lucille: It's always wise to price compare, but one needs to also check the quality of said comparison. Like in your case, you may want to check the gauge of steel being used, galvanized or not, spacing, height, total shipping charges, etc.

Kevin

Kevin, same product, same company, exact same roll of fence. The only difference was store location.

Ahh.. good deal.

That's funny. I've done that before with Auto car parts(and other things) from the dealers. One Chevy dealer 10 miles away from another sold me an oil pan for like half the price as the other.

Kevin

I work in pricing at a grocery store chain. Our stores have different pricing groups depending on where they are. So the milk in my town is something like 50-75c more expensive than the store I work in 13 miles away, for instance. I hadn't thought home warehouse stores were like that but it is not surprising. So the more metro stores are actually cheaper but pay higher wages than the more rural stores which are higher priced with cheaper wages. Go figure.

Some times they do it to drive the competition crazy. This happen more with gas stations, grocery stores, between Lowe and HD. They watch each other's specils and regular pricing.

Sometimes they maks a mistakes in pricing too. Few days ago I went to HD to buy a new battery for my Ryobi drill. On the shelf it said $29.95 but at the cashier it rang $9.95. Good mistake. hahaha

Some items at some places could just be an old lot number. They jack up the price on a new lot number but rather than go to the trouble of repricing they just let the old one sell at the old price.

I have two Lowes that I visit about 15 miles apart. During the winter I frequently drive to the further one because in the they have the good sense to mark down their bags of composted manure half price when sales are slow and the other Lowes does not. Even with gas prices being high, when I bring the pickup truck and buy in bulk this can make a BIG difference. I might save $30 minimum on just by driving a few extra miles. I use alot of it during the year so I'll often stockpile it in winter when it's cheap and then start using it when the weather begins to warm.

I have found this at HD before. I noticed it when shopping for bricks to add to my garden. I had it set in my computer that my local store was the one 12 miles from my house south, but ended up at the one 12 or so miles north. They were $.20 more expensive per brick. That is some mark up when they were only supposed to be $.47 to begin with.

I found someone and asked, showed them my smartphone with the other HD price showing.... I was willing to drive back in the other direction or get them another day for that price difference. They simply matched the price. They say they will match their competitors price why wouldn't they match their own!?!

It is rather annoying though that you can't trust the price in front of you though. It is hard enough wondering if you are getting the best price from chain to chain, but from store to store is just a PITA!

The thing is that for small quantities and small dollar amounts it is does not make sense to me to run around and shop around for the best price. But for major shopping it pays to shop around.
Say, I needs 10 bags of soil or mulch and the price difference is under a Dollar, I will not be bothered with looking for the lowest price. With the gas prices often you end up saving pennies and wasting a lot of time.
JMO

If you have a Tractor Supply nearby, they have good prices on fencing and good variety.

The fencing is so heavy duty my wire cutters could not handle it when I went to start the project today. Actually heavy enough so I'm going to make tomato cages with some of it. Have ordered bolt cutters :)