Step Aside, Home Depot And Ace: This Hardware Store Tops JD Power's Satisfaction Rankings

The JD Power company conducts numerous studies and surveys every year to keep up with customer trends and quality assessments. Though primarily known for their automotive insights, the home improvement industry is not beyond JD Power's gaze. In 2025, the company compiled a ranking of customer satisfaction with home improvement retailers using eight dimensions for review: "additional services; digital tools; level of trust; people; product/supplies; return policy/process; store/facility;  and value given price paid." As far as which retailer came out on top, neither Home Depot nor Ace ranked with the most satisfied customers. That honor went to Lowe's.

The ongoing question of whether Home Depot and Lowe's are actually different from one another can be answered via this ranking. The study was conducted between July 2024 and March 2025 and was based on responses from 2,143 customers who had shopped at hardware stores over the previous year. Using the compiled data, JD Power devised numbered rankings for the stores. Lowe's came out with the highest score at 680.

Closely following was Ace Hardware with a 672 score, making it the only other retailer that scored above the 671 average. The two retailers ranked below average were Menards at 669 and Home Depot at 665. Based on these metrics, the reason Lowe's ranks highest would be that customers find those previously mentioned dimensions (products, employees, return policies, etc.) to be higher than the competition. However, this does not mean that the lower-ranked stores aren't any good.

It is important to understand that just because Lowe's got the highest score in the JD Power rating doesn't mean that the other ranked hardware stores don't have their pluses. There are a number of Home Depot items that smart homeowners would be wise to stock up on that you simply can't get at Lowe's. On the other side of the coin, Lowe's often has some great springtime deals that the other retailers can't compete with. However, the overarching generality noted by the JD Power study was that customers are happy with their local hardware retailers.

Quoting Michael Taylor, JD Power's senior managing director for retail intelligence, "The collaborative nature of customers and employees essentially working together toward the same goal has improved the shopping experience. Customers are coming into stores with greater knowledge of what they want, if store employees can make helpful suggestions, it increases the likelihood that customers will return to that store."

Taylor's words are backed up by the numbers. The 2025 study showed that 64% of shoppers said they would happily shop at their local retailer again. This is a 9% increase from the 2024 study, showing that, overall, customers are satisfied with the shopping experience with all the listed retailers, which is a good thing for everyone involved.