Did you ever wonder WHY the faucets and other items that you purchase at the Big Box stores cost less? If you believe the ads, it is because of their massive buying power and it is. The Big Box stores buy in quantity, and they can dictate price to the vendor.
That does not mean you are getting the same product!! If a chain store offers to buy a huge quantity of faucets at a given price, more often than not, the vendor goes back and tries to figure out how to make the product, so it looks like the vendor’s regular product but meets the price.
In this picture, the faucet on the left is a faucet offered by ANO, Inc. The one on the right is a faucet that was purchased at a chain Big Box store. On display, the faucet looks identical to the ANO product. The display shows only the faucet and not the pop-up drain assembly. If you purchase the faucet at the Big Box store, you do not know that the drain system is entirely plastic until you get it home and open the box.
Drain from Big Box Store
Drain from ANO faucet
This faucet is not unique. Many of the major brands create versions of
their faucets for the Big Box stores. The Big Box version of the faucet can be pounds lighter than the regular product produced for plumbing supply houses that understand quality.
And if you think you can beat the system by buying online, online you do not know which version of the faucet you are getting because the cheaper items (drain systems and interior parts you do not see) are not displayed on the websites.