When I hear the words buys in bulk, such is why it is cheaper from hd sickens me. For the record, large retailers with a savvy buyer will buy their products at a lessor price than box stores every day. If it is a custom order that is. Box stores have weak buyers in general. There stock products is a different story sometimes. With that noted, the HD product is of lessor caliber, the twist factor gives that away. Twist is the most important in the specs you mentioned. Sorona appears to be a good product, we stock and sell a lot of it.....but remember...it has not stood the test of time that nylon has. Go with a better twist ratio. There silk product is off the sorona color wall under a different name. Remember, retailers dont sell rose bushes, toilets, or rubber hoses....and they are damned proud of it. Good Luck.

Thanks, Echo. We actually ended up going with the local guy. We got quotes from Costco, HD and a local family owned store. Costco's quote was ridiculous. They were the most expensive on installation, with extra charges for just about everything, including a random $10.00 MISC charge, which even the sales guy couldn't explain. The local guy had one charge for the install, which was fully baked with rip up and removal, furniture moving, steps, binding, etc. No separate itemized charges. His entire install was less than Costco's basic install before all the Costco extras. The local guy was also able to beat HD's price on everything but the Silk III (lower twist), and we elected not to go with it because we wanted the better carpet. Another item I thought was interesting was that local guy was able to get the Mohawk spec sheets which cross-referenced HD's and Costco's Mohawk carpets to the Mohawk styles he sold. So, we knew we were comparing to apples to apples. Neither Costco nor HD could do that for us. In fact, the salesperson at HD didn't even know Mohawk put out a spec sheet on the carpet. The install is scheduled for next week but so far we have been happy with the price, knowledge and customer support provided by the local guy. He says he has been using the same installer for 8 years so hopefully all will go well with the install.

I am proud of you and I am sure that you went with the right store. It sounds like the store you are dealing with cares a whole bunch about your business and that is half of the battle. Good Luck and enjoy that Smart strand.

Bumping up this thread.

I'm really peeved about the way carpet manufacturers and retailers try to keep customers in the dark so they can be ripped off out of ignorance.

I'm planning to get Mohawk's Smartstrand, but Mohawk refuses to release any real information so customers can compare their different lines. You have to go to the retailers, with no way to be sure they're telling the truth about what they offer.

Apparently customers are supposed to drive around for miles to different dealers and comparison shop, with no way to know if they are ripping you off.

There are some products that seem to exist just for scamming customers, and carpeting seems to be one of them.