CIO Magazine (01Aug04) has a potentially interesting indepth article that outlines the “techological” and “business” details related to the battle for do-it-yourself home improvement dolars ($$$) in the U.S. – The Home Depot vs. Lowe’s.

They both plan to each spend around $300 million on information technology (IT) in 2004; and on the network side of the house Home Depot links all thier stores via T1 to an ATM backbone, and Lowe’s is using a frame-relay WAN with backup satellite communications.

On the data side – Home Depot started in 2002 using IBM DB2 warehouse on Regatta p690 servers, and Lowe’s has been using a Teradata warehouse since 2000.

I find both stores to be on equal footing here in San Diego. I have been periodically driving at little farther to a local hardware store to get better personal service & advice. Plus it seems to me that it is nearly always easier and faster to find stuff in the local hardware store.