The primary appeal of the big box retailer, for me, is that I can buy things there at 7am, 9pm, on Saturday evening, or on Sunday. Otherwise I'd prefer to have nothing to do with them unless I have to. There are times when, whether for reasons of necessity or impulse, that I want to buy *something* now. Home Depot has gotten some business from me for that reason. However, I prefer dealing with the local shop that knows what it is doing. I spend thousands per year at my saw shop, and a fair bit at the lawnmower/snowblower/generator shop, too. It took a number of years to find shops I was comfortable dealing with, though. Reasons follow: 1. I want a shop to actually have stuff in stock when I show up to buy. New units, parts, etc., should be ready to go. 1a. If you have to order something, let me place my "order" over the phone. I will NOT drive to you to tell you to order something that I have to drive back to pick up later, because that adds no value for me. It is, instead, a waste of my time. 2. Have hours beyond 5pm. Even 5:30 can help, but a night or two per week of 7pm would be appreciated. 3. Make sure your sales staff really knows their stuff and recognizes that some customers actually know more than they do. Quoting brochures is useless, and if you've never put any time in on the machines you're selling, well, maybe you should. 4. Service machines brought to you promptly. Nothing should sit in the shop for more than a week. My saw shop in particular is good about getting stuff back up and running within a day or two, since their commercial clients require it. 5. Stay abreast of what "enthusiasts" are doing with the equipment you are selling. I once purchased a lawnmower from a shop that also sells Stihl. The owner was nice enough to bring the mower out to my car, and he started checking out my Stihl 066 and turned critical as he launched into a critique of my improper chain filing technique, carrying on about how nobody knows how to sharpen chain anymore, how my cutters were all beat up, etc. In point of fact the chain was square-filed race chain with the back of the cutter removed, the top of the tie straps relieved for chip flow, etc. His ignorance was excusable, but his attitude was not. I don't shop there anymore.

Boy, did I get deleted? I cant find my posted experience at the big stores. I went to Lowes and all of their bulbs are bloomed and done IN the boxes, at $8.98 a box! No markdown. Then I went to Target and I manage to get 2 RedLion huge bulbs in great shape, for $7 total!, in a jute bag, unique. Both have 2 bloom stalks peeking out of the bulbs. The ones that they put on sale in their weekly ads, in ceramic pots and soil for $7 each were all bloomed out in the boxes and looked like Lowes bulbs, basically dead in the box. Talk about a rip off. Some 'Sale'...$7 plain old Red Lion,Minervas, all bloomed out in the boxes,and the bulbs starting to rot in the boxes. Luckily I am not 'hoarding Papilios from all over the USA,from EBay. I am getting 3 HUGE ones now. The first one arrived yesterday, with a peeking bloom stalk,over 24cm,and rock hard AND a bulblet on it! That was a great buy. The next one says the bulb is 32cm! I won it last night. I tripled checked with the seller about the size, I never had one THAT big. She promised me it is that big! And it is forced and ready to bloom, at least 1 stalk is showing now. I managed to get it for less than the huge one that arrived already. And that one is beautiful. Then I have a 3rd one coming, at 22-24cm with a bud stalk peeking out as well. Getting them from all over the USA. Some say they are the 'new' type that have 4 blooms per bloom stalk, instead of only 2 flowers. And I bought an 'EverGreen' from Park Seed! For only $10.69,plus $9 shipping! Half the price I was going to pay from a catalog. And then my big 'Green Dragon' bulb is suppose to be shipped this week. So i will have a flush of unusual colors and types in a few months. Plus two Red Lions with 4 bloom stalks, maybe right at Christmas. But the big store 'deals' are a joke! At least in Ft.Lauderdale. Be careful, open the boxes.

Lowes sells 7.7 oz tins. When I was there, they couldn't make up some of the paints I wanted. I am assuming it's because they mix them there and a few colors I had requested had too small parts of a colorant that couldn't be measured. Don't quote me on that, though. As mentioned above, SW has Quarts to Go for $5.00. Much better deal as you can paint a whole wall. Learn from my mistakes though and ask if the formula stays the same for a gallon. In my case, with Ivoire, it didn't. Also, if you are planning to use a different paint than the sample quart, like Cashmere, the formula will change again so when you have made your choice, try it in the paint and finish you have selected. In another post I just wrote that I love paint. I should amend that to having a love/hate relationship with paint. :)

I don't particularly rely on a store to provide me with repair work except for the immediate delivery of a product. I have Bosch appliances and I would contact an authorized Bosch dealer in my area or KA. Similarly my Apple computers and other devices are serviced by Apple or Apple service people once they are out of warranty - I've bought them from numerous places including mail order back in 1991 when I bought my first Apple Performa :-). @Lizzie - Hi there! My kitchen is finally finished but construction continued around me until fairly recently as odd stuff would happen - my washer dryer was a bit too deep for the closet so that had to be reframed. My hood was the wrong size and so that delayed finishing kitchen for a while because they didn't want to install cabinets on either side until the hood was put in - and didn't want to finish the backsplash etc. etc. etc. I am still not completely finished as they have to come back for various items on the "punch" list but it's livable except for the boxes which are still in the living area as I was a pack rat and I am still slowly going through stuff - and I have furniture I can't use and nobody wants :-( Apologies for hijacking the thread by responding to Lizzie but here are photos of the kitchen and dining area. I am really happy with the way it turned out and spending time (SO MUCH TIME) on houzz asking questions and reading threads helped me so much in terms of getting the best result possible. I worked with a very knowledgable designer but thanks to houzz, there was stuff that I asked for which she had never heard of like my toe kick step stools. It truly is correct that having the luxury of living in a space gives one a better understanding of what doesn't work in the space and what would make it work better because almost everybody has certain constraints that impact the design of the kitchen. In my case, I was working with a small urban kitchen in a high rise - the kitchen is 8' x 10' so I needed to expand functional storage. @Lizzie - here are a few pictures of my finished kitchen. To the left of the cooktop I have a Bosch side opening wall oven with a microwave drawer below it and a VERY shallow tall cabinet with shelves. It is in front of a concrete support beam so it is about one can deep. This is the area behind my dining area. The tall cabinet to the left can be seen in the first photo. There is a door on the side and so the KA mixer and Cuisinart can just be slid out when I need it. The tall cabinet to the right is my broom closet. Excuse the mess on the counter as this was taken just when I moved in. This shows the tall cabinets in my dining area better in terms of the appliance storage and how it relates to the kitchen counters. I had the interiors painted blue but the shelves are clad with blue laminate and the sink cabinet is also clad in blue laminate for easier cleaning. This is the sink wall. The kitchen sink is disproportionately large (36" for the space) but because it's a ledge, it is super functional since the grad which you can see to the right of the sink gives me very functional "counter" space. I can store it on the bottom of the sink and I also got the cutting board. There is a sponge caddy to the extreme left which is a narrow removable shelf which is handy for sponges and other wet stuff. My KA refrigerator is on the right peeking through. It is counter depth but not integrated but I "cheated" the look by having my lower cabinets made slightly deeper than the standard 24"; having a panel on the left side and having the cabinet maker clad the sides that protrude with matching wood. With a counter depth, you need to have it protrude slightly so the hinges are clear of obstructions but since I had those parts clad in matching wood, it fools the eye. Not part of my kitchen ha ha but this is one half of the wall unit in my office/den area. Since I have an open concept space, it relates to the kitchen cabinetry in terms of color as well as having slight Art Deco style elements. This was my sad kitchen prior to the remodel. Again apologies for taking this thread in a direction completely unrelated to the original question.