I was recently in Home Depot here in West Palm Beach looking at their sickly tropical fruit trees and found out that they have raised their prices.
They used to sell their three gallon assorted trees for $29 (mango, avocado, sugar apple, barbados cherry, white sapote, mamey, etc..) but have recently upped the pricing to $36.95! Wholesale nurseries here and in Miami Dade have also raised pricing as well which in turn will eventually drive prices higher at the retail counter.
I assume Home Depot and Lowes have finally come to terms with the reality that providing a one-year warranty on fruit trees to an uneducated public has gotten too costly. Either way the value of buying from retail nurseries cannot be matched in terms of customer service and variety. The only bright side of the business lost to HD and Lowes is that the trees dont originate from overseas and more plantings occur by non-obsessive collectors like ourselves!