I assume you mean Grainger? Anyway, I've used Grainger and McMaster-Carr many times, always great. Wandering Home Depot for hours looking for something is such a waste of time.

I'll give a shout out to my fav plumbing site, Famous PlumbingSupply. Been using them for more than 10 years. They also have a lot of good info for DIY plumbing.

Waterbug - Thanks

Very often a store simply does not have the entire companies inventory in stock or even available to special order. Even if there are two of the same stores in one town they may not carry the same things or charge the same price.

On a recent house re-plumb I had to get PEX tubing at one Lowes and the fittings at another Lowes. It wasn't that each store was out, they just didn't carry the items. When I asked why they carried the tubing but not the fittings he just shrugged his shoulders and seemed puzzled why I should think they would carry both tube and fittings.

A third Lowes carries CPVC, but none of the others.

Winnelson is another who will sell to the public. I have a business acct at both Grainger & Winnelson. At least a couple of my employees stop by Winnelson every day so I phone my order in & have em give it to the next one to stop by. Very convenient as I work 40 miles from home (read that 40 mi from ANYthing) and I get same day service. And yup, I'm a bit spoiled.

@ waterbug guy. I hear ya. I once bought a lawn tractor + extra's at HD only to discover much later that none of the 3 stores w/in a 50 mi radius stocked (or could even order!)belts. Part wasn't in their *system*. Yeah. I'll spare ya the details, but suffice it to say the one nearest me now stocks em *chuckle* Still not in their system but they buy them from their contracted repairman. Apparently I wasn't the only one who had issues. Awesome store mgr at this location. Rare.indeed.

On a positive note, the nearest Lowe's actually has a licensed plumber employed as a full time dept head. Ran into him one day when I was diy-ing a pond addition. Almost dropped my teeth when he understood what I was doing & helped me leave with all the correct parts in one trip. I actually know his schedule & only shop for pond related stuff when he's working. Methinks he's the SOLE employee in the co who lends a smidgen of truth to their commercials. Love that kid!

This place has black pvc fittings, including black quick release fittings for flexible hose. I re-did the plumbing in my pond this spring and loved their selection. They even went out into their warehouse to make sure I was ordering the right connections and that everything would work together.

Here is a link that might be useful: Conservation Technology

livetogardenbypond, I had never heard of Conservation Technology but was very impressed by their website. They are mainly selling stuff that WILL fit together. They were originally a roof liner supplier and have broadened into ponds as well as water collection and green roofing which is lawns and other gardens on the roof.

Anyway, I just called them out of curiosity. Very helpful. They seemed to have good shipping for liner. They were guaranteeing the quality and pond safe. Personally, I don't care but for those who do, that might be a selling point.

I had originally used Webbs water gardens website as the liner ship cost was lower than some places at the time.