Sure wish we had one closer- 8 hour round trip not including shopping time!

I'm fortunate. We had Menards before both Orange and Blue. We have three Menards to choose from; all within a 35 minute one way drive. Our county seat, 15 minutes away, has a smaller footprint HD. I only shop there when I need something quickly or already in town for other errands. Their (HD) lumber historically is much higher dollar wise and inferior in quality to any of the Menards.

I purchase almost all of our pet foods, supplies as well as about 1/3 of my wild bird feed at Menards. Top name brands and far less expensive than any pet or farm supply stores even before the 11% rebate. Same with my engine oils, automotive fluids and most maintenance items (oil filters excepted; those are always OEM through Rock Auto), penetrating oils etc. Laundry detergents, many household cleaning supplies, etc. as well.

I keep a list in my phone of things needed. I'm typically in the "big city" about every four to five weeks. When I worked in the "city" it wasn't uncommon to stop 1-2x a week at Menards. It was 5 minutes from the plant and just one of several ways out of town on the way home.

The downside with Menards, Blue or Orange, they ultimately drove places like 84 Lumber, Carter Lumber, Furrow and others out of business. All three of those provided top quality construction lumber, roofing, building materials etc. geared mainly for the general contractor.

Our county seat does have an independent lumber yard, HWI store if you can afford them and wish to deal with their elitist attitudes. It's rare I go there for anything. We also have locally a top notch Ace Hardware as well as a Runnings Farm Store.

There are two Menards nearby with one about 15-20 minutes from my front door. I have long been a Lowe's customer as locally there are some really helpful folks at both locations locally that are within a half-hour drive, plus they are "pet friendly" and my pup LOVES going along with me. Menards came to the area more recently, and is closer so I've been going there a bit more. In my experience, Menards has better plywood selection and I like their options on paint and finishes. I've done ship-to-store at both Menards and Lowe's which is nice. We do have a local Home Depot but it's a longer drive and I rarely shop there, even though the local store is pet friendly (yes, that's a factor as my pup really likes to shop with me😉).

5 hours ago, lew said:

Sure wish we had one closer- 8 hour round trip not including shopping time!

right there with you :(

I didn't find any resonance with that video. Both HD and Lowes do fine 'round here. Ace Hardware, Harbor Freight, too. Who paid for that video? And I find the big competitor to them all is Amazon. Consistently, if I can wait a couple days, Amz saves me time and trouble. And money.

2 hours ago, Wichman3 said:

right there with you :(

Sorry, 16 hr. round trip, 8 hr. each way

HD left our region some years back, now the nearest one is almost 40 miles away. Our town has a small format Lowes and I really don't like it, but IF I can find something there i need 'll get it there. The thing about Menards (I have 3, all about 20miles or so away) is that i can almost always go there and find what I'm after. That's not true at many other stores. The savings is just frosting on the cake.

Free shipping with the ability to look at options is definitely an appeal to Amazon. Still, some items I like to look at in person so "worth the drive" to head to one of the local stores.

Somewhat different, but wish there were more woodworking stores (e.g., Rockler, Woodcraft) nearby as seeing various items would be helpful. I am near Springfield so can get to Grizzly in about 30 minutes or so.

Menards, and Lowes both about 10 minutes away here "Two Weeks From Anywhere". Menards is usually the cheaper of the two.

Don't do Amazon.

Edited February 20Feb 20 by Larry Buskirk

We have Lowe’s and Menards but I lean toward Menards. I wish they would lose the 11% rebate nonsense and just cut the prices.

2 hours ago, Ron Dudelston said:

I wish they would lose the 11% rebate nonsense and just cut the prices.

Yes! Although I've definitely timed online ship-to-store purchases to be made with this incentive (e.g., Rikon bandsaw).

3 hours ago, Ron Dudelston said:

We have Lowe’s and Menards but I lean toward Menards. I wish they would lose the 11% rebate nonsense and just cut the prices.

I wish the retail industry overall would do away with this nonsense; but it will never happen. JC Penny tried it and it almost killed the company, no one else is even going to try now. :(

Just for your edification:

In early 2012, JCPenney implemented a new pricing strategy, replacing sales with "Every Day" prices, but saw a 22% sales decline by mid-year.^[43] The company also experienced staff cuts, laying off 1,600 employees in January and 600 more in April 2012.^[44] Johnson was dismissed in April 2013 and replaced by former CEO Mike Ullman.^[45]

Keep one thing in mind, manufactures are allowed to set minimum advertised prices for retailers (thanks to the Supreme Court ruling in 2007). Menards rebate program is one way to get a discount on something they've already priced at the minimum. They've made some changes to the rebate program that are good: for one thing instead of just a set number of days before you mail it in (something like 3 weeks or so) they now allow one yar after the purchase date to send them in. I pile them up and mail one bundle once I have enough. Another (they have always done this) thing, to me the rebate reflects a lower sales price, and that amount shouldn't have sales tax on it. In Ohio, when you use your rebate coupon to buy something, Menards take that amount off the taxable total, giving you that sales tax back.I'm not sure if it works that way in pother states, but I revel in not giving our state one penney more than I absolutely have to give them.

1 hour ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

that amount shouldn't have sales tax on it.

Both HD and Lowes give 10% veteran discounts off the "top line", which is nice.

Yeah, I can't think of anyone who enjoys paying taxes, but as I think on it if there were no taxes, this whole thing gets really ugly really fast. Ya takes the good with the bad and hopes ya don't get squished.

Fred, good points all around. What would be nice is for Menards to figure out a system where customers wouldn’t have to mail the receipt and rebate form in. With the price of postage today you have to save them up. Seems that they could establish a coding system where each purchase has a trackable code and you could file online. However, it would cost Menards money because more people would file rebates. I bet 10% of the customers don’t bother with the rebate.

17 hours ago, Ron Dudelston said:

I bet 10% of the customers don’t bother with the rebate.

I'd venture a guess the number is much higher Ron especially back when it had to be submitted within the old 6 weeks time frame; I know I missed several then. The one year deadline has helped being able to bundle numerous transactions.

23 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

I'd venture a guess the number is much higher Ron especially back when it had to be submitted within the old 6 weeks time frame; I know I missed several then. The one year deadline has helped being able to bundle numerous transactions.

That's my guess as well, I suspect there's a fair number of folks who don't screw with it.

On 2/19/2026 at 8:34 PM, Grandpadave52 said:

I'm fortunate. We had Menards before both Orange and Blue. We have three Menards to choose from; all within a 35 minute one way drive. Our county seat, 15 minutes away, has a smaller footprint HD. I only shop there when I need something quickly or already in town for other errands. Their (HD) lumber historically is much higher dollar wise and inferior in quality to any of the Menards.

The downside with Menards, Blue or Orange, they ultimately drove places like 84 Lumber, Carter Lumber, Furrow and others out of business. All three of those provided top quality construction lumber, roofing, building materials etc. geared mainly for the general contractor.

There is still an 84 Lumber way across town. But for many years after moving here, there were just a few independent (or maybe small regional) places. Most of them were pretty bad and went out of business before the big boxes came, and the rest after. I do remember there was one small Lowe's, the size of a hardware store before the big box format came in. There is still a Do-It-Best down the street from my prior house that I frequent when I'm in the area and an Ace Hardware that I do occasionally, and another hardware downtown that I think I was at once. When I was working, I got most of my furniture based hardware from Rockler. And the theater shop manager loves Menards, so we get most of the 2x and sheet goods there. I stop in for the occasional need. But I don't buy groceries there (those that shop there know what I mean).