Obviously in this economy, any job is better than no job, but just curious.  My g/f is going in to talk about a job opening in the next few days.  Just curious how the company is to work for.
Thanks.

I work for the other big box, but know many that have and still do work for them. It's a job. It's retail. Depending on who you have as a store manager and as your assistant managers, it could be great or could suck ass big time. Like so many others...I lost my dream job due to the economy and am just grateful that I have a job. If she can keep her nose clean and out of the retail drama, she will be fine. Good luck.

It is a job. Better then nothing.

Welfare probably pays more.

A good friend just left them (becoming a stay home mom) and really hated to leave.

I believe it's a Russian Submariner though.

It appears to be beached.

I've never worked there personally. Had  a friend who worked at one for several years and there always seemed to be a lot of workplace drama. Maybe it was just the personalities involved.

I work there and as others have said it is definitely better than no job. Alot of it will have to do with your managers some are really great and some are not. I personally don't really like my job but that is mostly due to the stupid customers who come into my store.

I worked there part time a few years ago. It was fun at first, then a couple new managers came in and wanted to show everyone who was the new boss in town. If she can avoid the over zealous assistant managers she should enjoy it. I liked working with the people

Basically this. I worked for Lowe's for quite a while, left and a while later I'm not working part time at HD while pursuing other things. I think it REALLY depends on your store management and the district management. Bad group there and it will be a constant pain in the butt. Good group there and it's actually pretty good. I took a big pay cut relative to when I was at Lowe's, and drive a heck of a lot further, but I work with a much better group of people from the newest cashier to the management. In this case also better customers, since the store's in a better area. That does effect the lower level staff but management tends to get moved around inside an area so that's less direct.

One thing I'll say for Lowe's, the eye care insurance is pretty darn good. The rest of the insurance options were only so so for me, but I'm told they were decent for married folks, particularly with kids. I don't know how that's changed though, obviously with the new laws being installed it will probably change in many ways and is also somewhat region specific if I'm not mistaken.

If nothing else, working there is an opportunity to learn a lot. She can take internal training programs for many different departments, learn all sorts of basic home improvement/repair skills, and also how to get along with a very diverse group of people in a work environment while collecting a paycheck.

I worked there 2 summers as a night stocker. First summer was great my boss pulled some strings to let me work 7.5 hour shifts instead of 8 so I could get off in time for my other job at 6. show up, he would say, XYZ isles need stocked, pull pallets and stock them. be safe. and we would move pallets of stuff from the back to our isles, throw in IPODS, and start running up and down the stair ladder things stocking the over heads. at about 2 or 3 he would come around and give us a soda and tell us take lunch. we would take lunch, the back at it. we usually cleaned the back of th estore out. that store had one of the highest profit margins of ANY lowes in the nation.

2nd summer new night manager. no Ipods, no shorts, he could crank up the store music you knew what time it was by the EXACT SAME SONG, he total micromanaged people, they could be throwing up 4 or 5 pallets a night of heavy stuff and he would make fun of them. I personaly threw up 9 pallets in one night of heavy stuff and he said I wasnt working hard enough. I told him to piss off and threw a 10th. stewed, clocked out, I was quitting and let me out of the store. , he refused to unlock the door. I politely informed him that I knew EXACTLY where the axes were and he had until I got back from gardening and I would be walking out that door. he saw me walking back with a nice estwing and unlocked and opened the door. another guy left with me. I refuse to shop there any more, home depot gets my money now.

all about the boss. boss one did his job, and made goals happen. boss 2 not so much.

The biggest problem I had there was the schedule. It was never the same.  Many times it wasn't even posted till the night before it went into effect.  You could close one night and not get out till 11 or 11:30 and then have to be back the next morning at 5.  You rarely got two consecutive days off and never a Sat/Sun.  They are super anal about overtime.  I once got written up for 6 seconds of overtime and this came down from corporate.  You leave a key in a forklift, fired.  You walk away from a forklift when the forks are off the ground even a few inches, fired.

We had one girl in Home Decor that got no fewer than 8 guys fired for sexual harassment.  The dept manager for lumber would get rid of guys she didn't like by doing the same thing.

Buddy of mine who is a member here worked for them for a while.

I will shoot him an IM and perhaps he will be along to tell his tale!

+1  Worked at HD and had a friend who worked at Lowes.  The answer lies in what you are looking for out of the job and your management.  Not all management is the same.  Some stores have good management, other shitty.  Most have very high turnover and one store I worked at had the philosophy that if you were there for 5 years, you were automatically management material.    

Pay is usually low to the amount of work you perform.  It is retail.  You may do twice the amount of work that 70 year old Joe and 18 year old Susie do, but you will be paid the same or less.

It greatly depends on the stores volume(sales).  If you have a higher volume store, you may have consistent schedules, more hours etc.  Lower volume stores tend to play a lot of games by cutting hours by the previous days sales.  The Lowes my buddy worked at would actually let him drive 15 miles, then turn him around at the door because sales were down~

So, in a nutshell, if you need a job, go for it!  Give it a two week trial run and see what happens and determine what time of management you have.  Good luck~

Thanks for the replies, guys.  She's only on her second day but said it appears pretty decent so far.  Starting her off at just under $12.00 an hour, I believe, so like I said....it's better than no job.

My deceased brother in law worked for them for 10 years. He had severe epilepsy, they did everything possible to keep him working until it progressed to the point he could no longer work. My wife and I go out of our way to shop there because of how they treated him.

When I got the house painted by College Pro painters (who did a great job), one of the kids had been working at Lowes. He said it really depends on the store. He hated the downtown Seattle Lowes, but loved the two others he worked at.

My neighbor works there. He is a young guy with no college education. Started there at 18 and worked his way up to management. He is 28 now and with bonuses is making $125+k per year. He works like a dog but he seems to love it.

I knew another older person who worked there for along time and retired with over a million in her 401k / profit sharing. She was just a floor worker.

Did it for awhile.  Do not make friends with anyone in retail.  Do your shit and go home.  Retail drama bad.

It depends on her bosses.  If she plans on staying there any length of time tell her to get into their training program for supervisor/manager positions.  It's company policy to promote from within whenever possible.  I worked a summer there and I liked it.