I can't believe that letting people test ride a bike, test drive a car or try on clothes would make those goods "second hand". I don't live there, but did in the past (but didn't buy any bikes).

Meanwhile, you've got it backwards on the check issue: it's not because the stores are primitive and hidebound, it's because checks are primitive and a relic. Why would any merchant go through the trouble of taking a piece of paper, going along to a bank at the end of the day and waiting for a few days to see whether the funds actually clear when EFTPOS has been practically universal for a decade, more or less automatic and more or less instant? It's pretty much only the US (and the UK, a little) that still uses checks, isn't it? Everyone else has realized they're obsolete.