You may want to get a bit more specific about what you're looking for.

Chandeliers for DR, foyer, bedrooms, and vanity lights for bathrooms. Thanks for asking.

Homeschoolmom2,
I'd been thinking that I'd be able to find the best prices on the internet. Well, we just finalized our lighting choices at the supply house the GC recommended so I went looking for internet pricing for the same fixtures.

With the GC's discount, the prices we can get from the local place is far lower than any of the internet sources! For identical fixtures, it can be 1/4 to 1/3 lower. And I cannot find comparable fixtures that are any lower either, if I were willing to take fixtures that I don't like as well.

Our GC uses Ferguson's - they are a chain, but I am not sure how many stores they have. See if your GC has a preferred local source and try them.

Oh, and here is the nice part - the lighting specialist had a good feel for what we'd need and she was familiar with the products and the local codes. So she knew where fixtures, switches and smoke detedtors were required, for instance. It saved us a lot of researching and going back and forth with the GC and his electric sub. Same for plumbing - the plumbing specialist at Ferguson's could answer most of our questions, but when he couldn't, he knew which plumber our GC uses, called and got a quick answer. Both had suggestions for where we could save money and get good quality items, too.

If you are acting as your own GC, see if local suppliers will give you the discount they give to other GCs. In our case, the GC price is 30% or more off the warehouse price!

Frankly after reading stories here about late orders, bad deliveries, poor customer service, I am glad I found the lights (and plumbing fixtures) I want without having to deal with all the hassles. And since it will be on my GC's account, he or his subs can easily schedule ordering, delivery, and all those details.

Anne

Here is a link that might be useful: Ferguson Plumbing and Building Supply

There are many excellent local merchants who are eager to help you. In another post about recessed can, I made a reference to Lamps Plus. We are in Dallas but I think this company is a chain. They have many types of electrical fixtures on display and working so you can see what they look like.

I got all my recessed lighting, undercabinet lighting and overcabinet lighting parts from a local merchant. After the fact, I checked the individual prices of each item (a combination of Juno, Kichler, Nora and Lightolier) against the prices on a couple of websites that are known to be reliable and relatively inexpensive, and found that with only one minor exception, the prices I got locally were the same or less than on the internet -- the one difference was about $6.00 more. And it was easy to make exchanges, order more when needed, see their lighting lab for colors, types, etc. Just a thought.

We also went with a local lighting supply store. What I found invaluable was working with their lighting designer who helped us chose the right fixture for each area. If left for us to choose, the fixtures wouldn't be near as wonderful as they are. We get lots of compliments on our fixtures (Hinkley, Candela, World Imports, Hubbardton Forge and Cristal). Their lighting designer was free, made house visits to be sure everything was being installed correctly and at the right heights, and was available by phone anytime for questions.

I'm thinking that the relative merits of local vs. internet are very dependent on where you live. I'm in a semi-rural midwestern town, the nearest dedicated lighting store is about 45 minutes away, they have no lighting lab to play with and the staff is not very knowledgable. That said, use it if you've got it.

In our area (Denver), there is the normal choice of The Home Depot, Lowes, Lamps Plus, Great Indoors, etc., but for higher quality and selection you have to go to an independent lighting showroom. The standard discount from the MSRP at a showroom should be 40%. That discount is usually offered to contractors, electricians, etc.. Usually the internet price will be in the 40% off area. The showroom is a great place to look, get the model numbers and then go on line to compare prices. Our local supplier is kind of fussy about having a PO from a contractor. That is until you mention that you can order on line at the same price. It is better to buy locally in case of damaged goods when opened. We had that happen with the new pendants for the kitchen. Was very handy to just drive over and get an exchange. It did not slow down the installation.

We have done enough buying at the best showroom in town that we now are in the computer at full contractor discount on anything we buy.

DP

We just finished building a 4875 sq. ft. updated southern georgian plantation style home. We ordered most of our lighting online. Lightingdirect.com and Lampsplus and ebay.
We purchased quoizel, maxim, Hinkley and spectrum. I can send pics if you like. We were very pleased with all of them.
the quoizel and Hinkley are my favorites. The quality of the shades(silk) and the beauty of the finishes were amazing.
Lighting direct had the best pricing and were so helpful.
The shipping time was excellent and we did not have any breakage!

Thank you very much to everyone for all your input. I am going to find out who our GC likes to use (he doesn't care where we get anything) and check them out and then check prices on the web. Thank you for the web sites as well!