By "independant" I/we mean that instead of going to the big chain stores or national or discount outlets who sell the "corporate" systems (IBM,Compaq,Dell etc.) you instead go and find the local guys who would have set up their own little shop (and sometimes not so little) somewhere ,usually away from the malls and main street shopping districts as the big boys would have muscled them out , and they'll call themselves "Such & Such Computer Centre "or "Joes computers" or something like that and their advertising will say they can build to order as well as offer packages which would include the usual peripherals like printer and scanner etc.
But don't just go with the first one you come across , be sure to shop around first cos if you walk in cold and they think you don't know shit then they could slug you top dollar and you wouldn't know any different.

Hope this helps .

Cheers
Wombat

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The Wombat : eats roots and leaves.