Originally Posted by
urbanknight
Food for thought. Let's say that everyone thought like you. That means that everyone would go to the big box store to try on shoes and then buy them elsewhere online for less. The big box store would never sell any of their shoes and would subsequently decide to stop carrying them altogether because they make no profit. Where would you try your shoes on then?
So be thankful there are people out there who think like Merlin. They're supporting the stores enough to make it worth their while to have shoes available for you to try on for free.
you're blowing this way out of proportion and it sounds like you're assuming I did this with all my stuff. To shop around for the best price using whatever means I deem necessary perfectly fine and if nobody else did do you think there would still be a plethora of online shops with competitive prices on the web? I didn't think so. I'm all for supporting my store and part of the reason I have a great relationship with them is because I refer people there every chance I get.
Let's be honest though. the world would probably be a better place without that big box store. Not to mention if it wasn't there shimano would probably sell shoes at my LBS and we wouldn't be having this discussion. A local shop turns money around to the community and without a big box store wouldn't need to worry about drumming up business.