do you buy all your home audio / computer equipment at best buy or circuit city? do you buy all your electronics parts at radio shack? no? why not? they're huge chains and they still can't be even remotely competetive with online pricing. the relative cost of bricks, mortar, rent and a crew to run a place to serve a small local area will always outweigh that of running a warehouse to serve the entire country / world with minimal overhead. considering further that an LBS buys in much less bulk and sells in far less volume than the big corporations i mentioned before, there's even less grounds for whining about the prices.

i like saving money as much as anyone else, and each purchase has to be weighed against being frugal or throwing my LBS a bone and supporting a business that has helped me out in more situations than I can recall over the last few years. if you would rather save money, shop online, but don't whine about local prices.