Supply house VS. Big Box stores

A few months ago, I had an electrician friend of mine come help with wiring the shop. He had bought a lot of the stuff from his electric supply house. We ended up needing to change something and I ran up to the big box orange store to get the same exact thing as what he had bought, but it was $35 cheaper than what he got from the contractor only supply house. He was kind of bent about it at the time and he went and got his money back.

So today I went to Locke supply that we use for work, and thinking it might save a few bucks, bought some plumbing supplies I needed. Just checking now that I'm home and looking up a comparable water heater and fittings for chits and giggles.

Locke Supply 50 Gal 6 yr warranty 220V electric water heater = $568.21
Home Depot 50 Gal 6 yr warranty 220V electric water heater = $519.00


Locke Brass 1/2" sweat to PEX A barb = $3.13
Home Depot "" "" "" = $1.98 (not in stock)

So apparently, contractors are paying MORE than what box stores are charging. Might keep that in mind next time you wonder about that $800 bill to swap out a water heater.

What a rip!

Contractors get a better discount when they buy there over us every day people

General public is not allowed to purchase at the supply houses. I bought all my stuff under the boss mans account. With 600 apartments, we hold our own in buying stuff.

If it weren't for the restocking fee, I'd go get my money back too.

Okie dokie I stand correct
I buy from our local contractors supply store. I was there today buying a brass union

Supply houses have always been more expensive. I think they are better for contractors because the employees there usually know way more about the job than employees at HD or Lowes, but you pay for that help and knowledge.

Incorrect:

Supply houses are always much cheaper than box stores, They have their price for the general public which is a tad cheaper, and they have their prices for regular customers which is about 30% cheaper.

Which supply house doesn't sell to general public?

Don't worry Home Depot just hasn't marked up their Water Heaters yet due to volume buying, plus I think they stock Rheem basic consumer brand which is a few grades below the Bradford White that is sold at Lockes.

Locke has had to deal with a manufacture shortage/price increase like 3 times since August, In August you could pick up the same Water Heater at Locke for around $375.

supply house buying depends on quantity a lot too, go in and buy one water heater and it's one price

go in and buy 12 water heaters and it's gonna cost less.

supply house will have all the specialty stuff that homey despot won't.

I have used locke a lot and always got treated good and the pricing was good.

Look at y'all, trying to justify why a supply house is higher than a box store. It still comes down to buying power. The big box stores purchase so much more quantity from manufacturers that they can negotiate better prices.

An upside to the supply houses is you can usually arrange to have supplies delivered to the job site and other benefits like that.

That's how they take em on canned hunts and guided fishing trips

Not the ones around here. They're more expensive. I just had an electrical contractor buy me a bunch of stuff from the local supply house. I could have saved around 20% buying from Home Depot. Plumbing was very similar.

Many items are the same but not everything is equal. Many of the bigbox store items are lower quality. Cat 5/6 wire at Lowes or HD is copper clad aluminum, what I get at the supply house is copper. I used to be able to buy most of my wiring supplies at HD, now HD carries knock-off brands.

Home Depot sucks. But, it can be cheaper on some things, because they are made CHEAPER for Home Depot. HD has Milwaukee tools with skus that you can’t even BUY from Milwaukee direct. They like ok the same, but they are cheaper made.

Well you aren’t getting a water heater changed out for less than 1500 these days, many are 2k plus. The reality is wholesale distributors have been getting near monthly price increases the past year- big box stores sign annual deals that don’t allow that- they also place massive orders and warehouse the product. Another factor is the quality difference- the water heater is not the same quality even when it’s the same brand and appears the same to the naked eye. I could go on- this is what I do everyday.

And I'm not saying I'm right...just what I've always been led to believe. Maybe I'm wrong and places like Johnstone/Barsco/Ferguson do sell to the public. I honestly believed they were for licensed contractors and businesses only.


And yeah, guess it was sticker shock. And I remember buying those Bradford Whites much cheaper before. At least they had most of what I was looking for.

Milwaukee doesn't have a contractor grade tool, what you buy at HD is same as you buy at supply house

Bradford Whites have doubled in price since June 2021

They haven’t doubled since June, but darn near doubled over the past 12 months. Supply issues are getting evened out- demand has also slowed a bit. Wholesale was on monthly allocation for the basic 30-50 residential tanks, but that has been lifted in the past few weeks even.

Johnstone now Fissco and Johnson Supply, barsco, morrison, Bakers none of them should be selling to public. If Contractors knew they were selling to public they would take their business down the road in a heart beat. Yeah we will sale maybe some air filters or grills or something along them lines, but we will NOT sale any parts or equip. to the public.

It’s worth paying a little extra to not have to deal with idiot homeowners at Home Depot.

Exact same thing my FIL says. He does remodeling in Highland Park and some higher-end areas of Frisco

It's been crazy trying to figure out what we're doing for the water heater now with 3 baths. One 40-gallon tank isn't gonna run it and I didn't want to pay for electricity to keep two big heaters going all the time. Finally found a new in box rinnai tankless RU 199 ip 199k BTU on facebook marketplace last week and snagged it for $700. That should run everything pretty easily and cost way less in propane than the electricity we would have used with 2 tanks. I couldn't believe how much tank heaters were going for.

I’ve had 2 Rinnais in my house for 14 years- they have been flawless.

Same goes for the " name brand " gas mowers..

2 of the 10gpm here, second set, first ones went about 15 yrs. and were still workin good when replaced. part of sale was they had to be replaced.

Our Rinnai has been great through a year and a half. The one we had at the last house lasted 10 years before we sold the house.

I have bought tons of stuff from electric supply house, fuergesons plumbing and grainger. Now that said grainger might be the most expensive place in the world. I use that for emergency type purchases.

Morrison supply sells to public all day every day and have forever, I have bought lots there. You walk in tell them what you want, swipe a credit card and walk out.

Lol the mower myths again. They do not sell cheaper mowers at Home Depot / Lowe’s. It’s the lower line of brands but you can get the same mower at the equipment dealers.

There are so many reasons we buy 90% of our supplies from a small locally owned lumber yard over lowes or HD. Probably the biggest is getting things delivered at the drop of a hat. I can text an order for a roof at 4:30pm and it be delivered and on the roof by 9am the next morning.

I feel like we have a closer relationship with the manufactures also whenever something goes wrong, or we need a certain product we're not stuck going to the customer service desk.

I was quoted over the phone $2,200 per heater last week for Bradford White tank swap. Couldn't believe it

Grainger has retarded high prices.

Grainger commits grand theft daily.

He doesn't happen to drive a white Ford Transit Connect does he?

I bought an electric 50gal Bradford White at Locke Friday with my wholesale account and it was $421