I normally recommend find a dealer on the Internet that is fairly close to you. This helps save shipping costs but more important, shipping time. Do not be impressed with places that offer free shipping. There is no such thing as "free shipping". It is always absorbed into the cost as you can see from the site you mentioned.
From seeing where you live and knowing its location as I grew up not that far from you in Illinois I can recommend a couple places. I buy all of my stuff from
http://www.finevinewines.com/ located in Dallas. Good pricing, extremely fast shipping. Excellent packaging. Low shipping charges. They charge the actual rate with no bogus up-charges. Best of all, the best customer service from the owner that you will find from any company out there.
Another place I can recommend but I haven't bought from in a couple years is
http://www.homebrewit.com/ which is located in Northern Indiana. They have good prices and decent shipping costs. I didn't find them near as quick to ship but did in an acceptable time frame. Packaging wasn't as perfect as FVW but acceptable. I had a small problem with one of my orders and they responded to an email in an acceptable period but nowhere near as quickly as George at FVW. You normally hear from him within an hour and is almost always available for a phone call, even on the weekends.
I am sure there are other places that offer great service and prices in your area. Also, if you are pleased with the place you currently purchase from, by all means keep buying there. Even if it cost more, if you are happy with their service don't let others comments sway you. I would rather pay more and have great service than save a dime but have crap customer service. Thank goodness I have the best of both worlds with my retailer. Hopefully others will chime in here with where they shop and give some examples of places with good prices and service.
Smurfe
