" How do fabrication shops acquire full unused slabs for their remnant area?"

Fabricators who work for big box stores have to buy all the sheets needed for each job. So if they have a 2 1/2 sheet job they have to buy 3 sheets. If they get another 2 1/2 sheet job in the same color, they must buy 3 more sheets, not just the 2 they need.

Unlike some solid surface distributors, quartz suppliers don't sell half sheets usually. Since they haven't invented a quartz stretcher, you've got to buy what you've got to buy to get the job done.

"How does the quality of Samsung Radianz compare to Silestone?"
All quartz is made with the Breton process; it's all the same stuff.

"Is there much difference price-wise between them for a regular slab?"

Consumer prices are dictated by how badly a fabricator wants to turn estone leaning in a rack into cash.

So the only difference then is marketing and the perception of the location where it was manufactured? In that case, it seems like the $500 savings would be beneficial since the brand name won't be apparent to the eye of me or a future buyer on the slab.

It's still puzzling how this fabricator had a couple of full unused quartz slabs in his remnant yard. The fabricator said and the back of the slabs had a sticker from a major regional chain of tile stores. Hope they aren't defective.

Actually, Samsung does not use the Breton process, but it probably doesn't make much difference.

I am a fabricator.

There are a number of ways a fabricator can have a full or near full slab in their remnant inventory. How it got there is irrelevant to the end user as long as it's not a "2nd".

Remnants are a great way for fabricators to provide extra value to customers.

re: 1/2 slabs; 3 of the 6 quartz suppliers I use regularly provide 1/2 slabs on request. However, this might be a local market dynamic where suppliers had to follow the lead of the 1st one to do it since it can make a large difference in the price of a job if one brand supplies 1/2 slabs and a competitive brand does not.

happs:

It doesn't make much difference. Samsung's quartz machines are Korean clones of the Italian originals.