anyway, all weve got near us now is MicroCenter which im pretty sure only exists because of its within walking distance of MIT
The MicroCenter here always seems to be busy, but its also like 20 minutes from my house so darting over there is not a quick affair when i only have a couple hours to burn on this project.
I'll gladly pay 10/20% more at a store to have something directly and not to have to deal with the shitty postal service.
10 or 20% would be cool however most shops are like 40-50% over online costs. Between Rock Auto & Ebay I can crush auto shop prices most the time by like 50-60%.