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Is this as fancy as it looks compared to all the other Home Depots in the US of A? Or is it just the urban facade? In the article, he mentions all the faucets being $200-400 - I'm sure the ones I've been to have the $35 models too!

This is actually more like a Home Expo-lite in Home Depot clothing. Although, strangely enough, they don't carry any of the Home Expo house brand (Pegasus) fixtures. It is definitely more upscale- where else are you going to find a Home Depot that has a full Kohler Purist suite installation?

Sometimes during my lunch break I'll stop by the Home Depot in the article and walk thru the aisles day dream about actually owning a big house and how I would have it designed.
I think of the Home Depot on 23rd as a sort of peep show.
I need to fantasize about something I can't have and I go there for some cheap (interior designing) thrills.

Wow, Home Depot in NYC.

I remember seeing parking lots that have special apparatus to actually stack cars above each other. I remember seeing the closet, I mean kitchen, at the Spotted Pig. No alleys.

Profit loss for HD? I guess you've got to break a few eggs to bake a cake. This monster has taken up shop in the biggest, most congested city in the United States. They will settle in and grow stronger.

However, I have seen Expo, HD's higher end furnishing and design store, close their Chicago location. But they were more specialized. As long as there is a need for hardware and building supplies it is inevitable that HD will corner every market, rural and urban.

We said goodbye to the "helpful hardware man" ("and woman" later added in the 90's I believe) a long time ago.

Customer Service here is always so spotty. I've had really bad experiences where I can't get a single person to help yet last time I was there I was OFFERED help by two different sales associates. I think all in all I was assisted by three different people all of whom were very knowledgeable about the products I asked about. It was really surprising.

I will continue to go to this Home Depot because
a) I don't have a local hardware store near by apartment
b)The Lowes in Brooklyn is impossible to get to from my side of Brooklyn
c)They have a much better selection of paint brushes and screws than Target :P

...and HD is obviously very strategic as to how they set up their stores. Their inventory is geared towards the market they are set up in. But they will always have a location nearby that has everything the contractors may need. For instance, you may not find Hardibacker at one store but the other store will have all sizes of Hardibacker in stock.

The Kohler Purist suite on display is a perfect example. In Chicago you would have to go to the Merchandise Mart or a more upscale than Expo design center to see a display like this.

If you really need 2x4's that badly, walk over to the corner of West 23rd and 6th Avenue and catch PATH to the Jersey City, Newport/Pavonia stop. A new Home Depot with lumber in stock awaits you 5 blocks from the station at Marin Blvd and the inbound Holland Tunnel access road.

The HD's in Manhattan are much like the HD Expo stores...they are NOTHING like a regular HD store. In Manhattan you can actually find a customer service person.

Maybe I should check out the 23rd Street store because the Home Depot uptown on 3rd & 60th has got to be one of the worst places to shop in the whole city.

It's so poorly laid out, and you just wander around these huge aisles looking for somebody to help. The only time I seem to see employees is when I finally find the checkout area. Plus it is always too hot and totally underground with no natural light.

It finally made me decided that there is nothing that I need to buy at Home Depot that I can't get someplace else. If I need a 2x4, I'll go the lumber store!

Hilarious. I want to be friends with that writer.

As someone who does his own handyman and renovation work, I can't tell you how bad HD is compared with traditional hardware stores. It's my belief (hard to prove) the the big tool and hardware companies make special low-end versions of their products to sell only at HD, figuring the suburbanites (and urbanites) won't know the difference.

Lowe's, actually, is OK.

Unfortunately there are some things that only HD carries in the city, like bulk sanding discs, so I have to go there sometimes. And their customer service absolutely the worst; that's one reason Nardelli got the boot.

I used to peruse this very Home Depot and fantasize about renovating the apartment in the house I grew up in. I picked out faucets, counter tops, a square Kohler Escale toilet that has turned out to be a ton of trouble to install, and figured out lots of dream house scenarious. Then my dream came true, and I'm actually renovating the apartment! So I went to home depot, credit card in hand, ready to buy the place out. And guess what? You can't buy much of anything there, you have to order it and it takes forever and costs more. There's not much in stock beyond the reasonable selection of DIY tools in the basement. The best thing I found there was a cute little Kline's toolbag - a classic, and the salesperson told me they couldn't keep enough of them in stock - not in Chelsea. I saw the same one recently for twice the price at a posh men's store on Atlantic Ave. The Home Depot on 23rd isn't a hardware store folks, its a lifestyle store. If you like this, check out the J&R right across the street, and even better, the Krups store next to the City Bakery on 18th btw. 5th and 6th ave.

I HATE this Home Depot. It is just one more descent into the bridge&tunnel hell that is the malling of Manhattan.

They have horrible customer service. The overheard conversation, in the plant department, in the Times article is the rule, not the exception. They are nitwits who cannot be bothered to wait on customers. And nothing is in stock anyway so it doesn't really matter anyway.

Most of the stuff is crap. Look through the tile department. All boring suburban colors.

As for simple, hardware items, I prefer going to a local Mom&Pop hardware store - not a chain.

Bolder said: "It's my belief (hard to prove) the the big tool and hardware companies make special low-end versions of their products to sell only at HD, figuring the suburbanites (and urbanites) won't know the difference."



That is actually likely. It is well known that big-box retailers do exactly that - not just Home Depot. Non-discriminating shoppers think they are getting a bargain when really they are getting a cheaper, poorer quality item.

The worst customer service at HD @ 23rd Street.
Try Arties on 14th Street between 6th & 7th Avenue. They have a huge selection, great service and if they don't have it, they will order it for you.

Home Depot Manhattan: Peep show for shelter porn addicts. All flesh and no soul.

When I installed my new ceiling recently, I didn't know how much mastick (glue) I'd need, so I bought one gallon of it at the HD on 3rd Avenue and 59th, and had a very personally sales guy help me only slightly more than I needed and I felt good about.

Then when I went back to get another one, because the first one wasn't enough, it was a tiny bit harder to get someone to help me, but when he did it turned out that they were completely out, but he was able to check the stock of the 23rd Street branch electronically, and he saw there were 10 of them, but since I had schlepped to that 1st one to no avail, I asked him to call and actually check with a real person at 23rd Street and he tried. And he tried. And then he hung up and tried again, but after 5 tries to get a real person on the phone who would even speak to HIM about their stock, he gave up!

The Home Depot guy gave up after 5 tries to get one of his own colleagues on the phone at the other store to check stock for me! I needed the stuff, and with 10 in stock electronically, I took my chances, and they DID have it in stock, but even in person I had trouble getting help to find it, and this time it was not in the place you'd expect it -- it was not with the ceramic tiles (that's what that glue is traditionally for -- not originally for ceiling tiles); it was on the below-ground floor with caulking and stuff.

And yes, I did once try to buy some molding there, and they were going to have to order it for me, and it really wasn't a very interesting exotic moulding.