Whether it is the same or not doesn't matter to many installers. We won't waste our time taking the chance. Personally I would never work with box store material. I choose to support actual professional tile stores as do many others.

So you are saving $1.14 / s/f If you're tiling a average backsplash say 35s/f you will save $40 bucks. A tub surround 70s/f =$80. You must ask yourself is the risk of lessor quality and losing your installer worth saving such a small amount of money? Also consider the risk of a poor installation now that you are using a unknown installer. In the case that you are a DIY'er you may save $40 but the professional advice & assistance a Tile store provides has great value along with eliminating the risk of lessor quality. IMO

I'm also aware of the scenario bossyvossy described. Whether it applies to your particular tile is unknown. There are a lot of unknowns dealing with box stores.

I guess “inferior” is a debatable term. It is quite possible that on certain products, the box store version is good enough. For certain items I never skimp and get the very best I can possibly get, and on others I focus on competitive pricing. People’s priorities vary.

3-5% cull rate vs a 30% cull rate. Lots of box store “deals” like that. Yup. Know plenty of folks on the inside. And you pay higher labor too. Because someone has to cull.

If you buy exactly the same tile (manufacturer, model, color, etc.) from HD or from any other supplier, and it is not identified as a "second", it will be an identical product. The suggestion that manufacturers make a different quality product (with the identical model name/number) for the big box stores is basically an old wives tale. You will hear the same suggestion from plumbers who tell you that the only place to buy plumbing fixtures is from a plumbing supplier.

However, what you may find is that Daltile makes "subway tile" in different grades/quality levels, and the tile you find in HD may not be identical to the Daltile product available from another supplier. In some cases the model number is almost a complete match, but there are one or two characters that are used to distinguish the quality and price point. What you need to decide is whether the quality difference is something you can see, and whether its worth it to you to move to that cheaper product.

Bruce

Usually the item will have sku 1234567 and the box store will be Sku 1235567abc. Just enough of a diff. Also you can find the item at HD with diff sku than at Lowe’s but it looks the same. So most definitely YES, there are items made to box store specs but carrying natl brand name and not immediately apparent to consumer. I may be an OLD WIFE but this is not always a tale.

I called Daltile and they said it’s not necessarily seconds you’re getting from HD. It’s just that they can not control the different color variations you may get from different manufacturing lots. Home Depot receives from different distributors perhaps. They said it’s best to buy from specialty store because they have better control over this. I went to a specialty store and they told me the tile they had in stock was from one pallet. If I went back in a month or two, it’s possible there may be variation since that would mean a new pallet with potentially different color

Not necessarily seconds...that’s not very comforting.

as far as variations, I once needed to buy wallpaper to make a repair. The original had been purchased 20 years prior so seller warned me about discrepancies in manufacture run (in the case of paper, dye lot). Since I had no choice, I got the paper and the variation was almost imperceptible. So different manufacture dates is not the end of the world. But I would at least try to get it from same source. IOW, if orig. bought from Daltile, I’d go to Daltile again, instead of HD/Lowe’s. If you go to box store and get from Daltile catalog, probably OK and no danger of seconds or “box store quality” but if you can drive to Daltile store, I’d go there instead.