We have three main hobby stores here. Two of them are full blown stores and the other is a bit of a hole. Now I have been going to one of the nice stores for several years. Its about 6 miles away. Very customer service oriented. Most of my major purchases are done their among other errands in the area.
The other nice store is just that and only a mile away but they give you the impression they are two busy to help you and their knowledge is weak and a couple guys are down right jerks, But if I suddenly need something very small at the last minute, I am going to run over here and get it and not drive 12 miles round trip for a $3 item. Common sense.
However in any state, decent hobby stores are not all that close together and your options are limited, this also makes mail order attractive. Many of these stores have and attitude also and since they are the only store in the area, feel they can jack up costs, and limited knowledge and customer service.
For this you can go mail order and come here for all the help you need
Sorry, I'm just feeling a little blue today
ORIGINAL: JasonWilliam
I've made some of my purchases online, and others at my local hobby store. Without fail, the prices at the store are around 25% higher. My desire to save money is waging war against my desire to support the local economy. I walk in there now and always walk out feeling guilty. Now if they render advice, or work with me in some way the increased cost is totally justified, but if I'm just grabbing a role of Monokote or replacement hot socks or something...
What do you all do? Is there some other benefit to the brick and mortar store that I'm not realizing?