You guys convinced me on the Weber Smokey Mountain. I went with the 22.5-inch size.
Sears had it on "sale" for $315- but because they provide it through a 3rd-party vendor, they did not offer any kind of ship-to-store option. Shipping added an additional $125-!!!
However, because of what I learned in this thread, I marched over to Lowes and asked them to price match, and
THEY DID! I got if for the Sears price of $315- instead of the Lowes price of $399- plus Lowes has a free ship-to-store option.
(Lowes would not do the price match + 10% because the smoker is considered a special order item since they don't stock it in the store, but I'm not going to quibble -- I feel like a saved a Benjamin+.)
Thanks for everyone's input here!