People who dicker over a car price, and say they got "a deal" at the car showroom are kidding themselves. The auto manufacturers have a MSRP, and then they have a price they charge to the dealers. You can negotiate substantially below MSRP, depending upon the car (not so easy with e.g. a BMW), but the dealership is not going to let go of that car below what they are being charged by the manufacturer I completely agree with and fully expect in a functioning economy the latter part of this statement! I don't understand what alwaysfixin thinks is "a deal" but to me, a deal uses the going/average "market value" as the baseline. The point is to allow the market = consumers + retailers, to set their price. Both are driven by self-interest and the steady-state/nominal prices tends to settle out to where both the retailer and the consumer reach an equitable level of unease. I bought my car recently (a BMW, by the way) and while "our deal" is a small amount below MSRP, I have no misapprehensions that what I've paid for it is anywhere close to the manufacturer's or retailer's costs on the car or that my satisfaction comes from thinking I've that I squeezed either or both for all they're worth ... I'm happy coz we were going to buy this car anyhow, and now we got one for a bit less than we expected to pay based on the MSRP and the other 2 shops I contacted. Ergo, "I got a deal"! WHY did they give me this deal? I don't know - perhaps because the retailer I went with liked my name? perhaps because I bought my other BMW from them and have it serviced there every year anyhow and he guessesd (correctly) this car would be coming to them for service, too? Likewise, I expect something similar with appliance sales. I like what mschuma wrote. Look, relaxing price setting is going to a more fluid configuration but it is a "risk" for the consumer as much as it is a risk for the retailer. Still, it is pragmatic because it is market-determined pricing IF (and perhaps ESPECIALLY if) it does not involve subsidization of a product. If Subzeros are such awesome fridges that they should be priced at nominally $15K not this namby-pamby (but fixed) $10K setting such that the market supports that then I say Lead On, MacDuff! And if it means that cut-throat competition involves someone trying to undercut the next business by offering that fridge at $14.750K instead of the nominal $15K, well, that's the market speaking for you! Can you all agree that our appliance shops that are making "a living wage" at the 10K price should be able to limp along just fine at 14.75-15.25K??? C'est la "free market enterprise". I fail to see the pathetic part in any of this. There is no need to spare any sympathies for consumers who don't know how to budget their purchases and must buy $10K fridges when they don't have that money, but that is no sillier than dim appliance retailers who sell fridges for less than their costs on them. There is a certain Darwinian justice in allowing this crop of retailers to die out, isn't there?? I just do not see why so much business can conduct itself in an open market EXCEPT for high-end appliance retail. Weissman, edlakin, mschuma, what you all write makes sense to me. I don't understand why this is hard to comprehend.

@Jim Edgar I just took a peak at that link and wow that is very thorough. I promise to read more myself - but selfishly can you tell me where I should be looking//what is most important to deduce in terms of the lead testing? I see Signature says "some (but not all)" .. So assuming that is the issue? Comparatively - does something like Kingston Brass seem to check those boxes better? I see for them: Certified to Joint U.S./Canadian Standards. of Safety, Reliability & Durability (ASME A112.18.1CSA 125.1) Certified Lead-Free and Drinking Water safe. (ANSI/NSF 61/9)

Didn't even think of that, yayagal! I know the pic doesn't do it justice. But my mother, who is living with me now, and I were wowing all night last night, what a huge, and better, difference it makes. It makes the room feel, and look, much more open and clean, lighter (weight-wise), and the TV is at the perfect viewing heigh now. I had a very small LED TV before, 26", because I'm not a fan of the big TVs (although, that has changed. Ugh) and I kept it on a small side table and would move it around, esp. when I had rowdy dogs in the house. No more of that nonsense. The bigger (mom's) TV is safe and secure now, can stay where it is, and it no longer blocks the mirror. I also really like that it's open at the bottom, not covering the floor. Surprised by how much I like that difference. Yay!

I have a food subscription for my Tovala oven (so I'm guaranteed that there are two nights per week when we don't eat chips and ice cream for dinner) and, yes, one for my dog. Tovala is weekly, pup's is bi-monthly, both Fed Ex. Boxes are marked FOOD - keep refrigerated etc. My Fed Ex driver leaves them in the back side of the barn, about 1/8 mile from the house. If the door is down, because of inclement weather, packages may or may not get walked around the corner to the barn's "people door" that is covered by a roof. Last summer, I left a big standing sign asking for house delivery of a food package and the box was left next to it. Luckily, both vendors are good about notifying me of delivery. UPS comes up the driveway to the house. A couple weeks ago, I was in the barn when the Fed Ex driver made a delivery. She asked me a horse question, and it turned out she had just rescued a Belgian mare from an auction kill pen. I looked at photos, agreed the community that had dumped the mare was notoriously hard on their horses, and we had a lovely conversation. She still leaves packages in the barn but I'm going to guess it's tougher to deliver for Fed Ex than UPS?