that statement Brian. I still think it all went to crap back in the late 70; early 80’s when they busted the union labor at Pittsburg and Detroit. Now we pay dearly for garbage. Not one to be political but we all know what happened. And the grand poobah was??? A Richard.

This post got me thinking. You can almost hear the gears grinding and the little 3 legged squirrel running on the wheel….

When I shop, I will stop and look for an products I need that are made in America. Many times there are not any, but sometimes there are. I will always pay a little more for American made.

As an example, I needed some staples for my hammer tacker at Menards There were two brands, one from America and another from some 3rd world dumpville. American made was $.10 more expensive. I spent the extra dime.

My thoughts are if I can do it, do it.

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I really shouldn’t beat these places up to bad. Do get a fair amount of work replacing poor products and parts that people buy from them.

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Some time ago some friends had got a HD bamboo floor. Some plumber put a scratch in it moving the fridge and found out as I was trying to patch sand it the top layer of the floor was actually a pic, laminate almost, of a light colored bamboo covering up the dark character bamboo underneath. Hilarious.
They are all super cheap on the toilets, sinks, lumber, etc BC that is not where they make the money. As a former employee who asks a lot of ?’s they get people in the store with the big ticket items and then sell you all the accessories that they have marked up 150%. I forget what the average lumber markup was but wasn’t more than 3-4%.

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Most Minnesotans don’t know what sodomy is–probably think it’s some type of hot-dish.

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So your comeback is to brag that Sconis know everything about sodomy, the ins-and-outs, so to speak?

Well played sir, well played.

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When is the last time anybody got a straight, dry piece of wood from a box store?

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There’s a joke there…

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Most Minnesotans don’t know what sodomy is–probably think it’s some type of hot-dish.

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So your comeback is to brag that Sconis know everything about sodomy, the ins-and-outs, so to speak?

Well played sir, well played.

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Technically, he hails from Illinois. He has the Bears sweatshirt to prove it. Don’t lump him in with the rest of us.

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Technically, he hails from Illinois. He has the Bears sweatshirt to prove it. Don’t lump him in with the rest of us.

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My apologies

I agree. Menards sucks HUGE GIANT RHINERSOUS Balls!

Unless something has changed in the past few years,, Try calling customer support. They don’t have a phoneline. Complaints and questions had to be mailed in, not emailed, mailed in. Menards is a joke.

OH,, and a message to John Menard. I love how you designed your checkout lanes to fit bigger items through but also requires your cashiers to have their backs to the customer the entire time…nice work dbag!!!! I like asking questions or having a conversation with the back of a head.

Wife had me go there to by Chimney Caps for our new house. Vs me ordering them from the fire place store here in town because they where on sale @ Menards. They had 3 in the store we needed but some one opened them and removed the hardware. Brought this to their attention and they took them off the floor. Then said I had to special order new ones but that I had to pay the shipping on them and no they were not ordering more for the store. Also could not rain check them for the sale price or order at the sale price in the store. I No long shop Menards either. What a joke. I know most of the City of Eau Claire works there but my god bring in some competition. John can threaten to leave all he wants. IT will never happen. I also find it funny employee’s put up with having to punch out everytike they have to use the can. Sad.

Place is hopping all day in St Cloud

we have all three here, I won’t go to Menards if it involves asking somebody for help, no help, no employees! and that rebate thing gets me fired up! If it’s a pencil I can get that. HD is a ghost town, no employees. Lowes is better than average and I’m not just saying that b/c my wife works there. They have a couple guys who stepped me through a plumbing project, answered many of my dumb questions before they found out my wife works there. I will say the Lowes is getting more and more greedy from the corporate level. Getting that walmart mentality that they can screw the employees to earn more profits.

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Most Minnesotans don’t know what sodomy is–probably think it’s some type of hot-dish.

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So your comeback is to brag that Sconis know everything about sodomy, the ins-and-outs, so to speak?

Well played sir, well played.

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Technically, he hails from Illinois. He has the Bears sweatshirt to prove it. Don’t lump him in with the rest of us.

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It’s like having diplomatic immunity…

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Place is hopping all day in St Cloud

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They are hopping everywhere, that’s why they are all huge now.

I work at Menards And I will tell you as a employee there even with the 10% discount I will not buy hardly any thing there. The only reason I work there is its very flexible with school. And here’s my story you all will get a kick out of.

A guy was walking around one of the lumberyards in eau claires east store head a blue jacket and nice jeans on as he had just got done with work. He was walking around trying to find a employee to have him help find some stuff and John Menard saw him fro from behind and started to Chew him out for not doing his job and why he was wondering around like a Lost Fin fool. The guy turned around red hot and told John Menards he’s not even a employee of Menards Any idea what john Menard did after words? If you said got turn around and walked away your right. Never said sorry or nothing. Needless to say that guy has not been back.
I have more to along that line

Other than the not apologizing, sounds like he is running a tight ship

– Save Big Money at Menards!

So there is actually a guy named John Menard and this billionaire actually hangs out at the Eau Claire store?

You wont see him in the stores but he walks the warehoused and lumber yards quite a bit. He even has his hair cut at the same place every Wednesday night I have been told lol. O and also he fires his employees when they don’t want to have sex with him and his wife.

You wont see him in the stores but he walks the warehoused and lumber yards quite a bit. He even has his hair cut at the same place every Wednesday night I have been told lol. O and also he fires his employees when they don’t want to have sex with him and his wife.