Well, I guess a few people need to decide whether or not they care about supporting earnest mom and pop type shops, or online bohemoths. Of course, online vendors can move much more product, charge less overhead etc, maybe even negogiate cheaper prices for themselves, but ultimately, this leads to product selection for the consumer, rather than the consumer selecting himself. Does anyone really want an amazon.com for cigars? The fewer boutique style shops there are, the fewer choices one is ultimately going to have, smaller cigar brands are going to be harder to start and bigger ones won't really have incentive to put out an amazing product if they know that the consumer has been taught to prefer their standardized makings (and big stores won't pay them more for a better product either). Of course, you can always pay less online, it's your choice. But, just know, that Walmartification of various industries isn't just to give lower prices, they give lower prices to make more money, and, further, it's not just an economic but also social and cultural trend that can be helpful as well as detrimental.
