Just an observation from 25 years of racing.....When I was growing up my Dad bought everything from one hobbyshop, then we supported Superior Hobbies and it became one of the best hobbyshops, if I needed something I KNEW it was there, new parts, he had them sometimes before I even knew they existed.
To me this makes running a main stream car cheapier, instead of basically buying 2 kits, you buy a car and a few parts and have that confidence that the hobbyshop will always have what you need, to me that is worth paying a premium. Now as I have been for the last serveral years, I have been running the "up and coming" rides, trying to get interest.
I'm not sure if the plex has these or if it is even possible, but I know GENSACE batteries are hot, and given batteries come from 1 maybe 2 factories, they are popular because they are cheap and run well, most hobbyshops I've been to really have not been able to compete with the price of GENSACE and Turnigy batteries, now I don't mind paying even a bit more for supporting a local hobbyshop but I have seen a big gap in the price of hobbypartz.com and the LHS. This is tough because you can argue the quality...etc. and I fully understand that, so I have ordered my batteries...online, I bought a balance charger that is way nicer than my $100 charger I bought at the hobbystore....for $38.00 bucks, yup, $38.00. It is hard to look away from that, maybe the PLEX is different as I don't live there, and the store flat out awesome. But the deal is say you want to save some money and buy these things online, now you buy this and that to make shipping free...etc, right there the hobbyshop just lost. I'm not critizising, just pointing out the gap.