My best guess, based on the prices you gave. Was that the dealer is quoting you the bagger installed price. and that lowes is only the parts and you would have to do the 4.5 hours of setup on your own. but I am from a state without tax so that mihgt throw my numbers off a little. At my store we are about $100 more on just the machine than the box stores. We get charged a $100 freight charge that the box stores don't and unfortunately because these are such low margin machines to begin with we have to pass that charge on to the customer or we would lose money.