LOWE'S IS SPRUCING UP ITS HOUSE

摘要

For 17 years, Sandy Cooper was a loyal customer of Home Depot Inc. But when her refrigerator recently went kaput and Home Depot told her it could take four days to deliver a new one, the mother of four went straight to a Lowe's Cos. store in the Brookhaven section of Atlanta―which promised to deliver a new fridge the next day. "I have to sing their praises, because they were very nice," says Cooper, 45. "At Home Depot, you can't find anybody to help―and if you do, they just point." Based in Wilkesboro, N. C., Lowe's―the No.2 player in home improvements, with 785 stores―is staking its future on pleasing thousands of shoppers just like Sandy Cooper: women who will shop for big-ticket appliances and high-margin home furnishings at its urban stores. Indeed, a few days after getting her refrigerator, Cooper returned to buy light fixtures. She is the kind of customer Lowe's needs if its ambitious $2.9 billion plan to add 123 outlets this year, most of them in big cities, has any chance of success against Home Depot, still top dog, with 1,392 stores.