Charlie Self says...

Sigh. You're paying retail at the LV site. What you aren't paying is
extra mark up often (usually?) added by other retailers. Items sold
through Rockler and others are sold at wholesale to the retailer, which
then adds its own mark-up, whatever that might be (as high as possible
consistent with sales possibilities). The price LV charges on-site is
their retail price. If other retailers feel a need to charge more,
that's their business, but it is NOT because LV is offering cost
cutting on-site.

I based that assumption on the fact that if you buy a L-N plane at
Woodcraft, it will have the same price as one from the L-N web site.
For Veritas tools, check with five different suppliers and you will see
five different prices, with LV always being by far the lowest.
Obviously, L-N is exerting more control on the pricing of their products
than LV/Veritas. And while I won't argue about whether LV is charging
retail prices, if they are, it seems that what they consider to be a
standard retail markup is very different from what most American
retailers consider a standard markup. If they are just profiteering,
then shame on them. But in any case, I won't be buying much Veritas
from anywhere but LV from now on.