I live in the Austin, TX area and HEB has whole briskets every day of the year
Sounds like a very good price to me. I live in the Austin area and HEB (grocery chain in Texas) has whole untrimmed briskets for $1.96/pound. Not sure what WalMart locally sells them for. Of course, you can buy whole brisket here year round. Another good cut of beef to smoke, if you can find it, is tri-tip. HEB has it year round, but might not be readily available in the northeast.
Whenever I visit my Mom & brother in Austin I usually am in the Bee Caves (RM2244) HEB a few times during my visit. The meat section ALWAYS looks so great vs the choices we have in Chicagoland. Trained myself to avoid the meat section and just head for the bakery.