Paul, I do agree that price is not a minor issue, especially in this economy. I think it could put smaller nurseries in a bind though, isn't that right? Someone posted that nurseries need the support of their customers to stay in business. I can see that point too. I am willing to give support to nurseries and I can adjust my gardening to try to do that. I don't want to give support to a nursery that is not meeting me half way though, and not keeping in mind that all their customers are effected by the economy too and trying to save them money as much as possible. Trying to manipulate me into buying a hanging plant that costs $50. by using a very popular plant only in that hanging basket and eliminating the less expensive six packs of annuals, doesn't make me feel so supportive. I was told that the nursery that went out of business last year was spending what sounded like a small fortune for oil. The owner had been having health issues too, so that made it difficult to just keep up let alone be innovative and in the end, he needed to let it go. Yes, you are correct, changing an existing greenhouse to solar may be very expensive. Constructing one from scratch to begin with might be cost effective in the long run. Ken, I think you may have missed the point I was trying to make about plants not being watered at a box store etc. I wasn't complaining about the lack of expertise at caring for plants there, or expecting any, but a business that allows such losses of their inventory and then passes it along to us. mxk3....yes, I could express some of my dissatisfaction to management at more of these nurseries, but I have already done that at the large nursery that I don't like to shop at, with no effect. Sometimes I think that most people, companies included, don't really want to hear complaints or suggestions and are not very open to doing anything differently then they are doing them. I do respond though to a company that expresses an interest in what their customers have to say.

There are times when I seek out the little guy, and times when I buy stuff at box stores. I try to keep it in balance. Sometimes Goliath surprises you with his compassion, and other times David pisses you off with his arrogance. Here are a few examples: 1)Weed wacker--good dealer purchase Had my eye on a Husqy 223L trimmer, which Lowe's had for $299. We have a small engine shop here in Jacksonville (Cooper's), which primarly sells Snapper, Husqvarna and Stihl. I figured I'd stop in, and if he were even within 10% of the Lowe's price, I'd buy from him. Turns out he undercut Lowe's by $30, and he now contiunes to get my business. He insisted that I take it outside and test it out--otherwise how would his trimming get done? I always support the local little guy when I can, of course, in Carolina, Lowe's is the local little guy compared to Home Depot. 2)Used John Deere--sour dealer purchase I recently "brokered" a purchase of a JD 265 from a reputable JD dealer (Bombergers Store, Litiz, PA) for my Dad, from three states away. It was a trade-in which was still configured for snow removal. We bought it for just over $1500, with plow, deck and snowblower (installed). My father has never owned a large garden tractor, and is not familiar with the lift system. I knew he'd be excited to take his new tractor up to the property and start mowing as soon as he got his hands on it. Since I obviously wouldn't be there to help him out, I didn't want him to have to skin his knuckles and get his blood pressure up swapping the blower for the deck before he got to use it, so I asked Bombergers if they could swap out the deck before the pickup time five days away. The salesman's response was "For the price this thing's going out of here, I'm not really interested in swapping the deck. We've got a lot to do for OUR customers this week. I'm mechanically inclined and it would take me at least an hour." So I asked him if I were to pay for the full $180 servicing (which includes leveling the deck), would he swap the implements out then? He agreed. Then he called me Friday at 5pm (tractor to be picked up Saturday at 10am) and said they did the service but left the blower on because they decided that wasn't worth their time. Getting really tired of being jerked around, I asked how much to swap the blower for the deck? $100. Fine. So the next morning my Dad picked up the mower, ready to cut, oblivious to the hassle and mugging I'd endured. That weekend I did some grading for my neighbor, going from deck->tiller->blade->deck in a single day, no swap taking more than 10 minutes (same system). The more I thought about it, the more I fumed. By Bomberger's standards, I'd just done $300 worth of labor just in configuring the tractor. I sent the manager an email saying they have one day to get back to me via phone or email to explain the circus that was the previous week--specifically why they didn't do a job we'd agreed on before calling me on a Friday night and demanding another Franklin note--or they could expect negative feedback on eBay. The negative feedback threat was a bluff, actually. Swapping the equipment wasn't in the terms of the sale, so I couldn't ethically destroy their 100% positive feedback for being A-holes for a somewhat separate issue. Monday morning the manager emailed me his phone number, and said he would like to refund the $100 deck swap fee, as he agreed this was outrageous. He also politely scolded me for implying in my email that his techicians were less than skilled mechanics. He's right; I don't know them. For all I know, each of them may have completed the 8th grade with a passing average. The whole time they kept referring to what they do for "their" customers. I'm assuming they mean the people who buy new $7,000 mowers, because apparently spending $1,800 on used equipment doesn't get you into the club. My Dad lives an hour away and could very well have become one of the elite few "Bombergers Customers." But after hearing about what I'd went through to get them to swap the attachments, it's a fair bet he will never seek that status. 3) Table saw--good box store purchase The Craftsman folding table saw I've had my eye on for a year, with sliding miter and built-in router table (#21829) finally went on sale this weekend, from $450 to $350. After reading the Sears Ad in the Sunday paper I grabbed my two year old and went for a ride. As I went to check out, I noticed a ball-bearing chest (#61805/61809) set also heavily discounted. Unfortunately, due to the hot price, they had sold out of them. "Okay, so how much for that one?" The sales guy looked it over... "How's 15% off sound?" Sounds like I'm going to need to stow the third row seat to make it home... Since my credit card doubles the mfg warranty, I wanted to pay for the saw first, then pay cash for the chest. "Craftsman club member? 10% off today." Nope. So he pulls his card out of his pocket and discounts the chest another 10%. With the chest receipt came a $25 off coupon off my next purchase, which was the table saw... 20 seconds later. Once again he swiped his club card and knocked another 10% off. As I pulled out of the parking lot, I had a brand new $450 table saw on sale for $350, club discounted to $292; and a $450 tool chest combo, on sale for $370, floor model discounted to $277. Granted I didn't plan on spending $600 two weeks before we go on vacation, and I now will have to go without the 15gal tow-behind sprayer I'd planned to buy this season, but it wasn't a bad day for the consumer. The big corporations might not give a hoot about us, but every now and then you'll find someone working the register who does.

In my college days I worked at sears and back then they pointed out that their Kenmore line, or even Craftsman tractors were made by another company BUT to Sears specificatons...which were supposedly superior. That may have been the case then...likely not anymore! I never heard of Sharp making a model microwave for Sears and the same one (looks & features) but with crappier parts for WallyWorld. That sounds like a lot of overhead to make various models of the same microwave to different specifications for different stores...only to get a bad product reputation. I do believe manufacturers have different tiers of products and you will find cheaper product lines in WallyWorld, cheaper and moderate lines in Big Box stores and those plus more expensive models in Appliance Stores...if you can even find an appliance store anymore. I do believe that sometimes a Big Box will have a special version of a product that differs in no meaningful way from another BigBox. Ex BigBoxA sells a dehumidifier that comes with a hose...BigBoxB sells the same dehumidifier but theirs comes with a fragrance filter or something. This is more done to make it look like you are getting a better value than WallyWorld or to cover their butt on proce matches. Just my opinion...

We haven't reached the install phase yet, but are so far pleased with Precision Cabinets in Brentwood in CA. Worth a visit if they are in driving distance. You can see the factory and talk to them in person. They use CalDoors for the doors. They don't offer frameless, but do offer 'mini-frame' instead, where the face frame is just about the size of the wall width. Much more reasonable in price than any of the commission-based lines and completely custom sizing. Very knowledgeable and came to our house 3 times so far (and they haven't started building the cabs yet). Pointed out issues early -- told we needed to make a certain wall an inch longer and why, explained why certain cabinets were deeper than others (for fine details, like having the countertop next to an oven cab die into it instead of stick out), were particular about visual issues (e.g. in our freezer-pantry run they added the same spacing needed on the face frame to do the integrated panel door on one end to the cupboards on the other so it would look balanced), made adjustments 1/8 of an inch adjustments to a lazy susan corner cab to truly center the window after I failed to have the window installed to allow any wiggle room, work with our contractor to design special chaseways to anchor iron steel supports under counter to cabinets and cabinets to floor joists, measured our spice jars so they can build a special recessed wall cabinet to hold them, have experience installing panelled doors on integrated appliances and can do it on a second visit after initial install, etc, etc. They are pickier than me -- it's a great feeling. We were so pleased with their seeming expertise and attention to detail that we are having them do vanities and cabinets in both bathrooms as well. firsthouse_mp used them for their cabinets (with photos)