Menards Sales: Love/Hate

[LD1]

I like the prices menards has when the choose to run something on sale. But hate not knowing when the next sale is gonna be. And their sale prices are not always the same.

Example, when I was getting quotes on material for my building, 39' rolls of 23" R19 insulation were ~$21-22 bucks on sale. I am probably nearing in on wanting to get the insulation ordered and here, but its $30 a darn roll now. And even that is on sale for $4 off.

Short of saving every flyer I wish there was a way to see what past sale prices were on different items. If it wasnt for getting a written quote a few months ago, I would not have realized how much cheaper the insulation prices "can" be.

Makes if very difficult to plan out a build, that will take ~6-months or so, and form any kind of a budget at all. Cause who knows what price or what sale their may or may not be when it comes time to order.

So, its kinda a love/hate thing for me. I like the lower prices when I can catch something on sale. (Like planning on building a deck, but in no hurry. Have everything planned and its just a matter of waiting on a sale on treated boards). But makes it very frustrating planning big builds.

Whats everyone else thing?

 

[jack707]

I go to Menards to buy wood and other things but the thing that's gets me is how DUMB the help is! I'm not saying everybody is but most are. Home Depot is before Menards and sometimes I go there if I know I'm going to need help on something at lest there those people know there depts.

 

[rekees4300]

I like Menards huge selection of merchandise :thumbsup: but dislike the 3 hour round trip to the nearest store:thumbdown:. Get their sales flyers in the mail almost everyday and enjoy learning how much stuff I didn't even know existed.

 

[Deere Dude]

I would go a 3 hour round trip at Menards before a 1 hour trip to Lowes or HD. Unless things changed withoput me knowing about it, Menards is always cheaper than the other 2, but I'm sure somebody will prove me wrong.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Menards is a rarity for me, as I only visit the store when traveling to relatives. Their huge inventory is nice. I bought some lumber for a deck repair and was NOT impressed with the quality. I get much better lumber from Lowes - and they don't mind if I literally climb into the racks and sort through every stick.

 

[DuckSlayer1017]

I'm not a big Menard's fan because I don't care for their layout and their store credit rebates. LD1 is right, you can get some deals there but you need to keep an eye on the flier for sale prices. I prefer Lowe's but do shop at Menard's for a few specific things like hardwood flooring and doors. They seem to consistently have better prices than Lowes on those. I like HD but it is out of my way compared to the other two.

 

[mfreund]

I have been stuck delivering to those dumps. Lowe's is easiest to deliver then Menards and HD sucks bad. They treat me like crap for my job, I will not buy anything from them.

 

[SPIKER]

I have all 3 close by in those mentioned, we shop Menards several times a month & find things like canned veggies to be good and 10+% less than grocery store! my other half like a quick cheffboyardee canned stuff and those are regular priced under a buck there while a store special is 10 for 10 at big chain grocery stores. We get the rebates for a lot of stuff and mail them in wish they would do an on-line thing as stamps getting high.

I have bought lumber to clothing there & like the prices but YES ya have to watch the prices and rebates to get best deals. Like LD1 said we bought a lot of insulation there for real cheap but missed getting all we needed...

M

 

[LD1]

I just wish there was a website orbsome other way to look up past sales. Like pick an item and be able to view the cheapest it has been in the last 12months, 6months, etc. Sure would take a lot of stress out of knowing if you are getting a good deal.

I am terrible about looking at normal prices. So that's my.fault. when I was planning my build, r19 x 23" wide x 39' long rolls of insulation were $22. Now they are $30 on sale with a normal price $35. I need 24 rolls.

Takes the $550 I was budgeting for insluation and adds another 2 bills to it :mur:

So now I am gonna be shopping around for insluation and see if anyone can beat $30 a roll

 

[Walt 2002]

Menard's is like any other place, you have to know what to look for and what you are doing. I regularly sort lumber, put to the side, go get a ticket and get what I picked out. I too do not like their rebate program but beats nothing. I sometimes go to Lowe's but seldom get anything there nor at HD where we own stock as Menard's beats the heck out of both of them.

Walt Conner

 

[truckdiagnostics]

Last year ordered all the material for a 30 x 72 pole building. Then they had one of there 11% off on everything even if on sale sales. There was a while there where i was mad. Low and behold they have a form! They gave me the 11% off even though I purchased prior to the sale. Almost $3,000 rebate check. They didn't have to do that. I do believe Menards is a good corporate citizen. However, I do believe all there general managers are not created equal. There are 5 menard stores with in an hour.

 

[Deere Dude]

Home Depot moved into Madison WI and my kids were excited about it so I thought I would give it a whirl. Menards, where I usually would go is just down the street so I price checked them first on wood for a medium sized garage I was building. I had a trailer and was going to pick the wood up that day. I went over to HD and their prices were comparable so I was going to buy the wood at HD for a change.

I looked at the stack of wood, all inside which was nice. What I would have to do was to load up about a dozen carts, push them to the checkout, push them out to the parking lot and load then up in front of the store. I thought about 2 seconds on that and said forget it.

I went back to Menards, got the slips for wood, drove to the piles and picked what I wanted and drove out past the gatehouse. To me it just seems so much easier unless I want to get only a cart full.

 

[LD1]

Around here, Menards stores the wood inside a drive thru building outback. All except treated stuff. So Lowes and HD that store lumber in the store is an inconvenience to me as well.

 

[SPIKER]

I get their flyers all time in email so can see what is coming up and when it goes out. Usually they keep sales going for two or 3 weeks it seems so can get there and get it. I too like lumber outside to get it much easier loading into truck once and not pushing thru store to checkouts...
I get new ads usually on sunday mine is in email and looking now lol.

Forgot to mention I buy all my car oil there as in the case of this week full synthetic oil (Quaker state) for $2.50 a quart (about what most places charge for regular oil) * QS filters for $1.99 each! that is a full oil change for under 10 bucks that I run 5~10K (dont change in winter as often lol...)

M

 

[LD1]

I may have to sign up for e-mail ads and create a folder just to save them.

 

[Ford850]

I was buying a load of mulch (bags) at Menards recently. Got my slip inside, and drove through the gate to the back, but they were busy. I guy pulled up in a skid loader and asked what I needed. He gave me the choice of waiting for other customers to clear out of the area and the Menards staff would load for me, or he could go grab the pallet of mulch and drop it where I was so I could load it. "Go get it!". I was loaded and gone before any of the other trucks were loaded. I love to find people with some common sense like that.

 

[Opti-Mist]

When I have a large order (lumber, etc) I order online the day before for store pickup. When I get there I go to the counter with my paperwork and someone brings the order to my truck. Slick !!!

 

[300UGUY]

Home Depot moved into Madison WI and my kids were excited about it so I thought I would give it a whirl. Menards, where I usually would go is just down the street so I price checked them first on wood for a medium sized garage I was building. I had a trailer and was going to pick the wood up that day. I went over to HD and their prices were comparable so I was going to buy the wood at HD for a change.

I looked at the stack of wood, all inside which was nice. What I would have to do was to load up about a dozen carts, push them to the checkout, push them out to the parking lot and load then up in front of the store. I thought about 2 seconds on that and said forget it.

I went back to Menards, got the slips for wood, drove to the piles and picked what I wanted and drove out past the gatehouse. To me it just seems so much easier unless I want to get only a cart full.

You can go to the service desk, ask for help, and they will assign somebody to do the grunt work, helping you sort, and load up.

 

[Boiler74]

I bought 7 square of TimberCrest siding on Friday at $6.49 a piece or 84 pieces for the 7 square. They weren't on sale. Sunday they popped a roofing and siding sale so I looked online. It said $1.50 off per piece. Sweet. So I went today for a price adjustment. But their adjustment didn't make sense. They gave me back like $40. I protested and they showed me it was $5.99 a piece on sale. I got back to my office and looked again and they were right. But since Friday they had bumped the price per piece up to $7.49. So it was "on sale" for $1.50 savings but truly it was only $.50 from what I bought just two days prior. Will be interested to see where it goes after the sale ends. Bet it miraculously goes back to $6.49 a piece.

 

[von-mil]

And if the price does go back down after the 'sale' ends, they will probably make a big deal about their NEW LOW PRICE. Retailers can be pretty low on ethics.