As far as buying from the shops vs. buying from walmart goes, I try to send as much business to the shops as I can, which usually is required anyway....You can't buy handguns at walmart, so shops get about half of my "gun money" every year anyway, but handloader is right, they're not really doing you any service, so for the most part, buying a rifle from them vs. from walmart to keep the shops in business only serves those of us that shoot a lot and shoot a lot of different guns.

Walmart serves the hunter very well, need a cheap .30-06 to go bag a whitetail or a good 12ga to go after some Turkey, wally's got you covered, but it does NOT in any way serve the shooter, you're not going to find a race 1911 there, nor are you going to buy the reloading components necessary to feed your Benchrest rifle, which you didn't likely even buy the base for at walmart!