Long-Distance Rehabbing- How To Remotely Shop For Materials?

[Richie Thomas]

I'm reading @David Greene's book "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing", and am learning a ton from every page.  One strategy that he mentions for avoiding getting ripped off by contractors is to shop for and purchase the materials yourself.  This makes a lot of sense, but this seems hard to do when one is investing remotely and I don't see any remote-specific advice in this section.  In fact, a lot of the advice seems to apply more to local investing (for instance, he recommends buying clearance inventory, but I know that what counts as excess/clearance inventory in one store location won't apply in another location in another state).

Does anyone have experience buying and paying for materials remotely?  Is my best bet going to my local big-box home improvement store and placing the order there, but having it fulfilled at the store's location near where the property is?  Is this what most remote investors do, or is there another strategy I haven't considered?  Thanks!