In article , Mayayana
wrote:

I also find things vary more than they used to. Staples
sells an HDMI cord for maybe $22-35 while Microcenter
has it for $10.

$7.49 at staples:
https://www.staples.com/32AWG-High-S...eneric/product
_2504576

less than $4 online:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=3992

of course, not all hdmi cables are created equal, but if price is your
only criteria and you want it same day, staples is fine.

Similarly, Staples was selling network switches
starting at about $50. I think I paid about $20 from a
company called Provantage. The prices often just seem
arbitrary. I suspect that maybe software is setting the
prices.

actually, staples has switches starting at $20 for a trendnet, but it's
out of stock, however, they do have a netgear in stock for $23:
https://www.staples.com/NETGEAR-ProS...-Ethernet-Desk
top-Switch/product_446867




Recently I decided to set up something new for my brother,
who recently had a stroke, and I decided to do it with a
Raspberry Pi. Microcenter had a monitor on sale for $70.
That was the big expense. The whole Pi setup kit was only
$90, plus about $20 for wireless keyboard/mouse. About
$200 for a complete, serviceable Linux system for Internet,
email, etc. That gets him 25 GB+ storage and 2 GB RAM.
And those Pi's are fast.

not really, especially the zero.

a pi 4 is acceptable for casual use but it's not what one would call
fast by any reasonable standard, and they're a *lot* less than $90.

a pi 4 2 gig is $35, assuming you buy only one at a time:
https://www.microcenter.com/product/...model-b---2gb-
ddr4