I bought a $500 rug from the local Lowe's once. When I got it home I
noticed that it had several flaws [unraveling border, mistakes in the
pattern]. I took it back for exchange. They had another just like it
so I took it home. I looked at it and it also had similar flaws. I
took this one back for exchange but they were out so we went to another
nearby Lowes. This time I asked them to unroll it at the store before I
bought it. Sure enough, it was also messed up. They didn't have
another one of the rugs so I drove across town to a different store.
Again, I asked the man to show me the rug first. This one look OK but
not perfect. I could live with the problems though so I bought it. At
that point I asked if they were selling seconds (mildly defective items)
and he said no. I don't really believe him. I think they are indeed
selling rejects.

But anyway, a couple weeks later I go to the first Lowes and go look at
the rugs just for the heck of it. Sure enough, the two defective rugs
that I returned were right back on the shelf. I could tell because I
had to wrap them in my own plastic. This is after I made a point to
tell them that the rugs were defective.

Moral of the story... don't buy a rug from Lowes unless you look at it
first.

But I do have to say that they never gave me any hassle about returning
the rugs or having them take them out of the plastic and show them to me
before buying them.