To go to either Home Depot or Lowes is a 1.5 hr. drive for me but I use both regularly. There is a Menard's about 45 min from me and I use that store also. I don't usually use the Menard's store when shopping for lawn care equipment because I don't like their brands as much as I like those at Home Depot or Lowes. Most of our larger purchases of hardware type items have been bought at Lowes but I also have bought some at Home Depot. As far as whether John Deere equipment is the same quality if bought at Lowes and Home Depot as it is if bought at a John Deere dealer, a John Deere dealer told me it's the same quality. My last purchases were a John Deere lawn tractor a year ago at Lowes and a snowblower attachment that I bought for it this fall which I bought at the local John Deere dealer. The same exact snowblower attachment that I would have gotten at Lowes or Home Depot. They are the same model number, etc. I bought them at the dealership because, unexpectedly, they were cheaper at the dealership when buying the snowblower, the weight kit, the electric lift kit and the weather enclosure. Some of the items were cheaper at Lowes or Home Depot but when buying them all together, I got a better price at the dealership... and the dealership is about a mile from my house.