Is There a Price Difference Between Home Depot/Lowe's Quality of Whirlpool Refrigerators and a Locally Owned Store?

by Kari

I just happened upon your informative website. I had a question.

Is there a difference in quality of appliances, specifically a Whirlpool refrigerator, that you can buy at Lowe's vs. a dealer?

I was talking to an older gentleman at a locally owned store, he is not the owner, but has worked there awhile. He said that the reason places like Lowe's, Home Depot and Sear's can offer lower prices is because the appliances are made cheaper for them, therefore the quality is not as good.

Do you know if this is true? I'm looking to buy a 21.7 cu. ft. Whirlpool side-by-side refrigerator here in the next few days. They wanted $970 for a white one vs. Lowe's $899 minus 10% off to come to $810. A difference of $160.

Thank you for any help that you can provide.

Answer:
While anything is possible, it seems very doubtful as the volume of appliances these large stores go through would make the overall quality of a brand seem very poor. Basically there would be more problems with a brand than good experiences.

Our interpretation of why these larger stores tend to be cheaper has to do more with the volume of product that they sell. They also have a huge reach so for most manufacturers it is worth their while to come down in price to make sure that their products/brand is accessible almost everywhere.