The Home Depot at 659 New York 28, Oneonta, New York.

It's been a couple years but my last visit nobody would answer the page for key cutting for 5 minutes. So I cut it myself. They still have a better tool selection than Lowe's and now that I need a short 40 gallon water heater I gotta drive there again, from Sidney, back to Norwich. Lowe's doesn't have what I need half the time. Home Depot does about 3/4 of the time. But we also have a real hardware store so I avoid both like the plague.

After getting my water heater, all I can really say is that these stores are all laid out very poorly, and they always have been. It isn't just that I'm not used to it, but when things like water heaters are in the middle of a narrow, obscure isle somewhere in plumbing and all of the necessary add-on sales are scattered about isles and isles away, it makes a quick emergency stop very difficult. I spent an hour looking for my solder, torch (they didn't have the one advertised that I needed and ended up spending more on one with a MAPP tank, which I don't need) and other accessories, and that was even with a nice kid named Ryan helping me out.

The only positive thing about Home Depot is that they do have a good selection of power tools, an area which Lowe's has seriously neglected. As a former commercial tools sales rep at Lowe's, I can say that neither of these stores are what they used to be in terms of service. I'd rather go to Curtis Lumber any day, except they aren't open late. I'm not a contractor so my hours don't fit.

Meh... it's another Homeless Despot. What do you want?