Went to the tackle shop yesterday and saw spools of 250yds of fluoro for about the same price as 25yds of fluoro leader. Is there a real difference, or should I save the money?

depends on what you are fishing for, as a rule I always use the best and usually most expensive flouro leader available like suffix. There are others available that will get it done.

There are only 3 companys that have the ability to produce 100% Flourocarbon 2 are Asian and one is German.Of all fishing lines Flourocarbon is the closest to the light refractive index of water this makes it harder for fish to see.Flourocarbon also has less stretch and doesent absorbe h2o like Mono does.Flourocarbon has better abrasion resistance than Mono does.You have to beware when you buy Flouro though because some companies use low quality polymers that cause it to get cloudy making it easier to see than mono.I like to use a shock leader behind Flourocarbon with a Spider Hitch this helps the leader system absorbe the shock of a hard strike. With all this said if you are fishing in dirty water you are wasteing your money.Flourocarbon in the Bay or near the Surfzone is not going to help that much,if you are fishing in water that is Clear as Gin then you might want to break the Flourocarbon out.