Plenty.

Such how-to sessions are a key part of strategies by Home Depot and Lowe's to attract customers and build loyalty and sales, even if those customers are in some cases only 9 years old.

"They're seeding the market and investing in it for the future," said Michael Levy, professor of retailing at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass.

Clinics have been a tactic for years at Home Depot and Lowe's, as well as at a host of other retailers such as Whole Foods, Williams-Sonoma, REI and Archiver's scrapbook store.

"It's an implicit quid pro quo: 'We've done this nice thing for you, so that when you go to build your bookshelf, the least you can do is shop our store,' " Levy said. "They're also trying to build a relationship and loyalty with customers, and once they've got them, they've got them unless they tick them off."

But as competition stiffened for the same customers, Home Depot and Lowe's began broadening the reach of their clinics.

In recent years, they began aiming them at specific types of customers, such as women or kids. Home Depot added do-it-herself workshops, and Lowe's began offering wreath and tree decorating "how-to" clinics. Both also offer the how-to workshops in Spanish to reach a growing number of Hispanic consumers.

Home Depot last month upped the ante by offering clinics aimed at older baby boomers, including "preventive home maintenance to protect your asset."

"It's one of our growth segments," said Roger Adams, Home Depot's senior vice president of marketing. "They'll generate about half of the growth in home improvement spending over the next five to seven years. That's why they're a VIP segment."

AARP research shows about 89 percent of people older than 50 hope to remain in their homes. More than half may make changes to their homes. AARP is sponsoring the workshops with Home Depot.

Children, too, are not to be ignored. They not only influence household purchases, but if Home Depot or Lowe's can earn their loyalty at a young age, they could become lifelong customers.

Home Depot began offering children's workshops in 1997, and Lowe's followed suit in 2000. It's a battle of children's clinics at the two giants on some Saturdays.

Smaller rival Lowe's, based in Mooresville, N.C., hoped to attract the younger set -- and their parents -- by offering a build-a-pumpkin session last month and, a few weeks later, a clinic on home safety.

Home Depot carried out an Olympic-themed clinic on how to build a bobsled, with the Olympics coming up in the winter. The chain also let youngsters build wooden boxes and media racks.

Donning a new Home Depot orange apron, Pierce Bauer, 9, held up his finished wooden box to house his rock collection with big plans to stain it (with the help of Dad, Gregg Bauer). The workshop came with a bonus for Pierce, who was earning credit toward his handyman badge for Cub Scouts.

"This is great. Kids can learn how to hammer and nail things -- and read directions," Gregg Bauer said. "I'm here to buy other stuff, too. I need to buy some hooks for a closet."

On the same recent Saturday at Lowe's, parents ushered their children over to a big trailer in the parking lot set up by the Home Safety Council to teach them about fire and home safety.

"I thought it was fun," said Connor Bayliss, an 8-year-old participant who, with his little sister, Gracelyn, 4, crawled out of the trailer to demonstrate how to leave a building on fire.

"The more reinforcement, the better," said his father, Steve Bayliss of Atlanta. "I came to get water filters but saw it when we pulled into the parking lot."