Thread regarding Lowe's Cos. layoffs

Lowe's Rental

Anyone have any valid insider information as to what is going on with Lowe’s Rental? I work at one of the locations and there has been practically no information coming out of corporate since the elimination of the ARM (Area Rental Manager) positions. I don’t particularly need guidance but it would be nice to work for a company that at least occasionally lets its workers know what the is going on or what their vision is.

It does seem to be their modus of operation since the onset. At the stores near me there was great interest shown up to the point of the Grand Opening but afterwards you may as well been a mushroom growing in a dark cave for all the interest they showed you. Store level management is little better and don’t even get me started about the lack of support from AP.

Don’t get me wrong as I would very much like to see Lowe’s Rental succeed but from my vantage point there is a serious lack of support going out to the locations. I would like to get more specific but don’t want to possibly give away my location or position. Anyone posting should use similar caution since there are so few of us.

by Anonymous
| 1351 views | | 4 replies (last January 20, 2025) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1jh5fxk8w
Comment! It's anonymous!

4 replies (most recent on top)

It was my understanding that the thought process behind adding a Lowe’s tool rental to the market was to help attract Pro customers away from HD. Sadly HD has a two decade plus jump on us and at the rate we are going there is little chance of us ever catching up. Much like third party delivery, corporate rushed the program to opening without having anything close to a mature infrastructure in place. From what I have already witnessed, it will likely never run in the black. Throw in a few high dollar equipment thefts or catastrophic failures and it gets even worse. It really doesn’t appear that they adequately thought it through or are doing anything meaningful to mitigate its shortcomings.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @1x3+1jh5fxk8w

High volume store here in the Southeast. We don't even have a tool rental program and never have. We DO have the rental trucks, which is crazy because we are a market where practically everyone drives a pickup. I think this is yet another example of Lowe's coming up with a program without really thinking it through, kind of like the whole "Pet Smart" and and Carharrt product assortments that really are just really turning into total boondoggles and stray very far out from our core business, which is home improvement.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @1sv+1jh5fxk8w

Same observation as the original poster. We have recently been informed that a “monthly” Rental DS and Rental Mechanic TEAMS meetings will be resuming at the end of the month (use to be bi-monthly for our area). It has been well over six months since we had any at our location as our ARM was out on “medical” leave for close to six months prior to the position being eliminated. I say good riddance. As for local management (i.e., ASM and above) there is minimal interest shown in Rental and about the only time you see them is if you haven’t gotten your AP4ME done yet. I too would like to see them succeed but from what I have witnessed the only reason some of the locations are succeeding is due to the shear will and integrity of the Rental associates that are clearly running the place. For a company that is better than four years into the rental arena I certainly would have expected better.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @1qk+1jh5fxk8w

only can speak from the North region. in my store, there was talk of a rental dept a two years ago. appliance stock is now 75% removed from the back room and this was to be the area devoted to a rental dept. silence regarding rentals since XDT now does most of the daily deliveries.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @11w+1jh5fxk8w

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