Lack of knowlege from sales staff. I don't like it when I just finished gaining novice information doing my own research on the internet and walk into an establishment that is supposed to sell and deal in this merchandise to have a salesman who knows less about the bare basics of the products he is supposed to push than me. I also get really pissed when he pretends to know. A simple sorry I don't know often diffuses any steam since being upfront is more likely to gain my trust.
Opinionated sales staff whether people with real knowlege or wannabees need to learn to respect other people's choices. Pushy police wanabees that want to dictate your purchases need to lean that if their good, stupid, or ignorant advice is politly refused it's time to step back shut your hole and politely thank your customer for his patronage. Some things just work fine some and not others. To each their own and what is not broken doesn't always need to be fixed or improved.
A sloppy, dirty, unorganized store often means sloppy, dirty, unorganized business. I hate having to wait 20 minutes for sloppy store keepers to sort through their unorganized junk looking for something only to turn around and tell you they don't have it or having unorganized people mix up orders or parts. Some people don't mind I do.
Back up what you sell within reason. I am not a hardball on this but if there is a gross mistake or defect concerning a purchase take a little pride in your profession and act like your business reputation is on the line because with the way word of mouth spreads these days through the web and cell phones it is.
High prices bother me the least unless I literally can never ever ever ever afford BM store prices. I am supportive of good ones and will try my best to do business with them.
A good BM store will teach me a thing or two and give me good advice without being a conformist nazi, will be organized and know what is and isn't in stock as well as where they generally put their stuff (I had to mention that,) have thorough knowlege of most of the items they deal in but also be willing to give you a straight I have no idea for those few times they are stumped (it happens to everyone no matter who they are.)
BM stores have tough competition with the internet but they also need to compete if they hope to keep in good business.
If they can't or won't exploit their advantages such as allowing people to examine, inspect, and try out merchandise, as well as teaching and walking people through the basics of the stuff they sell and offering decent product support, then they have alreadly lost. It might be good advice to extend store hours since web orders are active 24/7 and a BM store that serves the average person is unlikely to get more business if the only time they are open is when everyone else is working.
The people that do care will decide to take their chances online if dealing with a BM is an experience in futility.
Then you have your cheapskate, stingy, cheapos. Despite my comments I respect your choice to be a penny pincher even if you have enough income so that you don't have to, but don't dump on the BM stores by comming over to pick their brains, inspect their stuff, and abuse their buyers return remorse policies when you know very well from the start you are going to turn around and order it on the web and have no intention of giving this store one penny for anything.
Have some decency and support this person who helped you find what works best for you by throwing a few dollars (not pinchy pennies) his way. Buy some of his what you consider overpriced ammunition (he/she probably has no choice but to charge high prices.)
If all the BM stores go out of business I have a funny feeling that web prices will go up and purchasers will find out the real meaning of being treated like garbage when their favorite mega distributers tell them to piss off (they actually do this now) if replaceing your grossly defective product is too much of a glitch to their mass distribution chain that only knows how to crunch credit card numbers and shipping invoices.
