Originally Posted by
Gee3
If i'm not in a hurry I generally buy online. I can wait a couple of weeks for the part.
Where we live(d) in Australia ... if we were in a hurry, we ordered online.
LBS: 100+ km drive one way. Maybe they'd have what we wanted, or maybe not (mostly not), but they could order it for us and have it within 6 weeks, at which time we could make the drive again and pick it up.
ONLINE: browse the internet one evening. Place order. Get order delivered to door within 1 week. Free shipping and the item cost less than the LBS would have sold it for.
We would drop in at LBSs if we happened to be in the area for some other reason, and if they happened to have what we needed for a decent price at that time, we'd probably get it. But it made no sense to go out of our way to use one.