Giving up on mail order? Uh. No. Very unlikely.
Sure, you have to wait a bit and it can sometimes go wrong, and there is a bit more hassle with returns but that’s the bit you have to accept to benefit from much better prices, vastly wider choice and availability and convenience.
The alternative is having to wait for the weekend because of my working hours, and waste a minimum of 30 minutes travel time, plus whatever time it takes to deal with: a) undoubtedly skilled cool kids living the bike shop dream who are nearly too important in their own bubble to actually attend to customers, b) explain your needs to someone who clearly knows less about bikes and indeed, how to work a brain than I do, only to find it’s not in stock, but they can get it in, taking longer than it would via mail order and for more money.
I’ve lost count of the number of times and hours I’ve wasted travelling to local bikeshops only to be greeted with blank stares or not in stock answers. It’s a hard lesson in self sufficiency, but LBS’s in my area have made me default to mail order and hold spares in advance for common consumables.