The "true pros" (with registered business names and tax IDs) *may* do
better at a tile (or electrical, or plumbing) supply company. But those
of us who are simply trying to fix our own homes will likely pay "List
Price" at these institutions: i.e, waaay more than we would at the borgs.

Perhaps some of the stuff the borgs sell is inferior, but perhaps some
of it came off the same production line as the stuff at Joe's Tile
Supplies but simply got packaged and labeled differently (and priced
lower because the borgs buy in such huge quantities).

Even if Joe's Tile Supplies and the borgs have identical brand-name
items, it's possible that JTS pays more for them than the borgs sell
them for, so JTS can't help but sell them for a higher price still. (But
the "true pros" may not care about the higher price if the service is
better, because they're going to pass the higher price on to their
customers anyway.)

Perce


On 05/14/05 12:50 am Robert Allison tossed the following ingredients
into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

I'm realizing a key difference between pros and amateurs. Pros expect
the
merchants to screw up royally, and plan accordingly I guess.

Incorrect assumption. Pros don't buy their tile at borgs. We buy our
tile at tile suppliers and if the order gets screwed up, we get royally
****ed because we expect that they will do what they say.

Then we apologize for getting royally ****ed when we discover that the
error was on our side and they really gave us what we ordered.