Maybe in your town, but for me the spread on LocalBitcoins is hilariously huge. I just punched in my city (Chicago) and got $818 bid by $850 offered. That's a $32 spread, which is much larger than I see on any of the online exchanges.

edit: Actually I think you are talking about the equivalent of a resting order (placing an ad) which isn't what I'm talking about. My scenario involves crossing the spread, which in the localbitcoins case would mean answering an ad.

edit 2: I encourage everyone who hasn't seen localbitcoins to go check out the ads there. "Hilariously sketchy" is about the best way I can describe it.