@ 27.40 that would be my preference too, esp sicne the radioshack ones or the ones I got from battery depot are only 2-3 bucks cheaper. I again called the store in Portland and they quoted me $55 per battery with free shipping, whereas the NYC store quoted me 27.40 each +$5 shipping - not sure why there is a difference.

Discrepancies like that will be observed when looking at markups from independantly owned retail operations.

 I didnt know they were independently owned. I thought they were corporate owned store like Bose or Apple.

Most B&O stores are independant ventures. I am not sure about the specific ones mentioned above but for the most part B&O outlets are privately owned. I actually had the chance to speak with the North American B&O representative and he said there are very few corporately owned locations out of the 52 or so locations in North America. However, B&O does maintain a great deal of influence on its dealers.

Doesnt seem like price parity is something they maintain similar to the auto industry. Would be interesting to find out if such disparity exists on main stream products as well

Well I think that would apply itself to the big ticket items such as tvs and audio equipment, not so much with replacement parts, batteries in this case.