companies like the Hobbico empire make money off of volume, not margin. (at least when they sell to dealers like the LHS) However, Hobbico and Horizon are distributors. When you buy directly from them via the internet, you are paying retail prices for a product direct from the distributor...believe me they are making a heck of a margin in this case.

When you buy from a LHS, they are making money on margin, not volume...their customer service and convienence should be the reason you pay the potentially higher prices.

I have run into both incompetence and arrogance at my LHS but have also gotten to know some of the employees and received great service and help.

What is comes down to for me is that I expect the quality of the product to be top notch out of the box so that I don't need to use any kind of customer support. This means that the people who design, build, and ship the product should take pride in their work and strive to do the right thing....I have the feeling that in this day and age this IS expecting too much.