Originally Posted by Paul Barnard

When it's as easy for us consumers to become very educated about the products we buy, the need for a specialty shop is diminished. Used to be that a salesperson could add value through product knowledge. Product knowledge that consumers couldn't easily attain elsewhere. Now the internet delivers the information in milliseconds. Armed with that information consumers can surf the web for the best buy and buy the product from a company that doesn't need a sales staff. To compete against that a store must have a warm body on the floor. With that they struggle to compete on price, so there's not a lot of money to pay for that warm body. The stores get what they pay for.