Differences in tiles from the hardware store or tile center

I am not talking about: I don’t care, how much it costs. I am talking about price/selection/service. The tile market I mentioned offered us the wall tiles at 19.90, the floor tiles at 27.90. On account of the quantities, another 10% discount. Additionally, Schlüter rails in brushed stainless steel. He calculated everything and delivered on site. The hardware stores here, which are accessible to us, toom and HaGebau and Bauhaus, neither had the selection nor these prices. My advice was simply: check if there is a pickup and specialty market for tiles near you as well. Otherwise, you can’t badmouth Bauhaus and the like, they don’t have bad goods either. That’s true.

Thank you for the many answers.

So for us, it's about the living room, dining room, hallway, bathroom, kitchen, guest WC, apart from the bathroom, only the floor should be tiled, possibly also with these elongated laminate-look tiles.

The tiles we looked at in the tile center and liked were all over €20/m2, at the hardware store there were many tiles we also liked and yes, if we end up under €20/m2, the money will be well credited.

So, those were my current infos again.^^

Tiles in the living room were my nightmare - but tastes are so different...

The aforementioned store "Harrys Fliesenmarkt", Schützen, Ecke Leuna in Hamburg is, I believe, the store in Hamburg that I have visited most often in my lifetime. I would recommend anyone within a 300 km radius to visit it. (Back then for my parents, then for apartments, for my old house, three years ago for the new house. Occasionally, shoes are window-shopped there instead)

Hardware stores rarely have expensive tiles on display because they are purchased too infrequently. Cheap goods sell faster. It's that simple. More expensive goods are then available in specialty stores. There are also customers/builders who prefer something other than mass-produced and a somewhat higher-quality design. Therefore, the hardware store goods should not be worse, but they are just mass-produced goods. And mass-produced goods are cheaper, which for some also means low quality. Of the hardware stores I know, Bauhaus still has the best display for me.

I was extremely pleasantly surprised by the building materials dealer from the region. They have more selection and offer great service. And the price is often also cheaper. We bought the house brand at incredible prices. We struggled through the exhibition for 4 hours and then chatted with the salesperson. He advised us really well and put together a great mix for us.

Thanks already for the many answers, then I will still talk to our tiler and inform him that we are going to the [Baumarkt]