Cheap home furnishings and appliances?

I went to buy a new refrigerator & haggling over the price. I asked the salesman if he hired the cheapest contractor for storm repairs. He just stared at me with a blank look & said nothing. I told him I do home improvement and many homeowners are defrauding their insurance company with fake invoices & then getting cheap bids from illegals to do the work. I thanked him for his time and then turned and walked out.

Next I went to the furniture store and picked out $4000 of furniture and negotiated the price down to $3500. I told the salesman that I've been in business 30 years, but couldn't afford it because my customers were selling out to the cheapest contractor.

Next I went to the office and cancelled three phone book ads. Next I cancelled two cell phones.
Next I cancelled an extra telephone landline that I felt I could do without.
Next I fired the girl that answers the phones and hired an answer service for $75 per month.

I told all the above people that I did not need them or their services anymore, because many homeowners were buying the cheapest junkiest deal and defrauding their insurance company.

Do you think that some of those people that I fired had hired the cheapest deal on their home projects too?

Well, the answer is obvious when the question is poised in this fashion. Of course I'm buying the cheapest appliances when presented with the opportunity. Though I am very care full about the term "cheapest".

For example - right now I'm looking for appliances for 3 suites I'm building or own. In total I need 3 fridges, 3 stoves, 3 over the stove micro wave hoods, 3 deep tub dishwashers, 2 stack able washer/dryers and a host of other items. I went directly over the where a buddy of mine use to sit and sell. Apparently he has been replaced with someone they don't have to pay benefits to.

After marching about the showroom, several calls to the sales manager - a price was created ... then the extended warranty sales battle and finally taxes and delivery.
At the end of it all the contractors appliance warehouse that I used had come out considerably lower than Home Depot, than Lowes , lower than Sears, lower than Costco and everybody else; but still I needed more.
I took my written offers and called each store, informed each sales manager of the prices and asked if they could do any better and then asked then to call me in a week and I鈥檇 buy then.
A week later the appliance warehouse called, offer another $600 off and that was that. Did I buy the cheapest ... oh ya! The moral of the story 鈥?no matter how many appliances I buy and from whom 鈥?none of those guys is ever going to spend $30K on a reno ... with me or you. It鈥檚 not the cost or 鈥渃heapest鈥?price, but the constant pressure to get a deal you can brag about.
As a general contractor I鈥檝e been a one man show for over 8 years now. I can do 10million $ TI鈥檚 or $300 fences - I hire who I need, when I need them and I owe few favours.

I guess I didn鈥檛 really answer your question 鈥?but I think I reflect a lot of GC鈥檚 and their method of operation.