duodeluxe-
Point well made. This also applies to automobile parts house vs OEM car dealers.
I USED to think people like Auto Zone, O'Reilly's, etc were less expensive on NEW parts than my local Ford dealer. By dumb luck I went to the Ford dealer because all the independents in my area did not have teh part instock & much to my surprise the Ford dealer had the parts & was less expensive.
Plus, I can be rest assurred the parts have the latest Engineering updates - dealers have to scrap the parts espically if the update is safety related. Don't get that warm fuzzy feeling with an independent. Been buying my Ford parts needs from my local dealer ever since, of course I compare prices to the independents. If Ford is 10-15% higher I go with then - I'll pay the extra for that for the warm fuzzy feeling.
Had a lift truck customer in the plywood making industry with a fleet of 65 - 7k box car specials, 5 years old - they complained that my truck were no good ,they were buying 25 hydraulic pumps (Tyrone gear type)/month at $250 each. On further investigation the customer was buying a hydraulic filter that was cheaper for about $7/filter but it was a 40 micron rated element. Our OEM filter was $25 but was 10 micron rated. We gave them enough filter to change out his fleet - hydraulic pump usage went down to less than 10/month. He started buying OEM filet after that.