Here in NYC, Home Depot is the biggie. They're horrendous - merchandise is thrown around all over the place, you can never find anything -- and they never have what you need.
There are only two Lowes stores - both in the suburbs. I visited one on New Years Day (out in New Jersey somewhere). It was pretty clean and orderly in stark contrast to the Home Depots. Maybe the fact that it was a holiday after a holiday probably helped. But I still wouldn't trust any of the guys who work there to give me any lessons on electrical.
In New York City the lighting stores are mostly operated (and probably owned) by Chinese folks.
I don't know if they're a sort of underground chain or they buy from the same suppliers or what, but you find some weird imported things like some lamp holders or cord switches that are not made or sold by domestic brands (Leviton, Eagle, etc.).
The prices differ slightly but the products are baiscally all the same and the layouts are all strangely similar. The names on the stores are all different (Village Lighting, Soho Lighting, Lighting Plus, etc.)
You can tell that some of these components are not for the NEMA market because they have Nemko (Norway), Demko (Denmark), VDE (Germany), Dentori (Japan) and other such certification authority marks. Most are not UL listed.
