Yeah, I'm a mix between the two. I do use Amazon because it makes it easy to compare lots of products and prices and when they have something I want with Prime

Yeah, I'm a mix between the two. I do use Amazon because it makes it easy to compare lots of products and prices and when they have something I want with Prime shipping (and occasionally same-day shipping) it beats driving around to the store. At the same time, if something is available at roughly the same price (can be a little more) at a local store, I would just as soon pick it up in person and avoid the shipping delay. Essentially, I'm willing to pay a little more for fast delivery but I'm just as willing to pay a little more for the "instant gratification" of just being able to go pick the thing up. The main difference I've found is that lots of physical retail stores often don't have what I want or their online inventory system is unreliable so something will show as in stock locally but when I go to the actual store, it's nowhere to be found. Shopping online (for me) is often more about finding the exact item I want than it is about saving a few bucks by ordering direct. Recent example: a friend wanted me to build him a new desktop PC for general use and for gaming. Maybe 5 years ago I'd have gone straight to Newegg because no retail location would have the selection of parts needed to build the best PC I could build within his budget. But now we have a Microcenter nearby and while smaller components (cables, RAM, etc) might cost a few dollars more per item, they sell CPUs at a sizable discount as loss leaders so the total build is roughly equal to the Newegg price plus shipping cost. In that case, it's nicer to just go to the store, compare stuff like build quality of computer cases in person, get everything home that day (no shipping wait), and have a local place where I can go if something turns out to be defective. No waiting for lengthy RMA shipping delays, just an hour on a Saturday to stop in and swap something out. So I guess from a customer's perspective, retail is still a good option and worth some level of cost premium as long as selection is good and I can verify that the items I want are in stock. The other bit I haven't mentioned is access. In the case of Microcenter, I just walk in, grab a cart, and pick up all of my parts. When I just bought an iPhone to replace my girlfriend's older model, I ordered direct from Apple rather than going to the Apple store. Apple store would've had the phone in my hand on the same day but it is located in a shopping mall. I really, really hate going to that shopping mall because it means driving around a parking garage and then navigating floors of shops and escalators and crowds in order to get to the Apple store. I'll totally wait a day or two for shipping if it means I don't need to step foot in the mall.