I'll echo what [mention]Boriqua[/mention] says above - with a bit of qualification - and that qualification aligns with some of what [mention]Cmoor[/mention] is experiencing as a small gun shop. I used to buy bulk ammo at UN Ammo in phoenix - because I could get bulk / surplus stuff at about the same price that I could get it on line. Since they've gone away I've been resorting to buying on-line.
What Cmoor represents is a reality - particularly on stuff like ammo or primers. The small business guy is really at a disadvantage - because retail costs a lot. Floor space is limited and they have to figure out how to make money on the stuff on the floor. Most probably can't afford to buy in $1,000,000 chunks necessary to make money on the rounds at the seriously discounted price that the internet can offer - and the ones who can seem to be able to sell at the higher price anyway. I recently bought a brick (1000 rounds) of factory 5.56 on line. It cost me about $0.45/round - to my door (after tax etc.). A week or two later I saw the exact same ammo "on sale" at a LGS for about $0.80/round (for a 20 round box) which would have been about $0.87/round after tax. They had a pallet of it - so they had bought a pretty good sized lot (and I'd like to think paid less per round for it than I did for my 1000 rounds). I asked if they'd offer a price break if I wanted to buy by the 1000. They said no. I'd be happy to pay a few cents more to have bulk ammo available locally - but I'm not willing to pay almost twice as much to buy local - it does not make sense. I was back in there a couple of weeks later and the pallet was gone - so it looks like there were buyers.
On the other hand - knowledge, "shooting the breeze," relationship is valuable. From my house Cmoor's shop on the south side of Wickenburg is closer to my house than things in Mesa - and based on my first trip up there to have him look at a gun that I bought - I'll be driving back up there in the future - and when I drive through Wickenburg I'll be stopping in to say hi - and impulse purchases may happen. Small shops are at a disadvantage to the big on-line shops - but they have the advantage of local knowledge and relationship. That stuff is certainly worth a few bucks.
At the end of the day - I'm willing to pay "a bit more" to buy local (and it's absolutely worth it - to have access to local knowledge) - but for more commodity type stuff (ammo / primers) where the on-line stores can move so much more volume that they can make money selling much closer to wholesale prices - the difference is to great to overcome (for me anyway).
