Commentary

Upper Income Households Swinging Toward Lowes

by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, July 24, 2009

According to the June Retail Ratings Report from BIGresearch, the race for the number one spot for consumer preference in the Home Improvement Sector continues its five year trend of Lowe's gaining share on Home Depot. Over the last five years, Home Depot has lost almost half its lead:

Location Shopped Most Often For Home Improvement?(Adults 18+)
	*Jun-05*	*Jun-06*	*Jun-07*	*Jun-08*	*Jun-09*
Home Depot	31.4%	29.2%	30.6%	29.1%	28.5%?
Lowe's	21.5%	19.7%	22.5%	23.4%	24.3%
Source: BIGresearch Retail Ratings Report, June ‘09

??In addition to Lowe's, Walmart, ACE Hardware, Target and Sears experienced growth year-over-year, while Home Depot's growth in consumer preference share is relatively stagnant:

Home Improvement Consumer Preference Share
*Store*	*June 2008*	*June 2009*	*+/-*	CEI*
Walmart	5.2%	6.3%	+1.1	121.76
Lowe's	23.4%	24.3%	+0.9	104.04?
ACE Hardware	2.4%	2.8%	+0.4	114.57
Target	0.6%	0.7%	+0.2	126.68?
Sears	0.7%	0.8%	+0.1	113.03?
Menards	3.5%	3.3%	-0.1	95.80?
Home Depot	29.1%	28.5%	-0.6	98.06
Source: BIGresearch Retail Ratings Report, June ‘09?? (CEI measures growth in share of consumer preference year over year. An index of 100 is flat, while an index of 105 indicates 5% growth.)*

When it comes to consumers who report a household income greater than $50,000, Home Depot's consumer preference share is down 2.6 points year-over-year. On the other hand, Lowe's share is up 2 points, shortening the gap in this segment as well:

Home Improvement Consumer Preference Share (HH Income Greater Than $50k)??
*Store*	*June 2008*	*June 2009*	*+/-*	**CEI?***
Lowe's	29.6%	31.6%	+2.0	106.60?
Walmart	2.9%	3.4%	+0.5	117.27?
Orchard Supply	0.4%	0.8%	+0.4	192.73?
ACE Hardware	2.3%	2.6%	+0.3	110.95?
Menards	3.6%	3.8%	+0.2	105.61?
Sears	0.9%	0.7%	-0.3	73.08?
Home Depot	37.8%	35.2%	-2.6	93.05
Source: BIGresearch Retail Ratings Report, June ‘09??

For an excerpt from the BIGresearch June Ratings Report, please visit here.

demographics, research, retail

2 comments about "Upper Income Households Swinging Toward Lowes".

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Howie Goldfarb from Blue Star Strategic Marketing, July 24, 2009 at 10:37 a.m.
Great example of what happens when a company like Home Depot spends a few years treating their employees like dirt and enriching upper management for doing nothing but destroy the company. PR is important. Everyone knew that Home Depot under Inept Tyrant Nardelli that he cared not for his workers and slashed cost to where not only did service suffer but people knew when they went to Home depot that the employees hated being there. Then after 5 years and destroying 20% of Home Depot's stock value they let Tyrant Nardelli go and gave him $190 million. Funny they drug test employees but not the guy at the top. A heroin addict from the street who hasn't showered in a month could of done the same job for less.
So people like myself boycotted Home Depot. I blogged about it and ensured all my friends switched to Lowes.
Today Home Depot has much better management, treats their employees better (lessons learned) and are slowly righting the ship. But the damage had been done!
Now if you notice the same Tyrant who destroyed this once high flier runs Chrysler. So it is so important to hire the right leader. GM hired a very successful CEO and they seem to be on the road to recovery. Chrysler hires a guy with no skills and they are on the verge of disappearing or becoming a foreign company.
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Doug Pruden from Customer Experience Partners, July 24, 2009 at 10:40 a.m.

I'm curious. Does anyone know when they say "consumers" whether that also includes contractors? I assume those professionals who are buying in quantity, week in and week out, still account for a large volume of the category sales. Has Lowe's made similar gains with the contractors as well?