I think there are so many directions that this thread could go , as far as how it started , it seems to be about vendors carried by Tower and the variuos assumptions that followed .
I will still place Tower , Horison , Hobby LObby and Hobby People as the gold standard for how mail order houses should operate .
As far as quick servace , email confirmation and typically best prices , Tower is probably #1 .

My only comment as stated is that as a warbird advid hobbiest , I find there offerings boreing .
I wish they were offering some of the new e -warbirds comeing from the unreliable companys like Banana and Nitro ect . Some really nice planes from bad suppliers .
Love the new stuff from Hobby Lobby , and Hoby People and there Black Horse line .

It seems like in the last 7 years , horison kick Towers butt on warbirds intro in fuel , in eletric and helis , then you look at Hobby Lobby for jets and small warbirds , again the clear winner , and recently Hobby People with there new ARF intros from Black horse , these guys are the thread catchers on RCU and RC groups .
Now some new players like VQ/ESM and Troy Built are capturing excietement in the warbird forum

So even with the economy , seems people are selling when you have the right stuff to sell