I had a very positive experience with Home Depot.  I went in to purchase the thing-a-mi-jigs inside the toilet tank.  One toilet at work was not flushing correctly.  I asked a Home Depot employee what I needed to fix the toilet.  He told me what I needed to do (I have never fixed any sort of plumbing before), and I was able to fix it correctly.  It is possible I would have gotten the same service at one of the local stores, but would I have gotten a better deal?

When I went to Home Depot to get pipe insulation, they were out.  So I drove to Lancaster and guess what?  They were out of pipe insulation too.  Happens every year in Lancaster.   Rural stores are never as stocked as stores in large cities.  This is no surprise to me.   I for one am very glad Home Depot is here, I have already saved several hundred dollars on paint and lumber.   I have lived both in big cities and rural areas, sometimes I miss the high stocked and large quantities of merchandise big city stores have, but not enough to move back to the big city.  Perhaps in 10 years when Tehachapi easily doubles in size and the demand for more products doubles, this will bring many full truckloads of of merchandise our way more frequently, but I wonder if this tradeoff will be worth it to some of you who like living in a small town. 

Yep,  I went there to buy material for new fencing for the farm and they had very little of what I needed. I have previously gotten these things in both the Lancaster and Ridgecrest stores so I know it's available. This store looks like it's stocked for an urban environment not a semi-rural area like this.