Express Pipe & Supply

Today was my second trip to this business. The first time I needed a hard-​to-​find part for an older Kohler toilet. They had it, but it was expensive, but that was expected. Today was very different.
One of our bathrooms has a Delta faucet which is about ten years old. One of the stems developed a leak, our two local small hardware stores and Home Depot did not have it, so I decided to drive the 12 miles to Express in Murrieta — it is our closest plumbing supply house.
Generally, small replacement stems run $ 5 – 10, new seats $ 1 – 3. The salesman found the parts and presented me with a bill for $ 38.55!!! I told him that it sounded extremely high, but he assured me that prices on everything had been going up and that the specific reason that the stem was so expensive ($ 29.30) was because the stem portion was brass. I was leery, but not certain, so I bought it.
I drove immediately to Hank’s Hardware, which is less than a mile away. THE SAME EXACT STEM AND SEATS WAS A TOTAL OF $ 9.16 INSTEAD OF $ 38.55! For those of you mathematically inclined, this translates to a difference of over 400%! WOW!
(The good thing is that they did take everything back without trying to charge me a re-​stocking fee. But not good enough to adjust the one star rating.)
Express Pipe and Supply has been deleted from my GPS.

Good stock, helpful staff.