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In this photo: The Lowe's building. Lowe's will be opening to the public on Feb. 18.
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Lowe's to open next door to Home Depot
Sabrina Ziegler | 2/14/08 | News
onday, Feb. 18 will be the grand opening of Porterville's long-anticipated Lowe's home improvement store, and the start of a new level of competition for its next door neighbor, Home Depot.
The store's opening will kick off with a barbeque, where all customers are invited to attend and win free merchandise.
Mike Lequeiu was Operations Manager for the Tulare Lowe's for five years. He will be taking over as Store Manager for the Porterville Lowe's.
"We've all worked hard this last month. We're very anxious to get our doors open and start helping our customers. We've created a lot of excitement," Lequieu said.
He said the store's opening has so far received nothing but positive feedback.
"We have approximately 120 associates. As of now, we are fully staffed, [but], we'll be hiring 15 to 20 more associates to staff up for spring," Lequieu said.
Applications may be submitted via internet at Lowes.com. They only receive applications online.
The store will include 117,000 square feet of retail sales space and a garden center, stocking 40,000 different items.
The idea to establish a Lowe's in this community came about after a zip code survey was conducted, which indicated the local valley as being an area of large preference for the company.
"A lot of people shop at the Lowe's in Visalia," Lequieu said.
The idea, he said, was, "to try to keep the money locally and to try to be convenient."
The company sought out this Porterville location, despite there being a Home Depot just across the street from the decided construction site. It has been assumed that this would harm business for Home Depot.
"I think, initially, [business will be effected], but in the long term it'll do fine. There's enough traffic in this area to support both stores," store manager Ryan Dixon said.
Lequieu, on the other hand, sees the competition as being positive.
"I really can't say, [whether it would hurt business]. Anytime you have two stores [of the same service] right next to each other, it gives the customers a better variety. Competition brings out the better of both companies. Now that Lowe's is here, hopefully Home Depot will step it up and provide the business Porterville deserves," said Lequieu, who believes the department store has gotten slightly, "comfortable" over the years.
"[This is] going to be a very attractive shopping center, with El Pollo Loco, Carl's jr., and Cool Hand Luke's. It's going to be a power shopping center, so everyone benefits," he said.
A Home Depot employee said, "It's going to impact our store for a little while. This is going to be a new thing for Porterville. For, probably, the first 6 months everyone's curiosity is going to cause them to go to Lowe's," he said, adding that, "When a store first opens, they always crunch down on customer service. They're always overstaffed." This, he said, affects business in the sense that people will compare how well they are accommodated at each store.
Dixon feels that the short term flood of customers to Lowe's will possibly not be as devastating for Home Depot as has been predicted.
"[We have] completely different customer bases. We're more for the hard working individual; we cater more to contractors. They're more for decorative [purposes]; they cater more to an interior decorator," Dixon said.
The Home Depot employee explained that, Home Depot also carries a lot more in bulk, while Lowe's offers more of a variety. "Home Depot is the place you go to build your house and Lowe's is where you go to decorate it," and what might cause a customer to go to Home Depot instead, is that "Lowe's doesn't stock-pile," he said. The new store is definitely going to peak everyone's interest but eventually people are going to know what they can get at both stores so it all evens out."
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