I like to buy local when I can, and we did for our recent bath reno. I shopped alone to get an idea of what was out there at a local plumbing supply showroom and a local lighting store. Both very reputable and both where we bought original fixtures for our home. Then I went back to the plumbing house with my GC when it was time to pick out the plumbing fixtures. That didn't take long since I pretty much knew what I wanted. The sales guy had also helped us when we replaced a kitchen faucet and was actually the same guy who helped us when we built our house. For the lighting, it was a little harder, especially for one fixture, so my GC just told me to tell them he was the GC when I placed the order. It was easy. I compared prices to online prices and was pleasantly surprised. So I have supported local business and economy, and if anything goes wrong, I have much easier, if not better overall, recourse for getting a problem solved. And at a slightly better overall price.

The "better warranty" they are referring to that you are paying more for by using the plumber's/GC's vendor has to do with coverage on more than just the fixture itself should it fail. When you buy online/at a non-preferred store, the only thing the plumber/GC will warrant is the install. When you use their supplier, they warrant the fixture, the install & any damage that may occur to surrounding flooring, cabinetry, etc. So let's say you buy your bathroom sink faucets online, they are defective and fail within the first year of install flooding the vanity cabinetry, warped the custom tub deck, and soaked the carpeting in the adjoining bedroom and closet & destroying the bathroom floor. You call the GC/plumber & they say the install was not to blame, it was the fixture itself. You are now on the hook to contact the manufacturer, handle the warranty replacement hassle yourself + the cost of removal & re-installation of the fixture + repairing all the collateral damage that occurred at your own expense. Now if you had bought the same fixture through the GC's/plumber's supplier, they would immediately replace the fixture & take care of the warranty paperwork hassle for you with no waiting, they would re-install at no cost & cover the costs of repairing all the collateral damage. So the next question is, how often do fixtures fail within the first year? I can't say for sure. What I can tell you is that my DM & DD bought all of their fixtures for their5 bd/3.5ba home online & none have failed. We bought most of ours through our GC/plumber's supplier + 2 fixtures online & only 1 has failed --the handshower (supplied by the plumber's supplier) started leaking out the sides of the twist control. It was promptly replaced within a week (it was special order to start with so we felt a week was reasonable). That leaves the final question of what level of risk are you willing to take / is the 20-30% higher price worth the peace of mind of knowing you're covered in the event that the worst happens? Only you can answer that one. You may want to do a search on the 'Bathrooms' forum on this topic--there are plenty of threads on there discussing this very topic. To answer your actual question of where we bought our fixtures--the ones we bought ourselves were purchased from www.irawoods.com. Hope this helps! This post was edited by mydreamhome on Wed, Jun 5, 13 at 23:35

practigal: Your theory sounds good, but doesn't work in practice. The big box stores negotiate directly with quartz and other manufacturers. You can do that when you buy by the train car load. The manufacturer concedes prices, allowing the big boxes to remain profitable and still be less expensive than local fabricators. This doesn't only happen with the big boxes. I fabricated the Corian in a McDonalds 20 years ago. I picked up my material at the distributor as usual, but McDonalds had negotiated a price with DuPont that was considerably lower than what I would have usually paid. Then there are the sink promotions. The big boxes will negotiate a free sink that would cost a local fabricator $400.00 or so. This makes competing against them on price a tall order.

Our local Ferguson’s showroom for the bathrooms...toilets, sinks, faucets and medicine cabs...and the faucets and sinks in the kitchen. All ceiling and wall lighting in the house is from a local lighting store, in Huntington, Long Island... except for a few Mission style fixtures, which were made for us by Meyda. Our appliances came from Appliance World, also in Huntington. Like @chispa, we prefer to buy from local stores, which is why we bought all of our appliances and lighting from independent stores. The service we got at both the lighting and appliance stores, and the knowledgeable staff, is not something duplicated at big box stores. And, certainly not from an online site. Even at Ferguson’s, which is a pretty large chain, we got excellent service.