Save Big Money at Menards? Not from What I've Seen

Up until a short while ago, the only places you could buy home improvement items in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin was at Fleet Farm or a couple of smaller lumber and home improvement stores.

When rumors about Menards coming to town started circulating, there was talk of those stores going out of business because they couldn't match the prices the larger chain offered.

After going to Menards grand opening this past weekend, I can say they had nothing to be worried about.

I'll start out by saying I was actually impressed by Menards. It's a large store that seems to have everything you could possibly want when remodeling your existing home or even building a brand new home from scratch (they even offer kits to do that). My wife and I were there for almost two hours looking at everything from their appliances to kitchen sinks and even a decent-sized food section complete with frozen pizzas and refrigerated items like milk.

And, there are very few stores that offer better service here in town. Every section we visited had at least one employee who would walk up to us and help us find the item we wanted to look at. If we had a question about the item, they seemed to be very knowledgeable and were quick to answer it for us.

But, when it came to price, something they go as far as to advertise in their store's theme song, I just didn't see anything impressive. Sure, they had some decent sales, especially in their food sections but their regular prices were just expensive as or even more expensive than the other guys.

For example, one of the items my wife and I are looking to purchase either a counter top dishwasher or a portable one. While we were there, we looked at the very same counter top dishwasher we've seen at three other stores in town. Menards was, at minimum, $20 higher than all three of them. In fact, I could go online and order the same dishwasher and be $30 less even if I pay for shipping.

We also looked at their storage sheds and did not find a single one for under $300. I could go across the street to Wal-mart and get the same thing for $190.

Their toilets were a decent price, but you had to buy the bowl and the tank separately; something that made it more expensive than a couple other stores that you can buy kits that include both.

Because of this, even though we were in the store for almost two hours, the only thing in our cart when we left were the free samples they gave at the door.

I hope to do some remodeling on my house this summer and, while I'm sure to give Menards a shot, I'm more than likely not going to buy much there; especially when I'm more likely to find the same item for less somewhere else.