You really think so? :lol:
Joking aside I can tell you they do a pretty good job knowing what is needed. That said it can still be problematic for warranty issues, delivery dates etc.
Absolutely, that is why it is very common for them to supply the lighting, distribution and sometimes fire alarm equipment. Prebuilt electrical rooms or 'walls' are very common with chains.
That still does not change the fact that with them supplying the material things get more complicated and we have less leverage to get stuff shipped or replaced. It is still going to change how the estimators price the job.
Here is an example of the added costs and Peter D can remember this one.
I ran a retail store fit out, it had about 550 - 8' fixtures. They supplied them, they shipped them to the store. Our contract required we inventory them immediately and report any problems. If we did not we would be responsible for any shortages. Sounds fine to you realize they shipped the fixtures on different trucks on different days, in different stages of assembly, under different part numbers. Also all the mounting hardware came just as mixed up It was a couple of days of to figure it all out. Their supplier does not care how bad it hurts the EC and we have no leverage with them. Their supplier only cares about keeping this national account happy.
They also supplied 'knock off' plugmold that fell apart as you installed it. Normally we would ship them back to our supplier but in this case we just patched them up and installed them.
So yes while the scale is much larger the same types of problems pop up when the EC is not in total control of the material.