That reminds me of when I went to Currys to buy a phone. I was trying to work out why two main brand phones had a massive price difference when on the little explanation card next to them, they seemed to have identical features. I asked one of the staff and he just read the cards out to me. He had no product knowledge whatsoever and not only that didn't seem to understand the question I was asking!

That shop is called the internet.

The brick and mortar stores serve a quite different function I think.{/quote]
Internet shopping is still not that common here. Plus, you can't compare build quality, ergonomics etc. over the Internet, the best you can do is hope that other buyers are being objective...


THAT is what the Internet is for.


No, I'd start an online chat with the Apple support people, they are very good.

[/quote]
I'd go to MediaMarkt or Saturn, my nearest Apple Store is in Thurrock... Although we'll soon get one about 5 hours away, in Hamburg.

The Sony shop here in Chelmsford was rather good at one time. It was pretty big, and the staff seemed to care. They let me try speakers, knew about microphones etc.. Since it moved into premises about 1/3 the size, it seems less, well, geeky, and focussed on peddling their TVs rather than offering a wider range of more specialist kit, which they used to do.

Single brand stores are marketing gold. They're nonsense for non-Fanboys and bad for consumers generally, but they work.

Just ask Apple, B&O and Bose. Lifestyle products for the win

I can remember a time when you could only see Apple hardware and software at specialist centres and resellers. Luckily, there was one not far from here, otherwise it meant a lengthy trip up to London. Most of my early purchases were made by mail order, after lengthy research by reading in magazines - the interweb hadn't been invented back then!

We used to frequent our local Sony Centre a lot, but those were the days when Sony made good stuff, and their staff were actually knowledgeable and understood your questions. That particular store is still in existence, but it's no more than a glorified TV store now.

Don't forget most single-brand stores also sell complementary items.