The Home Depot

Out of all the Home Depot, Lowe’s, True Value or other home repair stores I’ve been to (and the number is quite high, having lived in a number of places) Home Depot Christiansburg by far exceeds my expectations for what any store should be.
You’re always greeted with a warm welcoming smile at the door, on some weekends they have ice cream sandwiches for free (Ok, pause here for just a second, think about it, you’ve been working all morning to install that thing your wife just has to have installed today and you’re 90% done when you discover that the hole you just drilled goes right into the drain pipe for the sink… so you trudge outside, where of course it’s pouring rain, drive out to the store, hitting every red light, there are 14, I counted once, walk into the store and BAM free ice cream sandwich… suddenly sunshine, smiles and it was really just a vent pipe after all. Parts in hand you return home, green lights the whole way, victoriously to your castle to become king… ok, I digress, but you get the point FREE ICE CREAM SANDWICH). They used to have free bottled water, which was awesome when I was remodeling the kitchen since I usually forgot to hydrate properly, saved my life, doubtful, saved my sanity, definitely.
Over the past year, since purchasing our home, we’ve replaced the carpet upstairs, installed hardwood downstairs, fixed up our garage, and completely remodeled our kitchen (down to the studs) all through Home Depot — caveat, they only installed the carpet and kitchen countertops, everything else was DIY. Through the entire process, Home Depot Christiansburg has been right there behind us with great advice, extremely helpful and knowledgeable service, help resolving issues with installers, and kind words (when they see me there for the third time in one day because I accidentally drilled through a sewer pipe (true story, see above).
We also purchased all of our appliances here during their November Black Friday Sale and saved about 45% off the retail value through a combination of manufacturer discounts, Home Depot sales, and multi-​purchase discount (the more appliances you purchase, the more you save sorta thing). We’re told this sale only happens at Thanksgiving and to a slightly lesser extent, July 4^th!
We happily drive past Lowe’s (not that Lowe’s is bad or anything, but it’s more just mediocre) to shop at Home Depot. Now, I know what you’re thinking, this guy must own Home Depot Stock, or his father-​in-​law is the cashier/​manager/​CEO/​door greeter — nope, no connection aside from very satisfied customer, who will be shopping here for whatever the next home improvement project is.

This is, by far, my favorite HD store. The majority of the employees are helpful, friendly and seem to really appreciate your business. Here’s an example of their service: my Mom needed a new vacuum cleaner and wanted a Dyson. We looked online and found the vacuum she wanted in stock at the HD in Christiansburg. We drove over, walked in the front door, and an Associate greeted us at the door with, «How can we help you today?». We told them what we wanted and he graciously escorted us to the section of the store with vacuums. Unfortunately, the one we wanted was not visible, so he went to get help. In about 2 minutes, he was back with 2 more Associates and they found the vacuum in the upper shelves which was quickly retrieved for us. Then, the Associate carried the vacuum to the front of the store for us and even offered to bring it out to our car! Before leaving, my Mom mentioned that she needed a garden flag holder. Again, she was escorted by an Associate to the garden center to help her find what she wanted. As we were walking out to our car, purchases in our cart, my Mom said, «I felt like we had our own personal shoppers in there!». All Home Depot’s are not the same — it’s the service that makes them different. This one is a gem!