It is true that there are good chains out there (though I've never been to a Petland), but I still shy away from any place that can't tell me exactly where they get all of their babies from. Even if the chain is reputable, the breeders the chain buys from may not be. I'm usually not opposed to buying snakes from good pet stores, except when it comes to boas (the whole IBD thing again, not knowing the boa's history, etc).
Most breeders don't advertise their available normal neos (I don't know why, I think they'd get more business if they did), but the truth is in every litter of morphs, they get a ton of normal babies in addition to whatever morphs, and all breeders have a plethora of normal babies, it just takes an email to find out about them.