Originally Posted by WhyFi

There's a lot of space between being "led by the merchant," and presuming that your preliminary research has endowed you with more knowledge than someone with a ton of experience. I usually like to know my ass from my elbow when I walk in to a shop, but it's not necessarily because I want to know exactly what I want from the get-go. For me, that knowledge is usually to narrow down the selection to the right ballpark and to give me an idea if the person assisting me is credible enough to guide my decision (as a salesperson, I know the value of a good salesperson).