scubaspew - I agree completely. Another sad fact about the big box stores is that they are so large, they can essentially control the cost of the product from their supplier. Suppliers will do anything to lower their costs enough to be able to sell their product to the large chain stores. Which typically means that they end up closing US factories and outsourcing. On average, 10% of the goods imported to the US by China are sold by Walmart - that's about $25 billion/year in goods imported from China to Walmart alone. There are many conflicting reports of what that means in terms of US manufacturing jobs lost, but the smallest figures indicate over 200,000.
Big box stores also get a ton of Government subsidies...free or reduced-price land, infrastructure assistance, property tax abatements or discounts, sales tax rebates, low-interest tax-exempt loans etc., because they are big enough to push for it.
I'm not saying never shop at one of the big stores, also not saying I've never shopped there. Just trying to point out that shopping there isn't always the best choice. But heck, ya, sometimes there are deals to be had.
Poor dsmooth .... all this over a couple clowns. LOL