I have definitely found this to be true at both Walmart and Costco, and heard lots of logical reasoning for it. I recently started shopping at a big local / non chain hardware store in my area and hand down same brand / selection of products seem to be better quality 10/10 times. Anecdotal for sure, but between the lousy quality of stuff and the lousy / nonexistent help I get, I don’t shop there unless I have to.