When you buy something to be shipped, it's not just the postage that you're charged. Someone has to find the item you ordered, wrap and mail it. If you drive to a store to buy it, you pay for the gas and the time is yours. Companies pay salaries to people who fill your orders. These costs are factored in to the S&H. Sometimes when you compute the S&H for ordering online, it's less expensive to pay a little more and drive to the store. That's something you have to decide for yourself.