Visited a Store and was shunned

Everybody's correct on this one.  Customers should be treated better, but then the customer demography has changed so radically.  It's a run and gun world where the old rules do not necessarily apply in either direction.

A friend who ran a store for 27 years shared that customers, with advent of more internet access, would be auditioning while simultaneously on their cellphones scouting product, price, dealer.  On occasion they would flip the phone and show Amazon or some other dealer's price.  Boom!  

It's a mail order bride culture.  See it, click it, wait for it.  Boom!  Bride in 2 hours delivery.

It's a disconnect that's been coming for a while.  "Faster, faster, the lights are turning red".

All the talk about consumers wasting the time of the B&M retailer is valid, yet one question that does arise is this: If one is a B&M retailer and is not suppling a higher level of service or perhaps product exposure, then why is the consumer expected to pay more for the product? 

Unfortunately, in this day and age, consumers are looking for the best price, and while they may be willing to pay more for additional service or future assistance, they are not likely to pay more just because the retailer has a B&M store with a bunch of commissioned sales people. 

There's only one or two hifi stores in my city and the main one has the rudest employees---I've given them the benefit of the doubt before and would try and go back to check things out. Each time, rudeness. So, needless to say, I've never bought anything from them. I have driven about 95 miles to another brick and mortar and was treated like a real customer and have purchased quite a few items from them. They'll get my business every time. Sorry you had to go through that.

Sure is as lot of excuse making for rude abominable behavior.  Name the store.

Opposite experience. Many, many years ago I was in California on business and decided to stop in a brick and mortar audio store. Not really shopping to buy, but the staff was friendly and insisted on showing me the new Dali Epicon 6s, way out of my price range, which I told them.  Maybe four or five years later I was in the market for new speakers and I decided on lesser Dali’s and called that store without hesitation and had them ship to my home in MD. So their five minute investment in me paid off five years later.