Visited a Store and was shunned

A lot of high end brick and mortar dealers are their own worst enemy. Not terribly different from my experiences with car dealerships actually. It seems like offering great service to people that walk in potentially ready to spend five figures on your products would be the bare minimum... but it doesn’t work out that way in a lot of cases. 

With audio dealers and car dealers, when you find a good one, stick with them.

a little late to the show here, but felt I had to comment.

Growing up on Long Island in the late 70's to mid 80's is when I found my passion for Stereo Equipment. Back then, we spent winter Saturdays going to the mall. Plenty of them in all different sizes back in the day on the Island. We would do the rounds, Spencer's, some clothing stores, hobbie shops, meet girls, play video games at the arcade, get food, but the best part was browsing the Audio stores and dreaming about building our ultimate systems. The proprietors of these stores were always welcoming and accommodating. And yes, they were New Yorkers and not rude. You could always tell they had passion for what they were doing and wanted to share with you, even if you were a kid and just browsing. Rules of sales is what 20 touches. They seemed to know, when we did finally have the money, we'd come back and spend it with them. Sure I did. I really miss that feeling of just browsing an Audio shop for fun. Now I'm down in Virginia, and we don't have one in the area, closest is Richmond (unless you count best buy). Shame. I would love to go to Service Merchandise with my Mom, she would drop me in the audio cave and do what she needed to do and I got to talk to the sales guy and browse. One time she surprised me and bought a JVC Linear Tracking Turntable that I was talking to the guy about. It was simple, she came in and saw us playing with it, she said you want one...I said Yes! This was not a regular occurrence, it was special!

So, long winded and probably no one will be reading this, but what gets me is these guys asking for appointments and asking for $250 to just listen? What a shame, no wonder the breed is dying out. Kids can't afford that. They are putting the nails in their own coffins. Soon Sounbars will be the...I'm not going there.

This is major problem for the audio industry.  It is my repeated experience that I get below-average customer treatment in audio stores until I tell them my current system or level of interest, then the experience changes.  I am not one to go in talking about me, my stuff, or bragging, so it took me awhile to figure this out.  After I share my system, I go from being somewhat ignored (not treated rudely, but often not acknowledged) to actively shown the products and invited to listen in the private or back room.  

The problem is that new people getting into the hobby or younger people don't have the existing system or know how to get attention, and often leave with a sour experience.  This stunts the growth of the hobby.  I believe that if dealers gave more people a taste of an amazing audio system, more people would be willing to drop the 10k to 50k to get started.  That is why car dealerships promote test drives and home builders spend so much on model homes.  

I bought my current car from a specific dealer because of how we were treated over the course of years when buying my daughter’s car, and then my wife’s car (which is an Audi btw). Both sales and service have been outstanding. The dealer was at least as big an influence on my choice as the brand.

Back to home audio, if a dealer wants to focus on installations, sales to new home builders, or auditions by appointment only, then fine, but why operate a walk-in store if you don’t want walk-in customers?  Having two guys standing around doing not much and then refusing to help you sounds like a Monty Python skit:

Customer: “Could I have an audition please.”
Sales 1: “Harrumph! An audition, did he say an audition?” 
Sales 2: “I believe he did…cheeky bastard! Does he have an appointment?”  
Customer: “No, but I am the only one here.”  
Sales 1: “Ok then, go stand in line.”  
Customer: “There is no line, I am the only customer here!” 
Sales 2: “Line’s over there, please wait your turn.”

To the OP, I do not have the kind of restraint you have and I would have given them a few choice cuss words.  Then, I would have gone on here, stated the name of the store and exactly what happened and watch what happened next.  With so few audio stores left, they should do everything the customer wants  within reason for the sale. 
 

I sold audio from 1972 through 1987.  I never turned a customer away and would happily swap speakers in our high end room to accommodate the customers needs.  Many of my customers were repeat customers and word of mouth travels fast.  Not to brag but I was the stores most knowledgeable salesman and the store folded 5 years after I left.   When my former customers came back to audition something and I was no longer there, they left.  Quite a few of the customers told the store owner that I was the only reason they kept coming back.  Too bad the owner didn’t realize it and pay me accordingly, because I loved my job but I had a growing family.