Lowes Home Improvement Store
Lowes Home Improvement Store - America's Second Largest
In 1921 Lucius S. Lowe opened North Wilkesboro Hardware. This small store sold a wide variety of items, from work boots and snuff to horse collars and overalls. Lucius Lowe died in 1940 and left the business to his daughter.
Carl Buchan acquired full ownership of Lowe's in 1952, he began to focus on hardware, building supplies and home appliances and by 1949, he'd bought a second store marking the start of the Lowe's chain.
Throughout the 1950's, Buchan opened several more stores across North Carolina. He died in 1960 and his executive team carried on his dream. By 1962, with annual sales of $32 million the chain consisted of 21 stores.
Today the Lowes Home Improvements chain consists of over 1400 stores, now boasting at least one in every state across the U.S. A new store was opened on an average of one every three days during 2006 and in 2007 the first Lowe's store in Canada opened it's doors for business. By 2009, Mexico will get it's first Lowe's.
Lowe's is now the second largest home improvement center in the United States. With a stock of over 40,000 products including name brand name appliances, the stores carry almost everything needed for home improvement and home repairs. And, if what you need isn't in stock, they offer hundreds of thousands more products that are available by special order.
For many years their slogan was "Improving on Home Improvement". In 2006 a new slogan was adopted "Let's Build Something Together". This company offers various ways of helping customers perform the job at hand. They have how-to-guides, step by step guides and a variety of interactive planners.
From allegations of failing to pay overtime to a credit card promotion scam, Lowe's has not only been in the news, but in the courtroom too! They settled the overtime case out of court and to help prevent other instances a rule was set in place that overtime could only be approved by a store manager.
Despite the law suits most Lowe's employees agree that this is a good place to work. They offer a competitive pay rate and even part time employees are eligible for health insurance.
From a small town hardware store to the second largest of all US home improvement stores, it has came a long way. And, with more and more stores opening, it appears that Lowe's will be around for a long time to come.
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