Kent

its a place to buy bulding stuff, what more can i say

Don’t get a home reno or installed services… all they do is get local contractors and mark up the price 45%… and since the only contractors that have such a low price that allows their price to be competitive are the most lousy contractors… so you get garbage… also watch out for cheap materials… lotsa low end materials at Kent… alot of the stuff is bought in Burnside and then marked up 35%…

Kent has a decent selection of products, and excellent garden center (with sods yay!) and a few good staff. What I don’t like is the poor lighting in the store, that some of the hardware is grimy (I bought a downspout there and it was filthy) and that their lumber is stored outside. The last point is probably the main reason I don’t shop there. I priced a Velux skylight there once and after comparison shopping found the guy at the desk quoted a price 40% higher than the other prices I was getting. I’ve tried to like Kent, I really have, but just can’t go back when Home Depot is just around the corner.

As I noted: The Credit card systems are down today November 20^th
So unfortunately, the end of my experience was not all that great.
But all the way leading up to it, I had a great time.
Kent is nicely laid out, clearly marked aisle-​wise and tidy.
The sales people are helpful, and the prices are reasonable.

Home Depot and Rona sometimes do carry less expensive and/​or better products, but overall I find Kent to be the best of HRM’s three big home improvement chains. (Home Hardware can’t compete, sorry. It’s also a different kind of store.)
Why? Here are a few reasons:
1. The most important reason is the staff. Home Depot has some very knowledgeable older employees, but the younger Home Depot employees are usually not very good. At Kent, on the other hand, everybody seems to know exactly what they’re talking about. They have good knowledge of their products, are very eager to help with products and projects, and are friendly too. (The same is true of the Mic-​Mac Mall Kent. Kent managers somehow have to be very good at recruiting the right people.)
2. This particular Kent store has a very good selection of lumber, without having fewer products in the other categories. Plywood, dimensional lumber, you name it, they have lots of different products and sizes in stock. Related to that: the people at the project centre and at the cutting shop are VERY good. Helpful and precise.
3. Good products. They often carry products that are slightly more expensive than at Home Depot, but overall my impression is that they carry better products. Take for instance corner clamps: they are cheapest at Rona, followed closely by Home Depot, and a handful of dollars more at Kent. However, the ones that Kent sells are the best and sturdiest ones.
The Kent website is also very useful, since it lists individual products (and does so MUCH better than the Rona website) but, unfortunately, lacks the store availability information that the Home Depot website offers. Also, even though it seems to list the vast majority of the products Kent carries, it doesn’t list each and every product. So there is some scope for improvement there.
So overall, even though I’m not much of a DIY guy, I really like Kent in general, and this Kent store in particular.

I went into this Kent store last night because I was looking for doorknobs. I was very impressed with the service that I received at the store.
As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by a Representative with a big smile! I stood at the front looking at the signs that hang down in the isles because I wasn’t sure where to go first. The girl working there asked me if I needed help with finding something and I told her what I was looking for. She told me exactly what number isle the doorknobs were in and didn’t have to think twice about it. I went directly to that area and found my doorknob instantly.
I enjoyed my visit at Kent and will continue to go there for my hard ware purchases.

Kent is another one of these massive stores. These stores can be a little overwhelming at times, but I navigated around here with ease.
They have a great selection of flowers and garden supplies. They carry a great selection of paints, kitchen wares, and lighting. Of course they carry everything for the contractor that you can imagine. We also use to get our Christmas Trees here, they were only $ 15.00, a great deal.
We found what we needed in the paint section and the staff were nice, too many selection of paints can give me a headache.
Kent is Canadian owned by the Irving’s.