The other side being that, depending on the good, if you have a salesperson, you can often, ironically, get a better price overall. Recent case in the point: I

The other side being that, depending on the good, if you have a salesperson, you can often, ironically, get a better price overall. Recent case in the point: I was in the market for a Herman Miller Embody. I would've ordered it online at retail for ~$1500, but I wanted it ASAP so I went to a local HM dealer to see if they kept any in stock (they didn't). While there, the sales person got me a more-upgraded version of the Embody for less than $1000 by invoking dealership and small business discounts. Effectively, I made $500/hr during that trip to the HM dealership. The downside of this experience was that, contrary to my original intention, it took about 5 weeks for the chair to arrive. :\ It would've shipped faster if I had paid full retail from the HM store online. Of course, it's going to depend on the good, but considering that salespeople usually have a strong incentive structure to get your sale to go through them instead of an online retailer or to a competing business, they really will pull out all the stops to keep you around.