Some of the shops round here sell some decent basses actually, fenders, G&Ls, warwicks, some nice yammys, ltds, bolins! etc etc, we actually have it pretty good here!
I think i only bought one of my basses from a shop though (my tobias), my musicman came off ebay, my fender came from this forum and so did the G&L i had and half of my other musicman came from here and the neck off ebay. They don't call me budget bassist for nowt