What you like/dislike at hobby shops
This LHS that sells at 5 and 10 percent below mail order, who are they? I'd like to find out how they do that, also! No, a LHS can't try to be price competitive with mail order in order to prosper. There's no prosperity in that at all. The LHS and the mail order probably get their merchandise from the same distributor, and the mail order guy buys an item hundreds at a time. An LHS might buy the same item three at a time. The distributors sell at volume discounts to the mail order guys, who, can sell it at 3% less than the LHS, but still make 10% more profit. That's the reality.
So many hobby customers get mad when they don't see every single item in a given line on the shelves of a shop. As a consumer, I am also impatient that way. Remember though, that the LHS guy loses the ability to stock the shelves every time he loses a customer to mail order.
I got out of the LHS business mostly because I realized that I could be buying turbines instead of spending that money on anti-depressants. The best one, though: You've spent two hours making your customer a veritable expert on RC. Finally, he says, "Ring it up." You've got the stuff at the counter, he's filling out his check, and when you turn around to grab some ZAP for him, some *****hole behind him whispers that Tower has all the same stuff in a combo that would save him $45 (the *****hole doesn't mention that the combo comes with the cheapee stuff). The customer says "Really?" and cancels the sale, walks out the door with the number to Tower that the friendly *****hole wrote down for him on the back of one of our business cards.
The fella in the story, you know who you are!