The 'online is cheaper' seems to be a recurring theme. Interestingly, every LBS I'm aware of has some kind of online presence. And unless a company is only doing drop-shipping - they'd need a brick and motor address to warehouse stock and people to process orders.
From personal experience, some items that make it to the website are items that we had a low demand for and just want to clear out. Of course that same item may be in high demand in another part of the country. The Internet and postal service has, in my opinion, just put more LBS within the reach of the average person.
Your thoughts?