On paper, the world's top two home improvement retailers, Home Depot and Lowe's, are remarkably similar.
Each operates roughly 2,000 US stores. Both sell a similar range of merchandise from similarly sized warehouses, serving a similar customer base of professional contractors and do-it-yourself weekend warriors.
One key difference, however, is the ratio of DIYers to pros that each company serves: Home Depot serves a roughly equal mix, while DIYers outnumber pros at Lowe's by about a three-to-one.
To get a better sense of what differentiates these otherwise similar companies, I visited locations for each in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.