My advice: do it yourself and save $$. Since your laptop is only about a year old, it should be one of the newer styles that permit very simple installation of the hard drive itself. Here's a brief overview:
1. Backup your data completely (and verify). I suggest SuperDuper (
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/), which for $29 is a great backup app, but even the free version will do what you need here. It will permit you to use an external hard drive to create a bootable drive that identically matches your internal hard drive. Any external drive of sufficient capacity will work, and I'm assuming you have one for this purpose at this point given your previous posts about backup awareness, etc. If not, let me know and I'll suggest a good external as well.
2. Now that you have your data backed up, as soon as the backup is complete go to System Pref:Startup Disk and select the external drive, and restart the computer. The laptop should now boot with the external. To confirm this is the case, after booting check the Startup Disk pref pane again and see which is highlighted (you may also check which drive is mounted at the top of the screen on your desktop, as that is the bootup drive).
3. Remove the internal hard drive.
4. Install the new hard drive. Just follow the directions and it's simple and shouldn't take long at all.
5. Boot the laptop using the external backup you created earlier. Open Disk Utility (located in Apps:Utilities) and format the internal drive - it's easier than it sounds.
6. Run SuperDuper again, this time copying the data from the external to the new internal.
7. Open the Startup Disk pref pane again, select the internal drive, dismount the external drive and remove the connection cable (be it USB or FireWire) and restart the laptop. That's it!
I suggest searching for hard drive replacement instructions (there are a number of sites that have them) and see the pictures and video that show what's involved with such a task. Also, Apple's instructions on the laptop even include detailed info with illustrations showing how to do this:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/MacBook_Pro_17inch_Mid2009.pdf
As for which hard drive to purchase... well, that all depends on how the computer is being used, amount of storage required, etc. I prefer 7200rpm hard drives for speed (as compared to the standard 5400rpm units) but they are slightly more expensive and lower the battery use as they require more power than the slower drives. You can find a good selection of drives at
Newegg and elsewhere - any 2.5" SATA drive should work (Newgg lists them under "laptop" drives). I wouldn't worry about which manufacturer - everyone has an opinion on this, but the reality is that they are all about the same. I prefer Seagate at the moment, but have no hesitation using Western Digital, Hitachi or Samsung, should I find a good deal on one of their drives. A standard 5400rpm 500GB hard drive can be bought for ~$60 right now.
And regarding your question of going to Apple for this replacement... well, as far as I'm concerned that should be your absolute last option given the associated costs involved with such an upgrade that they would charge. Unless things have changed recently, this can be an expensive upgrade when done at Apple.
FWIW, I'm going through this same issue for my personal laptop. My drive is making intermittent clicking sounds that disturb me, and even though the drive is only about a year old and under warranty I've ordered a replacement. In fact, I've also arranged to sell my laptop and buy a new MacBook Pro. Even so, I ordered a 750GB 7200rpm drive for that laptop, as I always take the opportunity to upgrade capacity when installing a new computer (just be sure to have sufficient capacity with your backup drives to handle the new hard drive size!).
Hope this helps.