Don't get me wrong, I do buy online for various things but I think if that move continues it won't do anyone any good in the longer term. When price rules over everything else the software houses will probably not invest so much in new titles, plus we loose more jobs.
It's also nice to have an instruction booklet etc with software so you can have that open whilst the software is on the screen rather than flicking back and forth with some pdf etc.
Many years since I lived near an independent, that's what I'd really like to see but if Game have failed then probably unlikely an independent could pull it off unless it was a one off backstreet freehold affair.