I am not familiar with Lionel per se, but that variation is not surprising. Companies will generally give a much lower wholesale price to a big retail outlet like let's say Charles Ro than they will a local hobby shop, bulk pricing is always going to be cheaper than if you buy a relatively few units (has to do with the per unit cost of a product going down, thanks to spreading fixed costs over a larger run). Sometimes even smaller retailers can offer low prices, for example, if they are looking to clear out inventory, if a car hasn't sold the cost of inventory can end up making it less and less worth keeping around. The other factor is that a local hobby shop because they are small, has to make more profit per item to be able to pay their costs and make a (usually small) profit for themselves. A bigger dealer spreads their costs of operating (inventory, retail space, salaries, etc) over a lot more sales, those costs, many of them fixed, spread over fewer sales=higher retail price (it is the exact same reason when you buy from a manufacturer. the more you buy the less each item will cost you, fixed costs spread over larger run).
And the question you asked has been discussed a lot on here. Some complain about the decline in LHS's, but then the same people often go into the lHS, look at a product, then look on the net for the cheapest price. It comes down to how much you value your local stores or any store, if they give you something, whether it is advice, service/repair, or just a place to hang out and chew the fat with the owner and a group of buddies, then (to me, and this is only my opinion) it might be better to pay the higher prices to keep them in business, if you don't really have that kind of relationship with the store, and want/need to pay the lowest price, buy it elsewhere and get the better price.
