Hotline -
No apology needed for me, I took no offense. I will agree that the big boxes are running the little guys out of business, but that's not all together a bad thing. Most mom and pop hardware stores, not supply houses, are not competitive.
I went to an Ace Hardware store the other day to buy 3 GFCI outlets and a Cutler Hammer 20 amp double pole breaker. The GFI's were 17.50 each and the breaker was $24 for a total of $76.50 plus tax. At HD this would've cost $31.50 plus tax. And my supply house would be $33 plus tax. Yes, I paid the outragous price at Ace because time is money and it would've taken an extra 45 minutes to go to HD and back or over an hour to the supply house.
I hate to lose the convience of the small hardware store, but the big box business model just works better. And as long as you have more than one big box, prices will stay low.
