To me the best thing about the mom & pops is that I could go in and peruse. <snip>
If anyone really thinks that the prices at the big-boxes or on the internet will stay down once the little guys have all been driven out of business, I have this bridge in New York for sale. <g>
Even the "mom and pop" stores that will remain are hardly going to be small businesses.
I have it good here in the SF Bay Area. My principal local vendor is a fairly large operation that handles the full range of goods from consumer to professional services. They will price compete with the larger web/mail order vendors when they can; for instance, I bought my FA28-105 from them for a $10 premium over the B&H Photo price, the CA+Local Sales Tax worked out to be a draw over the shipping costs from NY.
My other local vendor caters primarily to professional equipment sales. They normally run about the same prices as I get out of NY, again when they can.
With both of them, I'm happy to do business when it's financially reasonable to do so. I make that clear when we're talking expensive gear and they are accommodating to deal sensibly. Sometimes they simply can't compete with a NY price, no matter what, because the bigger vendors obtain stock of some items at greater discount due to volume purchase or have much larger warehouse inventory at older prices.
Godfrey
