> Is "amount of time and dollars spent" the only part of your purchasing decision matrix? No, but it’s a big part. > Something to be said for supporting jobs

> Is "amount of time and dollars spent" the only part of your purchasing decision matrix? No, but it’s a big part. > Something to be said for supporting jobs in your community, keeping money in your area, The comment here was about “major retailers”. If you want to buy from a local mom and pop shop, awesome. There are great reasons to do that. If you’re going to Best Buy, those reasons pretty much evaporate. That money doesn’t stay in the area and the jobs probably aren't better than UPS provides. > bumping into people you might not have seen as much otherwise No thanks. People say this because it sounds good and is hard to refute but I don’t care a bit about bumping into people at the store. I bump into someone I care about at a store less than once a year. Interacting with people in a retail store is not generally very rewarding. They’re almost always either salespeople or strangers. People in stores are better referred to as crowds. > Stores can also be great for discovery. It's a lot easier to play with laptops at Best Buy than it is to research how the keyboard might feel online. Sure. There are reasons to buy in person and this is a good one. “Need to physically hold to evaluate” is not a common attribute of most of the things I buy, though. And generally free return shipping solves for this when I do need it.