They're leaving money on the table here. Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, and others have ratings and reviews on their websites, so it makes me feel more confident browsing their selections. Who would honestly buy an expensive appliance from Menard's if there is no review system?

I've shopped frequently at the Mentor Menard's store after its opening a few years ago. It provides a third alternative to Lowe's and Home Depot, and often is much cheaper, but you have to shop. The Mentor Menard's is across the street from the Mentor Home Depot and Sam's Club.

The other two Menard's in Greater Cleveland are on Brookpark Road and in Avon.

https://www.menards.com/store-details/locator.html

Menard's has a different business model than Home Depot and Lowe's. It very frequently offers 11 percent off mail-in rebates on all goods purchased, offers a weekly advertising brochure of sales, and doesn't use in-house installers but keeps lists of independent contractors in the area. It's has a very large, very price competitive garden center and offers very cheap seed prices.

The Mentor Lowe's is minutes away, so Mentor is a great location to price shop these three hardware Big Box chains.

The Big Box hardware chain garden centers will be stocking up in the next few weeks. Gales Garden Center, a mile south of I-90 on Route 91 is a good alternative to the Big Box hardware garden center chains in Lake County. I mostly buy my plants at Gales (especially for tomato plants), Menard's and Home Depot, which sometime in May puts plants in its parking lot with good sales at the end of May.