[cobweb]

Other companies swamp you with choice. Hotpoint washing machines come in loads of different forms. And I'm sure for most people, they don't really care. I'm not quite sure about the logic behind this. Have you a better chance of getting more products on the shop floor?

[jameshart]

A complicating factor is big box retailers' wish to offer a 'price match guarantee' (particularly to persuade you to bother to come in rather than to buy from Amazon), but never have to pay up on it, which leads them to carry 'retailer exclusive' models from each manufacturer, which might have a suspiciously similar specification to a model sold elsewhere, but in fact have a different model number.