What you are seeing is the effect of giant purchasing departments... They buy hundreds of thousands of plants of each variety... They cost nothing per unit... They ship them all over the entire USA... There may be some variation on what they sell by region - but it doesn't seem like it's a whole lot. For example - I always chuckle when I see Tall Fescue or apple trees that require some dormancy period for sale in South Florida box stores... No - they won't grow down there... Sorry. If you ask the people in the garden centers - for the most part they know which stuff is doomed and will try to steer you away from it... It's pretty sad that they don't have any control over what they sell in those cases - or they could provide customers with a better chance at success... For the most part - the varieties they sell around here aren't particularly good - but will at least produce fruit if the owner takes care of the proper maintenance.... Which you can't do if you want to buy the stuff at the box stores... Ironically, those Box stores don't sell any of the proper sprays, fungicides, or fertilizers.... Thanks

"Our local store rec'd the Electrolux Q50 series. Though reviewed.com loves this machine I'm having a difficult time finding owner feedback. I was told this was Italian time-tested technology, just now brought to the US. And the orbit clean has just come out of patent, but is also not "new". Any leads on further information?" The Frigidaire FPID/FGID and Electrolux EI24ID/EW24ID (including the 50QS) are brand new and seem to be a redesign from the ground up. Electrolux did not have a great reputation for dishwashers in the past; owners complained of poor washability and reliability. However, it's very possible this new line is great and exactly what they needed. You certainly won't find any user reviews at this point, though. If you buy one, let us know what you think! The only real "proven" dishwashers on the market right now are Maytag and the Euro manufacturers Bosch, Miele, and Asko. Although Maytag is a Whirlpool brand, they still use the previous generation Point Voyager tall tub wash system that works well. Whirlpool has transitioned the rest of their brands including KA to the "Global Wash System" which supposedly is quieter and uses less water but is unproven. GE and Electrolux/Frigidaire just introduced complete redesigns, presumably because their previous offerings weren't so great. Those are also unproven.

I think some of the people commenting are missing your question. Manufacturers of plumbing fixtures and lawn mowers for example make "less expensive" lines which they pour into the big box stores. Then, at show rooms or manufacturer stores, they fill will higher end products. For example a John Deere mower will cost you more at the dealer, not because they jacked up the price, but because it's a higher end model that at the Home Depot. Most people don't wanna spend $6,000 on a mower so John Deere makes less expensive mowers. Ditto for plumbing fixtures. Your plumbing show room and Lowe's may indeed carry Moen, Delta etc. but those companies make less expensive faucets for the big box stores. There are more plastic pieces for example. That faucet may last you 5 years, but if you spend just a little more at the plumbing show room, your facet will have more metal pieces and last much longer. All a manufacturer's products will be decent, but the low end stuff ends up at the big box stores for consumers who wanna make a change but are on a budget. I see no reason why appliance manufacturers don't do the same. If you compare model number to model number exactly, then you will get the same product. However, I'm sure the big box stores and Best Buy don't even carry the high end stuff. So if appliances are anything like mowers or plumbing fixtures, you get what you pay for and YES, it's better to buy appliances at an appliance center instead of the big box stores but only because they'll have available units that the big box stores don't even get which would include more "meant to last" products.

@ Sophie The entire reason that cost plus contracts were born was to remove contractors from quality decisions. For example, when NASA wants to build a rocket, they want to ensure quality rather than that it can be done under budget. This is done by control of the bidding process from all subcontractors. This idea of quality control and it's side effect of cost control was perfect for capital investments by businesses and so shortly after WW2 they stole it. When used well, by parties who understand the ideas, it works well for home construction also. However, too many contractors want to use it as if it is essentially a fixed price contract without any risk to them. If you want to ensure quality, or protect supply house relationships, then use a fixed price bid. However, if you want to be largely indemnified from any loss by using a cost plus contract then you give up all rights to dictate quality. There are many far less complimentary words to call someone who takes advantage of the lack of knowledge and experience of their customers. I went with lazy, because I believe the reason most contractors do this is because they simply don't want to go through the effort of producing a fixed price bid, when they can do a serious bid for their money and rough estimates for everything else. @ Joseph Nothing in the original post makes me think they agreed at any time to use his recommended supplier. They even call it a recommended supplier rather than a required supplier. Just because they are agree to a standard cost plus (contractor's net cost, plus contractor's set fee) doesn't mean he gets to decide where his costs come from. That is the consumer's purview in a cost plus contract.