[Nestor_Kelebay]

The Canadians in here should be aware that the Quebec based "Rona" chain of home centers is being bought out by the Lowe's chain of home centers from the USA.

Canadians should be aware that Lowe's has it's own house brand of hand tools (like wrenches and sockets) called "Cobalt" and it's own house brand of paints called "American Tradition".

I've never used either of these Lowe's house brand for anything, but in my experience on the internet, I have heard nothing but good things about American Tradition paints.

The thing to note about "Cobalt" hand tools is that they use exactly the same "flank drive" system patented by Snap-On Tools. Cobalt can do that because Snap-On's 17 year patent on the flank drive system has expired, so anyone can make and sell tools of that design. The flank drive system is superior to normal wrenches and sockets because it's far less likely to strip a hex nut or bolt head.

I don't yet know whether Lowe's will be rebranding Rona stores or introducing it's own house brands into those stores, but it seems more likely than not. When that will happen is still unknown.

 

[ChuckF.]

Kobalt

 

[Gymschu]

I haven't seen American Tradition paint in Lowe's for a long, long time. I believe it was re-labeled Valspar paint. Now Lowe's carries Sherwin Williams paints.

 

[carmusic]

Rona also had their homemade brands but most were junk, very happy that lowes buy them, they will finally be competitive.

 

[KevinEF7]

I literally only go into Rona for its nice size clearance section at my local store, everything else is 20% more expensive compared to Lowes/HD. Funny all 3 are actually on 3 corners of an intersection here local to me. I usually go into Lowes for some reason...

 

[ToolSeeker]

Have used some of the Kobalt hand tools and must say I really liked them.

 

[GottaFixIt]

Kobalt tools are generally decent, but don't buy their driver bits. Those things are junk.

 

[ChuckF.]

Lowes is a great outfit, I consider them the equal of Home Depot here. Never been in a Rona though.

The more competition the better.

 

[idesign]

Canadian Tire tools good.

 

[78Vette]

Ok with me since i seldom walk into a Rona because of their pricing, but i sure hope this don't end up like Target's inquisition of our Canadian Zellers chain and loosing both just a couple of years later when Target pulled back out of Canada. Bet Walmart is rubbing their hands together though.

 

[yuri]

The shopping market in Winnipeg is very fragmented and Wal Mart has about 1/4 of it and is no superpower anymore.

Target did not do proper research and came in way too late. Had to spend lots of $$ renovating old Zellers and Bay stores which were not in the best locations. The cost of transportation of goods to Canada and getting the whole system running was huge.

Canadian Tire sells appliances and lots of what WMart and Target do. Loblaws is huge and with The Real Canadian Superstore can compete head to head with them on basic clothes etc. Target failed because too many other stores got smart and chewed away a large portion of what they can do,

I imagine Rona was mismanaged like Sears or having "issues" with their biz plan. If Lowes is as smart as HDepot they should be OK. Plus the stores are established along with the distribution centres etc.

Support Canadian Tire. If it was not for them HDepot and WMart would rule.

http://www.realcanadiansuperstore.ca/en_CA.html

 

[EMSbyDay]

I think Lowes will do well with this expansion. In the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario there are already a lot of Lowes that are doing well. I have both a Lowes and HomeDepot about 5min from where I live. I go to either store depending on what I am looking for. If I am looking for bulk, specialty, or contractor grade materials I generally go to HD. Lowes I find has great stuff though for the entry level DIY'er. Say for things like doing a dishwasher install, you may need to buy all pipes and hoses separately at HD whereas Lowes with sell a nice all-in-one "kit".

 

[FrodoOne]

The Canadians in here should be aware that the Quebec based "Rona" chain of home centers is being bought out by the Lowe's chain of home centers from the USA.

Canadians should be aware that Lowe's has it's own house brand of hand tools (like wrenches and sockets) called "Cobalt" and it's own house brand of paints called "American Tradition".

My interest in this post is only because Lowe's entered as a 1/3rd owner in "partnership" with a large Australian Supermarket chain in 2009 to found a chain of DIY "Home Centres" in Australia. This Chain is called "Masters" and was set up to be in competition with another chain of DIY "Home Centres", owned by the company which also owned the major rival Supermarket chain.

It has been reported that this venture has lost more than $600 million over the last four years, Lowe's has "pulled the plug" and it seems likely that Masters will be sold up - if a buyer can be found. (It seems that the opposition chain [Bunnings] may buy a few of the Masters stores, where a Bunnings store is not close by. However, this is NOT likely in my area, since here the two rival stores are next door to each other.)

I was interested to read the comment about "Kobalt" brand of tools, since these are much in evidence at Masters. In fact, one of the "problems" which I perceive that Masters had were that many of ther "brands" were unknown in this country. While there may be nothing wrong with that, it went so far that I found some imported conduit fittings which did not fit with the "local" range of fittings.
I also came across a "Kobalt" set of 142 "drills and drivers", which looked to be good value for money. However, on second glance, I realized that they were ALL of Impreial/(US Costomaty) sizes. Without wishing to get into any discussion on the merits of Metric versus Imperial, it does seem poor marketing to import (Chinese made) tools designed for the US market into a country which has been predominately Metric for almost forty years.

Their store layout also seemed, to me, to be irrational. (e.g. While replacement lamps were "at the front door" all other electrical items were in a far corner.)
Their over-head signage certainly leaves a lot to be desired, since it indicates only the items on the one side of the aisle which you are facing. To find out what is on the other side of the aisle it is necessary to walk under the sign, turn around and look back at it!

 

[Bob Sanders]

I did my best to support Rona for as long as I could, but the past year or so all you see is "out of stock" on the shelves. Reluctantly I've been shopping at Home depot lately.

Our business accounts are at Rona though... wonder how that's going to work out.

 

[ron45]

Money, money, money....

May the best throat slitters win.....