# Lowes



## HudsonCont (Jul 31, 2007)

I went to my local lowes recently and I was suprised to hear they are no longer going to have USG mud. This is all I have used in the past 5 years and I have grown accustomed to using the green tops. Anyone else hear of this? They say they are going with Lafarge products. Any comments?


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## concretemasonry (Dec 1, 2006)

All you can do is complain formally to Lowes.

Since they are large and usually deal with DIYers and small contractors, they have no reference to how important you are to them.

You can always go to a different supplier. You may find that some of the mud is exactly the same, but just in a different color tub. - There are no secrets in the manufacture of mud.


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## Dan_Watson (Mar 1, 2008)

All of the Lowe's by me have had Lafarge for as long as i can remember..(Im young so its not that long)...Home Depot around here has USG and Lowe's has Rapid Coat.


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## Sir Mixalot (Jan 6, 2008)

Our Lowes still has USG. That is all I use For finishing and Texturing.


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## Norrrrrrrrrrrrm (Jan 20, 2007)

I have used the newer stuff(purple top) and it seems comparable to the blue top. When I was looking for the blue, I was a little perplexed with the new stuff and trying to figure which one I needed.


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## BKFranks (Feb 19, 2008)

Home cheapo and bLowes change contracts all the time with manufacturers. One of them recently changed the brand of insulation they sell so that they would carry a different brand then the other store. If both stores carry the same product, then the issue becomes a battle over price. If they carry different products, they can jack up the price a little. They also try to get manufacturers to exclusively sell only to them, so you might only see one brand of a particular product being sold only at their store. My wife works for Black and Decker and deals exclusively with Kwikset and Price Pfister, which B&D owns, and I hear about the stuff these companies’s try all the time. Similar brands fight over market share, marketing and promotion, etc. and which ever company is going to bend over the most is going to determine which brand you are going to see more of in the stores. It's all the bottom line to them.

For me these stores are good for one or two small items, or maybe some tools, but for supplies it's better to go to a supplier where you can get a contractor discount. I was at HD a couple of months ago and saw a molding that I needed for a job for $.75 a foot, I went to a supplier and got the same thing for $.13 a foot.


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