The hunter 44760 thermostat at Lowes

On reading an earlier post of mine regarding replacing thermostat a friend requested my help and decided to replace his too. It took him nearly 6 months(Oct 2005-April 2006) to get the same thermostat at Lowes. The Lowes staff just asked him to check periodically on the stock for this particular model even after he offered to pay to per-order the thing. And when he did get it it was the lone one there. This thermostat has the same features as a Honeywell one which is $99 at Home Depot and is in stock all the time. I dont know what the geniuses at Hunter were thinking.