As others have said already, I usually buy at the LHS when I need it, and online when I want it. It's not an inexpensive hobby to begin with, and not everybody in the hobby has unlimited resources, myself included. Having said that, there are two LHS's in my area, and I'm a customer of both. One is privately owned and the other is a Hobbytown USA franchise. Where I differ from some others in this topic is the way I see the Hobbytown franchise being just as much of a family owned business as the smaller shop in town. The franchise is owned by a family and the employees are all family or friends of that family from what I can tell. I don't know them all by name but they remember me when I walk in and that counts for something. I've bought two ARF's from them this year which probably would have cost a little less online, but not much. Having owned a different kind of business in the past, I'm not averse to talking shop with this owner, so I have an idea of how they sometimes struggle to stay afloat, and I hope my business plays a small part in helping them do that. Again, others have said it before, but I'll reiterate, I want these shops to be around when I NEED something as well as when I want something, so I try to strike some sort of balance between what I buy through eBay or other online resources with what I buy from the LHS. However, I don't feel responsible for the success or failure of either shop. In the end, I hope everybody wins, but in reality, somebody's bound to lose. It's a free market system, and my only real obligation is to do what's best for me in terms of enabling me to continue in this wonderful hobby. I appreciate what LHS owners have to go through from a business perspective, and I know most of them will go out of their way to help us out, so I wish them every success.