If you are only considering the price factor, and nothing else, then a show/expo would be your better bet.
But there are a few more things to consider:

Let's say you go to the Indiana Reptile Expo in Noblesville. There you will find private breeders, vendors who buy and sell imports, and several people who on a monthly bases decide to get a table and sell their personal animals that they no longer want.
Basically a board selection of vendors and herps.
Take the private breeder. He comes and sits up with Bearded Dragons that he personally produced. You can ask him questions that a pet store can not answer.
Hatch date? Lineage? What they been feeding on since birth? All kinds of info that only the person who actually produced the dragons can answer....
The vendor that imports animals. He can tell you which country they came from, how long they been in the country, what meds if any they have been given for enternal/external parasites, etc.
A pet store will be very limited with information.
Another point: I don't know many pet stores today that give any kind of guarantee on the animals they sell. Most have a policy of NO REFUNDS.
At the expo, several to almost all of the vendors have some kind of guarantee.
24 hours to 1 month. Something else to consider.
But, in closing, I believe Pet Stores have their place in our hobby. They are on the front line in bringing in New Hobbyist. The "impluse" buy. This is where 99% if new people in the hobby see their first Herp for sale. Onlly then do they branch out and search out shows and expos.
In either case, I hope you do attend a show close to you and come out and see what wonderful place it can be. But I also suggest you visit any close by Pet Stores to see what they have as well. To price compare and make a judgement call on where to get your first or 50th Reptile.....