Lowe's & HD tend to carry products (not just lights) that are on the lower end. Specialty lighting stores tend to carry more mid and upper end products.

Be sure you are comparing apples to apples and not oranges.
Look at the brand and product number - If Lowes' HD does carry the same brand/product number then you may save $$ shopping there.

I agree with the others. We went with a specialty lighting store recommended by our builder. Thinking this is going to be a huge budget buster, but because of the 50% discount they give the builders they were cheaper than any prices we found on the internet. Beautiful lighting too.

Buy lighting from the pros instead of mass marketing box stores. Every lighting fixture I have bought from Home Depot has failed, except one track light that still comes on from time to time.

Around here, popular showrooms tend to have quite a markup and offer 30, 40, or 50 percent discounts,, depending on whom is buying and what they are buying it for. .

Or frequently sort of sell the customer at the full retail price, if they need to bill and deliver as per arrangements with mr GC. or EC. and will offer quite a bit of help selecting and upsell hopefully over the $125 at retail fixture allowance that gets you just barely the essentials, which could and most likely will be the cheapest things someone could find in a catalog.
what you got in a candlabra bulb modern style chandalier in the 20 to 25 buck range... that'll work. Now what you have in a two bulb bedroom fixt for under $5. ... etc.

Contrarion opinion:

We bought all our lights at Lowes and Home Depot. We saved thousands and the quality is very good. Yes, we could've bought upper end fixtures at a specialty lighting store or online and paid tons more, but the way I see it, the lights are (at least) 9 ft. up and no one's going up there to inspect them.

The big box stores have a builder grade that is pretty crummy-- but even buying the most expensive fixtures at Lowes, we still only paid $2500 for the entire house.

We took our allowance and got what we feel to be nicer fixtures from Lowe's. We got 7 ceiling fans ($200 a peice) and still only went over budget by $200.

Our last house had all Lowe's fixtures and not a single one failed in 8 years.

If you don't buy the Chinese made house brand crap from either one of the big boxes, then you may be OK. You can still save some money on some national brands that are good quality. However, once you throw out the Chinese junk, the selection goes way down and you may not find the look you're going for.

On something that's 12' up in a foyer that I have to wrestle to get out the scaffolding just to change a bulb on, I want the best quality possible as I don't want to have to involve myself in a difficult or expensive replacement. For a kids room whose tastes will change overnight, something of a lesser quality may be in order. But, for the ones that are going to be there for the life of the home (like recessed lighting) I don't want to have to budget twice because I cheaped out the first time.

Thanks for the opinions guys. We still haven't decided what we are going to do but I've taken your input into consideration. I appreciate your time.

All of them are built to meet the same codes. Lighting stores are all about style, not substance.

That said, Lowes and similar only stock 'common denominator' fixtures that they can literally sell a million units of. If you want something off beat, you're going to have to go off the beaten path.

Maybe it makes more of a difference depending on how much houses are going for in different areas? Here, the higher end lights would go unnoticed for the most part and wouldn't add value to the house.

Perhaps in places where homes cost more, the upper end stuff is expected and lights from the big box stores would be a turn-off at resale.

We've never had a light fixture or fan from Lowes fail once we got one that worked, although we did get some with flaws that we returned.

Our problem is that by the time we shopped for lighting we didn't have enough time for the lighting stores to order, as they don't carry much stock. The best fixtures we got were from a lighting store, but we found most fixtures way overpriced even with builder discount.

I've been trading with the same lighting store for about 20 years now, mostly buying lamps. They told me that all the wiring is UL listed and the same wiring and lamp bases are in a $50. lamp as in a $500. lamp, because manufacturers want to maximize their profit and most buyers don't know about the working parts anyway. However, the store knows that the wiring is the same, but in a lamp the socket bases are all basic cheap stuff. So, for free--if you ask--they routinely upgrade the socket base on any lamp you buy there. They showed me the cheap and upgraded sockets. Costs them maybe $3. to do and now their lamp won't create an unhappy customer down the road.

Maybe it's the same with lighting fixtures. Any experts out there??

Our adult children are all in their starter homes and they all replaced lighting in their houses with home depot and lowe's. My husband has built a few spec houses and as used these same lights and never had a problem with them.
If I saw what I liked there I would buy them. In the house we live in now I have all lighting from a lighting store and I can just say except for the ceiling fans they are not worth the money we paid. Ceiling fans different story. The hunter ceiling fans have warped. Stick with cassablanca. They have come out with a builders grade which are just as nice but no bells and whistles.